diet question

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djeaton

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When I first got Sweetie a month ago, she would primarily eat hay and a little of the pellet food. Now though, she's almost exclusively eating the pellet food and hardly touching her hay. Is it normal for them to switch back and forth, or is this a trend I should be concerned about?
Daniel
 
Some chins do switch back and forth. I would just keep an eye on it. If she continues to eat more pellets than hay you may want to make a hay day once a week. I have to do this with my boys because they both love their pellets too much. :p I just take away their pellets for one day and give them as much hay as they will eat.
 
Then too, how old is the hay, and where do you keep it? Sometimes they shy away from old stuff!!
 
Hey Daniel, some of my chins don't really like hay. Shocking I know! Leonard really could take it or leave it. It may be because I am not his first owner and perhaps he wasn't giving hay as much by the previous owners. In any case I just don't worry about it. I know his pellet food is excellent quality and even though he tends to have smaller poos then the rest of my gang I just don't worry over it.
I try to do hay once a day, but I will admit sometimes I don't always get it in there. Sometimes they go for it immediately but other times they are like of hay, ho hum! give us a treat mom!
As long as Sweetie is eating her pellets I'm sure she'll be fine, but I think Crysta had a great idea with one day a week a hay day! Try it and see how that goes.
 
Brea said:
As long as she isn't loosing wieght, I wouldn't worry.
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I do worry a bit because a lack of hay can cause overgrown molars. While it doesn't happen in every chin, the hay day at least makes me feel like thay are getting a bit more roughage.
 
Spoof said:
I also wouldn't worry. Pellets are made of hay, same amount of grinding goes on.
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Then why do we bother to give them hay? I was always told they need the long fiber for their teeth, and the courseness of timothy hay (over other grass hays). Is this wrong info?
 
Because it makes pet owners feel better?

None of the ranchers I've bought from have given hay, cubed or otherwise. Most just a strait pellet diet, though a few give a supplement.

I've heard of people trying all hay diets, but if you think about it on a larger scale, feeding hay would be a pain for 500 chins.
 
None of the ranchers I've bought from have given hay, cubed or otherwise. Most just a strait pellet diet, though a few give a supplement.
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What she said...........
 
So why do we (as a forum) push hay so much on pet owners? I don't think it's something we, as pet owners, do to make ourselves feel better, it's just something all of us have been told from the beginning that we have to do. I have always been told that it's needed hence my hay day and everything. If I had known it wasn't needed I would have just let them eat how they wanted to.

Do either of you feed hay? If not, have you come across any teeth issues or anything? I was also led to believe they needed it to keep their poo good and such.

I'm not doubting what either of you say or do, or what ranchers do, I'm just really interested now.
 
I've never 'pushed' hay as in need to new people. In fact I rarely discuss much anymore other than necessities due to the amount of strife it seems to cause. I tell them that they can buy it and chins like it. I use it as one of my many tools, strait alfalfa causes small poos and I find it effective against battling squishy poos where nothing else is working.

I have some here for my horse so do give it once a week, mostly to amuse them. It probably isn't on the 'acceptable' hays list, I honestly don't know what type of grass it is, it's local. Horses eat it and it doesn't have anything odd in it, I'll guess it's a southern bermuda mix. The difference now is that I have less chins than I once did and they're in a barn. I did not give it when I had them in the house, it was too messy to clean up after 60+ with hay on carpet.
 
I know many ranchers don't feed hay, but I do think it is necessary for healthy teeth and happy chins. Nutritionally, yes pellets are enough, but hay provides a different texture to chew and also provides entertainment.

Kirby (not my chin) was losing weight and not eating much. Owner took him in and had x-rays done. His molars were over grown...they filed them down. He was hand fed for a while. Everything went back to normal, but after a while he needed filed again. He was never a big hay eater. After talking, owner and I thought that maybe he was a lazy chewer. She started limiting his pellets, thus forcing him to eat more hay. No more filings required and Kirby was fat and healthy again.

I know it's just one case, but I think some chins are just plain lazy, bite off small pieces of pellets with their front teeth and just don't do much more chewing than that. I think the different textures help force the lazy ones to chew more.

To the original poster...I'd try different types of hay. Some chins are picky. If that doesn't help, you could try a couple days a week with no pellets, just hay.
 
I'm thinkin' give Sweetie some Timothy hay cubes , see how that goes with the hay. Then move back to the reg Timothy and add some variety grass hays. Mine LOVE the orchard grass , oat and i also give botanical (now those are just added as treat hays). I believe you"do" want little sweetie to eat hay and pellets.
 
Yes, I hay and I give hay cubes, but nowhere near as much as what you guys do. Haying 6 chins and haying over 250 chins is quite a bit different.

I've had two cases of malo here. One in a girl who was 8-years-old that I bought. She was put down about 3 months after I got her. The other was a girl who, when I bought her, the hair around her eyes was a little matted, but I saw her eat and chew and she was a good weight. She also wasn't even a year old. Many of the other chins at his house also had the same thing, and since they were in a basement with no windows that could open, when he told me it was a ventilation issue (which I had seen before) I believed him. She was gone within 8 months.

