Abruptly Changing Chinchilla Diet

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Joined
May 28, 2019
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So I am taking care of my class pet chinchillas over the summer and I’ve done a good deal of research and now know what chinchilla foods are healthiest. However, my teacher who owns the chinchillas (I probably know more about them then him though tbh) says they like the food that has other stuff mixed in with colors and nuts and stuff. For the summer though I’d like to switch them to a healthier diet. Is it safe to abruptly change their diet with no transition period. Will they still eat and be fine? Also should I switch the food at all considering they are likely to go right back to their old food with no transition when I return them to my teacher in late August? Is the food with colored stuff mixed in with the pellets really that unhealthy?
 
Unfortunately yes the food with the colored bits and other junk food really is terrible for them. Of course chins like it because it's like a bowl of candy. Chins should not have any fruits or veggies dried or other wise, they are too high in sugar which will lead to liver and kidney failure, diabetes, seizures, obesity, among other issues. They also should not have any seeds or nut due to the high fat and protein content, they can lead to organ failure. You didn't mention it but they also should not have any animal products, they are strict grass herbivores and can't digest it. A chin fed a junk food diet has a life expectancy of only about 5-10 years if it's lucky, whereas properly cared for chins in captivity generally live 15-20 or even longer. With better knowledge of chin care now (compared to when I got my first chins over 20 years ago) I've been reading about more and more chins living into their 20s. The oldest recorded chin was over 29 and a half!

Since the food is crappy you can try switching right away, but it's better to try to slowly transition the chin to proper food over a few weeks. The best way is to pick out all the junk food and just give the pellets mixed with the good pellets. Make sure you provide plenty of hay during the time you are switching. Unlimited hay should always be available but it's even more important during a food switch to help avoid diarrhea and to give the chin something to eat if it refuses the new pellets at first. Here is a good run down of how to switch foods, https://www.cuddlebugchinchillas.com/care/diet_and_nutrition/changingfeed.html. There is also a lot of other very useful care info on that site if you look around it.

I would try switching the chin over during the summer and then try talking to your teacher when you get back to school. Maybe try doing up a research report on proper chinchilla care and diet over the summer so you can present facts to the him. Unfortunately just because someone owns a chin does not mean they have bothered to do any research past just go with what the pet store says or just assume it's like any other rodent.
 
Thanks so much for the response. So if I suddenly change their diet with no transition, their lives wouldn’t be threatened, correct? I would do a transition but I’d like them to be as healthy as possible for 3 months rather than 1 month. (Proper transition takes 4 weeks according to the new bag of food I got and I’d have to transition them to the new food which would take all of June... and then I’d transition them back which would take all of August) I wanna switch to oxbow grass based pellets. Is that good for them? What you said that “it’s like a bowl of candy” to them is pretty much what I assumed. It’s like giving a kid a bowl of ice cream and then a bowl of carrots. Of course they will love the ice cream more.
 
Sudden change can be life threatening but not always, there is a risk of them getting diarrhea and chins can dehydrate pretty quick if they get diarrhea. Some chins stomachs are more tough then others, but there is no way to know before hand, which is why a slow switch is better if at all possible.

The Oxbow Essentials is a good food, the Oxbow Garden Select is not.

Do you really not think you can convince your teacher to keep feeding them a proper diet when you get back to school? Maybe I didn't explain right, sorry, if you are just going to switch them back to the junk food in the end it's pretty pointless to be switching foods around and may do more harm then good since switch foods back and forth will likely upset their stomachs. Switching once is one thing but switching again just months later is another. It'd really only be worth it if they can be kept on the proper diet. At most you could just throw out all the junk and just give them only the pellets for the summer, which wouldn't upset their stomachs since it's the same food just minus the treats. The food is still likely crap but at least it wont be as bad as it is full of treats, like a bowl of Lucky charms, the cereal isn't as bad for you without the marshmallows.

Really though if they are just going to be eating junk food for the rest of their lives a few months on good food isn't going to make any real difference to their over all health.
 
You’re right. Reason I’m scared to do it is because my teachers a careless old man and there’s a good chance he’ll just change them right back and literally forget what I said and at that point I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and they’ll really get sick and it’ll be outta my control. Sadly I may just have to leave em alone
 
I actually just found the food that my teachers been using online... it’s Kaytee fiesta gourmet variety diet food. Do you know anything about this food? They make it seem very healthy.
 
Oh, yeah Kaytee is a terrible brand over all, they sell a lot of things that are bad for rodents not just chinchillas. I'm pretty convinced that companies like them just lump all similar looking rodents together and assume they all eat the same thing and have the same needs. There is a ton of bad things in that food, corn, raisins, sunflower seeds, banana, a lot of molasses, rice, papaya, peanuts, carrots, sweet potato, cranberry, apple, as well as high in grains... and I'm probably missing things. They are appealing to humans who think of fruits and veggies as healthy food, unfortunately it's the humans buying the food not the chins, lol. Though honestly, chins are about as intelligent as a 2 year old, so I've no doubt they would pick the bowl of colorful candy too, lol.

