not eating his food, prefers critical care all the time

My chinchilla Taro has a history of dental problems. He has had his teeth trimmed and the vet said the spur and abscess found were very very minor. We got xrays and everything looked good. He was positive for giardia and was given panacur for 5 days as instructed by the vet. He should have no more problems.

the problem is that I had expected him to eat on his own by now. I've been hand feeding him ~80 mls (he is 1.5 years old) a day for 4 weeks every since his teeth trim. I put plenty of pellets and hay in. He wouldn't touch it. I'm was afraid that he is relying on me to feed him so I feed him less ~30 mls but he still doesn't really eat his food. He is perfectly capable of eating his hay (he eats all the alfalfa I put in and can even eat a Mrs. Pastures cookies for horses which are very very hard!). He just won't eat his pellets or timothy hay.

When he eats the cookie is he having any issues doing it? Does he swipe the mouth while eating or does he dispatch it quickly? If he has no problem he is addicted to hand feeding and holding out for the CC. Give him all the alfalfa he can eat and cut him off quickly from hand feeding, check his weight daily. He may lose 20-30gms during the weaning off but if the chin is eating the cookie and the alfalfa, he can eat and needs to be cut off. If the weight loss is in excess of the 20-30gms, resume feeding and try again in a week or so.

No he doesn't have any problems eating the cookie. He seems to be doing just fine. I've been weaning him off but maybe I'll just cut him off cold turkey. I did notice that he doesn't take as much CC (anise flavor) compared to the fine grind which he looves.