Other than that, nope, no teeth problems. Do I recommend giving hay? Yup, I do. I don't know how much I believe that this one makes these teeth work and that one makes those teeth work though. Other than one person who went on and on about it (and then people picked up on it), I don't know of anybody else who has really said that. It just kind of snowballed I think. While I do think it helps wear their teeth down and keep them at a healthier length - I think hay is hay. I don't know if I believe one wears the teeth down more than others. I do believe they enjoy it and that it is a supplement to their dietary needs. Do I believe that every chin everywhere will die without it? Nope, as clearly evidenced by the many ranchers who don't feed it.

I wish I could feed it more often than I do. But it costs me over $60.00 for 50 pounds of hay, and I'm sorry, but that is nothing more than robbery. If I fed it every day, it wouldn't last me a week. I can buy a 1500 pound round bale of hay for $35.00, but for a little tiny box that I can feel safe feeding my chins, it's $60.00? My chins are not all that thrilled with those great big hay cubes either. They mostly just leave them sit. The only ones they will eat are the small ones from Oxbow, because they can hold onto them easier (yes, I've tried breaking the big ones, they are still huge). That's another $60.00 for a box of hay cubes. A bag is what? $6.00?? And now Oxbow is going to stop selling them directly and it's gone even higher through their distributors. For half the hay it's the same price as what I used to pay for 50 pounds. Mine hate Kleenmama's, they won't even touch it. So what's left?
 
So the vet on here says hay should be 90-95% of the diet, is she wrong? She is quoted as saying "All they really need is hay and water!" From what I understand she has and breeds chins, so I think she would know what is right and what is wrong since she is a vet and a long time breeder.



http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1648


And in the malocclusion thread she is quoted as saying this:

If you have a chin that has free choice pellets and free choice hay, but is determined to gorge on pellets, then most likely that chin will end up with dental disease sooner than one that would choose the hay over the pellets.

http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4819
 
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No, I don't disagree with Angie. Did you read my post? I didn't say a chin didn't NEED hay. I agreed with Tara that most ranchers don't use it. I commented that I just don't know that I believe that hay X wears this particular tooth down, and hay Y wears this particular tooth down. I only have ever heard of one person who really says that. I think all hay is good for wearing down teeth.

The question asked was have I had a bunch of chins with dental issues? My answer was no, I haven't. If I could get hay more reasonably priced where I am, I would feed it much more than I do now. But I just can't afford to spend $100.00 every 8 or 9 days for hay/hay cubes. So, I give it as often as I can.
 
I'm not giving my guys hay just for the fun of it and to entertain myself that's for sure. I come to these forums for information and I've been led to believe that hay is VERY important to a chinchilla's diet and am a bit surprised to read otherwise. I'd be interested to read what others have to say about this topic b/c I'm feeling a little confused about this, or maybe I just need my first cup of coffee, heh.
 
From Spoof: I also wouldn't worry. Pellets are made of hay, same amount of grinding goes on.

She does not state anything about different hays, she just says pellets grind teeth the same as hay, not sure if I missed something about different hays but that is not the point.

If what she says is true, then it contridicts what the vet says, which is the diet should be 90% hay. It becomes confusing when you have a statement like this, then the vet says the opposite, then its said that hay is only given occasionally by some and by ranchers not at all. So who is right? Anyone care to say? This thread comes across as hay is a optional thing, yet the vet on the forum says its the most important thing in the diet. And since this vet it touted at a chin expert, I would believe her but that is just my opinion.
 
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Ah, I thought you were addressing my comments. My apologies. I'll have to let Tara answer that one for herself.

As far as the ranchers go, the ones I have dealt with have never told me I must feed hay. None of them. But keep in mind, for a large rancher it's a business. They are going to look at the bottom line expense wise, which you have to do when you are looking at maintaining 2000+ chins.

I know one rancher who throws in hay cubes every time they clean cages. At that time (several years ago) it was once a week or every two weeks. I know another rancher who not only doesn't feed hay or hay cubes, they buy ground pellets (basically dust!) because they feel the waste is less that way, since in their experience chins grind it down to dust anyway. Do I agree with that? Pffft. No. Buy some pellets for pete sake. They are rodents, they NEED to chew. They aren't going to change what they do because I disagree with it though, anymore than you would.

As I said (and I think Angie pretty much said) any hay is acceptable for grinding down teeth. I don't know that I believe you need seven kinds of hay to wear down the right bicuspid and four different kinds of hay cubes to wear down the left fifth molar on the bottom. Many people only use one kind or the other and don't have any problems. Some claim their chins just don't like loose hay, and some just don't like the mess. In the end, whether it's a cube or hay, it still the chewing, grinding motion, isn't it?

Again, if I had a better and more readily available source of hay out here, I'd be thrilled to feed it more often than pellets. It SHOULD be easier on the wallet. Unfortunately for me, it isn't.
 
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