Kimchi throws most of her hay on the ground

It seems whenever I give Kimchi new hay in the ceramic or the metal serving thing, she takes them all out and throws it on the floor. She eats some of it but most of it seems to go to waste. She does however eat her pellets properly, though sometimes I notice she half eats one pellet and throws it away. but mostly i see her waste her oxbow western timothy hay. I have to at some point get her oat hay and other various hay, recommended by the doctor, to give some variety. She's suppose to eat a bit of berry and banana (as a treat, also recommended by the vet) but she doesn't like anything fresh, she does however love the vitamin C tablets. anyway what do you do about the hay incident or is it expected that they will waste more than half of the hay? since most of them is dirtied up I would have to throw them away.

No fresh fruits or veggies! This is a very common misinformation with vets. Chins are not like most rodents and do not require fresh anything. Stick to quality pellets and hay. Chinchillas do not need anything else. As far as the wasting there isn't anything you can do. That is normal chin behavior. They take a bite and throw the rest. They dig to the bottom of the hay pile cause that bottom piece just has to be the best, lol. Its just the way they are. How much hay are you putting in at a time? I put in small amounts twice a day to reduce wasting but here is always some that they decide just isn't good enough to eat.

oh, she seemed so sure that she absolutely needed a tiny bit of fresh fruit daily, but yea I did see that it's not recommended to give them fresh fruit because of the sugar and what not. Either way she was absolutely disinterested in the fresh fruit, so I didn't try giving it to her again.

The amount I would put, you know those tiny ceramic dust bath things? well instead of using it for the dust bath, I stuff it with the hay, I serve her twice a day. I give 1/4 cup of pellets daily, maybe less, I just fill it up whenever I see it's low. That way she will mostly get fresh pellets.

hmm so it can't be helped eh? Okie I guess I will consider that's her food supply.

You can always buy the hay cubes, or mini hay cubes. They make a whole lot less mess and give them something extra to chew on. I buy both loose hay and cubes at Tractor Supply Company. 40 lb bags of cubes is about $20 and bales of hay are about the same. Most likely it'd be way more than you'd need for just one or two chins, but its cheaper to buy it that way and toss out whatever doesn't get used.

My chin will eat a very small portion of her hay, and waste the rest. It seems like they are looking for that perfect piece, and will throw out any that don't meet their expectations! I've tried different types of hay, and it is always the same. I just put down smaller portions at a time so there is less waste...well, at least at one time!

My girl Kana had been throwing her hay and peeing in it, too. I tried moving it to a different area of the cage and she stopped peeing in it, but still throws it everywhere. Teemo, our boy, is more neat about his eating, but honestly throwing hay just seems to be a chin thing. I have noticed, however, that when there are really soft, short strands of hay it doesn't get tossed as much. Maybe snipping the strands into smaller lengths might help? I guess I'll try it too!

Yes, chins are food wasters. Once the pellets are bit in half, they are done (at least with my crew). I put a small handful of hay in cages twice per day and they toss probably 1/2 of it on the cage floor and are done with it. It's just the reality of living with these guys. Smaller portions twice per day= less waste.

haha worse than my former cat, but when given the whole can of wetfood at a time he would waste a quarter of it. but the wetfood was really expensive, 2 bucks a can, and he would only eat the newly opened cans, which means I can't go for the can that has more food in it and refrigerate the rest. At least the hay is relatively cheap.

I started cutting hay into smaller pieces just because a lot of the pieces in the last bag I bought were inconveniently long. This actually did seem to cut down on the mess a little. My pair will pee in the hay too. (Actually I'm pretty sure it's usually Elena.) I have two theories about this. I think they do it when they have decided they have eaten all the pieces from this batch they are going to eat, and they are either 1-kind of marking it as "sorted" for themselves so if it smells like pee they know not to bother going back through it, or 2- sending me a message that it's time for a refill (not effective since I can't tell whether it's been peed on until after I've scooped it up.) I can't prove either of these but it is totally the kind of thing Elena does (she is very much about being in control of her environment.)

The best piece of hay is always the one at the bottom of the bowl and pellets should only be half eaten. I think this is some kind of chinchilla rule.

I stick to pellets and timothy hay with an approved treat daily like shredded wheat or a rose hip. Breeders know more about chinchilla diet because no one else has studied it as completely in my opinion.