Supplementing PRCS with Calf Manna?

Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you use calf manna for your chinchillas, and how you use it. Davy's current food is a mix of Kaytee Forti-diet Pro Health (high fiber guinea pig pellets) and All Living Things chinchilla food (with all the junk stuff removed except for the tiniest seeds). I will be switching him to Purina Rabbit Chow Show and was wondering what would happen if I choose to give him calf manna as well. He is on the small side, weighing only 468 grams. My questions are:
Would this make him gain weight?
Are there any issues I should be aware of if I change his diet to this?
Do I mix in the calf manna in his pellets or feed it to him separately?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks

I wouldn't do it. Calf manna is extremely high in protein and is not needed. A good quality pellet and fresh grass hay is all he needs. Some chins are just naturally small and perfectly healthy. Once he gets on a good pellet, he may gain some weight.

Is he bony? Do you feel the bones in his ribcage? If he looks healthy and feels round, he may just be a small chin and trying to make him gain weight would not be good for him.

I am not a fan of calf manna and don't advocate using it. I personally feel it's an unnecessary addition to the protein he would already be getting from a good feed. There are supplements you can give, but most of them have rosehips, oats, etc, which I feel are a better alternative to manna. If you want to give him something he'll enjoy, that is safe for him, try Tanya's supplements. She's at fuzzieskingdom.com. I've never heard of anyone having a chin who didn't like them.

Also, never mix supplements with feed. Chins will eat the treat and throw away the good stuff.

If you have a healthy chin, you don't want to use calf manna for weight gain. It won't do all that much to help anything unless you have an extremely underweight chin. Weight gain for your chin would be best if it is the slow and steady type from good pellets and hay. Sometimes with a thin chin it can take a few months to see improvement, and I think you will see improvement if you switch to the PRCS pellets just with that one dietary change.

Calf manna can cause issues because of the type of ingredients that are in it and the protein content. It is made to put weight on large baby animals. Yes, it can cause some weight gain in chinchillas especially when they are younger, but it may not be the safest way to go about it and the chins will usually lose the weight if they are taken off the calf manna.

You can use calf manna, but I would recommend using it as nothing more than a supplement to the diet. Mixing it in the food may not be the best thing to do because many chins will pick through their food trying to get to it and waste pellets. Maybe a few pellets a day of calf manna (5 to 10ish) as a supplement/treat could be an option. Strict moderation with it is a good idea.

Years ago people were mixing it with pellets in too high a ratio of calf manna to feed. It didn't work out too well with an assortment of health issues arising from overuse.

I use manna for dental chins after a filing or recovering from a dental procedure but would not use it on a healthy chin, there is no need. Underweight chins will gain on their own at their own rate on a good pellet and hay.

Our breeder added it to our first two chinchillas food and we used to purchase food from her. We soon had to get them packaged separately because there would be too many. We still give it to the boys at night as a treat but they only get about three pellets each. Honestly we do it more out of habit than health.

Hi everyone, just new here.

Just recently I've read this... calf-Manna is a proven concentrated supplement for several species of animals that, when added to ordinary daily rations, makes a big difference in overall performance. Calf-Manna is fed to everything from growing and performance horses, to cattle, rabbits, goats, poultry and swine...

Chinchillas are made for a low energy (low fat and protein) high fiber diet, manna just has too much protein for long term use. The digestive tract will suffer due to the low finer along with the teeth-by using a high protein supplement the chin will feel full quicker and not eat as much, not eating alot and frequently means the teeth which grow 1-3mm a week don't get ground down fast enough, resulting in overgrown teeth.

I am going to have to agree with Ticklechin. Pellets and hay make up our chinchillas diet. When we did our research on it we quickly reduced the amount of calf manna the boys got and only gave them four pellets a day. We continue to give them to the boys more as treats because they love them. Other than the occasional shredded wheat or rosehips it's the only treat they get other than sticks.