Unfortunately there is no regulations on pet food and legally the teacher is doing nothing wrong feeding it to his chins. Like feeding a cat or dog the grocery store brand kibble food, it's technically "complete" but that doesn't make it good for them. If it's an old stubborn guy too he likely looked up chinchillas in the wild and saw they only live 5-10 years so when these ones die young he wont think anything of it or think he did anything wrong.
 
I swear getting legitimate truthful info online about chinchillas are impossible. Everybody says different things. Anyway thank you so much for your long detailed responses, very generous if you. I’ve been taking care of these chinchillas ever since I started high school and had them as a class pet, I took them home last summer. I alway have questions, I should’ve joined this site sooner. One last question (hopefully), I read seeds aren’t good for them but in small portions they probably won’t do harm. Is this true? When I refill their bowl, I would say maybe there are 3-4 seeds poured in with the pellets and they ALWAYS get so excited when I refill it and they come to the bowl and pick out the seeds. Then I don’t change their food for a few days so I don’t keep putting more and more of the real junky stuff in there. So I’d say they are probably eating maybe 3-5 seeds a week. I read this was a good amount, not too much. Is that true?

Also I wanna tell a hopefully short story and get your opinion it, about 2 weeks after I brought the chinchillas back to school last summer, one died and he was 11 or 12ish years old. (Thought I’d tell you since you’ve made a reference to how old they should live). Then a month after that I decided to buy another chinchilla and donate it to the school to give the old one a friend. I had no idea they needed an introduction period and they fought a ton at first. The young one (2 years old) was in the corner on his back 2 feet like feriously barking at me and my teacher if we tried to pet him cause he was so scared. He was in defense mode. There was hair pulling in the cage and everything. Well we seperated them leaving one on the bottom and one on top. My teacher put this small *** cheap plastic bottle on the bottom so they’d both have water. Well it broke right before the weekend... I came in after school that day to see how they were doing and my teacher was leaving and I noticed he moved he metal slab seperating them. He told me “I thought it’d be safer putting them together than leaving one without water all weekend.” That whole weekend i was so nervous to go in and see if one had killed the other. Turns out there was some fighting but they were fine and after a week they pretty much weren’t fighting anymore and now they drink out of the same water, (They don’t even use the second water bottle, why??) they cuddle and sleep on top of each other, they have some dominance mounting around food occasional but they usually work it out. It’s so cute seeing how they act together now. Anyway, is it safe to assume they can live together now? It’s been almost eight months and although i see a fur skip every here and there in one of the chinchillas there’s never any serious fighting (until I let them out for playtime). Btw what is up with the water bottle though? I don’t think it matters but it’s so weird how they completely disregard the one water bottle and only use the other one. Odd. Alright I’m done now. You are a saint if you read all this. Thank God for people like you.
 
Really no seeds are ok, at most I would say maybe one seed a month is probably ok, but 3-5 a week is too many. It depends on what kind of seed too though. Most seeds are very high in oily fats, some more then others, which chins can't really process, so it can cause health issues like fatty liver disease. You have to remember even on a good diet they food already has fats in it, so the seeds are adding more.

Yeah that quick intro was dangerous, it sounds like you got really lucky though. As to the them only using the one bottle, I would make sure the second water bottle works. It's not uncommon for the bottle to get air bubbles in the tube causing nothing to come out. Also my two guys tend to like to drink together too, they seem to drain one bottle and then the other. I would leave both with fresh water available to them though, just in case one decided to be a brat and hog and guard the water bottle. Likewise it's best to have two food bowls too, it can help prevent possible fights over food.
 
Yeah I have like 3 food dishes in there. I think they both have accepted that the older one is dominant because when I refill their dishes (they both like the red dish for some reason) the older one eats out of it first and the younger one tries to sneak in but the older one usually doesn’t let him so the young guy accepts it and just heads downstairs to the other dish. To make sure the bottle works I usually push on the end of the bottle that they drink out of and if water leaks out I assume it works. Is that right? You are a blessing by the way. Thanks so much for answering all my questions in such great detail.
 
Yep that's how you check the water bottle. So long as they are both drinking I wouldn't worry about it. You can even try switching bottle locations if you want, see if it's the bottle or location they don't like.

Your welcome for all the info. I'm trying to do my part to help spread correct info, I know how frustration it is when there is so much conflicting info online. Also in a way I feel bad about how little I knew when I first got chins, I feel like I failed my previous chins due to lack of knowledge or wrong info. To be fair though some of the bad info I got was even from a breeder, but a lot more info and research has come out since then. I'm still learning new and better ways to care for chins, and I got my first ones in the late 90s, lol.
 
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