Diet question about pellets

I have a question about diet in general.....

So I recently obtained a new chinchilla, and switched him over to the same diet my first chinchilla is on. They were both on opposite diets, one on a alfalfa based pellet and timothy hay, and one on a timothy based pellet with alfalfa hay. I like to feed alfalfa hay to my chin anway because he is a little on the small side, so right now I have a load of different pellet and hay types.

So this got me thinking.....With all these different hay types out there, Do our chins even need pellets? Could they be healthy on a hay diet alone? Isn't their natural diet primarily grasses?

With all the corn-based products and additives and preservatives, etc. in pellets out there, are we merely offering these food choices because we ourselves like choice, and not because it's needed by the animal at all? Some people like to spoil their chins with treats and seeds and supplements, but it seems like the majority of the items on the market our non-necessary (even unhealthy at times) and our meant more for our pleasure of spoiling then the chin's health. Could the same be true for pellets? What are the benefits of pellets aside from convenience?

I could be totally off base here, but I was just thinking about these questions and wondering if anyone else has considered this. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this. Does anyone feed a hay-only diet? I won't be offended if anyone thinks this is totally stupid (it totally could be), but please provide support for the nutritional benefits of pellets over hay if you know of it! I'd like to know more!

A good chin pellet should not have corn in it. I feel giving a quality pellet and hay is the way to go. There are some that tried an all hay diet and found the results not good. I feed both Mazuri and Oxbow (my own get Oxbow and some rescues get a mix of the two). I am happy with the results and wouldn't switch to an all hay diet just to try it out. Pellets and hay works so I am not going to mess with it.

I fed a hay only diet to a wheat intolerant chin, a mix of alfalfa and cuts of timothy and oat hat, after 6 months or so the fur quality diminished along with the muscle mass, protein and fat was too low in the vets opinion-this chin was under vet supervision.

Pellets are where the chins get the necessary protein and fat needed for them to have a good balanced nutritional diet. Most pellet formulas have the basic 3 needs for a good chin diet, high fiber content, protein, and a small amount of crude fat content. I know many people that feed pellets only and have no problems. Any hay you choose is going to primarily be a good source of fiber only for a chin. I know some breeders will put obese breeding females that have stopped producing on a hay and water only diet in an attempt to get the females to lose weight and be able to produce again. I don't know what the success rate is of this method though. I do know that hay and water is enough to sustain a chin for a long period of time however, I don't believe it fulfills all the nutritional needs of a healthy chin.

becareful on giving too much alfalfa hay. Hubby has seen quite a few rabbits and guinea pigs with a higher incidence of kidney/bladder stones on a high alfalfa diet. I'm not sure what the incidence of bladder stones is in chinchillas in relation to feeding strictly alfalfa based pellets and loose alfalfa. Not something I want to experiment on.

The way it has been explained to me is that the chins we have now have been changed quite a bit and have much different dietary requirements than wild chins. Their digestive system works in roughly the same way, of course, but they need more protein and fat to keep them looking good and functioning properly. The muscles of a domesticated chin seem to need a lot more protein in the diet to maintain good tone and mass.

It would be easier to just be able to feed only hay, but the chins would go downhill pretty fast. They do wonderfully with having lots of hay available and that provides them with that foraging activity that they enjoy. It's just that they wouldn't do so well on just the hay. Chins I have seen that are just consuming hay look very rickety and old....that's because they lose all that muscle that fills them out and makes them strong and also gives them a more confident gait.

A bowl of pellets and lots of hay is a great combination for a healthy chin chin.

Sovay said:

I like to feed alfalfa hay to my chin anway because he is a little on the small side, so right now I have a load of different pellet and hay types.

Click to expand...

Can you define 'on the small side?' Chins come in all shapes and sizes, the important thing that I've learned over the years is that you want them healthy for their size. You don't want an animal that extremely thin and bony. I have a 4-month-old who weighs more then my 3-year-old. My 3-year-old is my smallest chin (530g), however he is quite healthy and proportional for his size. No amount of food is going to change body type/ skeletal structure. You wouldn't run as big a risk for Kidney issues if you switched to a timothy hay diet with alfalfa based pellets.

Chins do not have the bladder sludge and stone issues that rabbits and cavies can have, there are alot of us who have fed loose alfalfa for years, along with some ranches, with no problems, you don't hear about it because the idea is so entrenched in peoples minds that OMGZ alfalfa kills chins that you can't keep beating a dead horse, if alfalfa killed chins why are they fed alfalfa based pellets, some chins are pellet hogs and won't eat much hay and they don't die, why is it that some ranches and large breeders feed alfalfa pellets and cubes and those chins don't die, its because the rumor factory that is the internet spools out wrong info and when done long enough it becomes "fact".

My only experience with alfalfa hay came before I was aware of the forums. I had heard that it was "richer" and that it could put some weight on chins that didn't seem to be thriving.

Since Mr. Whiskers and Baby were both petstore chins (I didn't know any better then), I was feeding them both alfalfa hay every other day along with timothy.

Mr. Whiskers had always been very good at peeing only in the litter pan. Baby started out being good, too, but I noticed that he began peeing anywhere, any time. I didn't think anything of it, I just put another pan in the cage in case he was being kept away by Mr. Whiskers.

When Baby died suddenly and unexpectedly, I had a necropsy performed. The cause of death was an abscess on his pancreas that had ruptured. Dr. Fitzgerald also found multiple (some large) bladder stones and mentioned that that was probably the reason that he had turned into an indiscriminate peer.

It made me feel better to know the cause of his death, but I always felt a little guilty about having given them too much alfalfa, thinking that it COULD have had something to do with the formation of the bladder stones.

I immediately stopped giving the alfalfa to Mr. Whiskers and have not had any problems since then. (2006)

Stones in chinchillas can be made up of many things and have a genetic link-its why those chins who have had it here and have had CA removed from the diet still get them, they are prone to stones, low water intake is also a culprit along with infection, the body encapsulating the infection causing the stone.

THANKS, Dawn.