dried fruit

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kurilla22

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Messages
86
Location
MD
I've seen some members say they give their chins small amounts of dried fruits and other members mention how bad the fruit is and how its high in sugar. If its that bad then why do some members sell dried fruits on their sites? I'm just a little confused lol I want to make sure I'm giving them safe treats.
 
Just because someone sells it doesn't automatically mean it's "good." I know of one rescue that sells dried banana chips on their website - I may buy other things from them, but would never buy the banana chips.

Ours don't get any dried fruit - because, as you mentioned, too much natural sugars, which are bad for them.

If you post what types of dried fruit you're finding on other people's website, we can tell you if it's safe or not. I've seen some people call rosehips "fruit" before, and they're not fruits (they're safe), but actual fruit fruit that's dried typically isn't safe. But if you're unsure, post and we'll let you know.

Alternately... if we're unsure, we simply don't give it. If you see something for sale somewhere and you think you've read it's unsafe but aren't for sure... I personally wouldn't give it until you are sure. Better safe than sorry.
 
Alternately... if we're unsure, we simply don't give it. If you see something for sale somewhere and you think you've read it's unsafe but aren't for sure... I personally wouldn't give it until you are sure. Better safe than sorry.

I couldn't agree more. I personally stick to a strict diet of pellets and hay for my chin. The only treats I give are organic rolled oats and occasional plain cheerios. The place that I order my pellets from usually sends a small bag of dried apples with the order, but I don't feed them to my chin. I mean, sure, lots of people probably feed their chins fruit without any major negative results, but I'd rather not take the risk.
 
What Ive seen on the sites is dried apples and bananas. I thought it would be ok to feed them those fruits in moderation but I guess not. I even had organic fruit and dried it myself only to see the other posts about them lol I'll just stick with homemade hay cookies as a treat. : )
 
Yeah, I wouldn't go with the dried apples and bananas. I even stay away from the dried goji berries and some of the other stuff like that, because I'm not sure whether it's safe or not. Granted, I haven't done research on those or asked around, but because I don't know, I don't feed that kind of stuff.

Hay cookies can be a great treat, as can rosehips, dried rosebuds, oats, shredded wheat, cheerios, and so on. There's plenty of great treats other than dried fruit that they like.
 
alot of people do give fruits... and alot of people think that any potetial benifits out weigh the possible negatives or harm they can do.

i have in the past given the rare dried blueberry or goji berry... gojis are considered super food. But no longer give any of these. just not worth the potential trouble.
HOWEVER chins can't process sugar very well, thats why fruits are not given as they have a high sugar content.. alot of chins will not react well to even a slight difference in their diet and many members have experienced this.
Bloat and GI stasis from some thing they can not process properly and disrupts the gut is definitly NOT fun to deal with. And is quite uncomfortable for a chin i might add.

its a risk many people are not willing to take, as well as a risk many people are willing to take.

its realy up to you to decide. however its best to err on the side of caution and not give any sugary, dried fruits, fatty nuts, etc etc ... better safe than sorry right? :thumbsup:
 
there are a few things to check for, hard, lumpy tummy, stretches in odd positions quite offten (trying to relive discomfort) sits hunched over, not playing... it can certianly be hard to tell when you have never experienced it before.

im certianly not an expert, but have had to bring one of my chins out of gi stasis which includes bloat, if you do a serch on the fourm for 'Bloat' a number of things will come up sparkys stasis sauga in the helth section will show the xrays of a what bloat/stasis gas in the tummy looks like.
esentialy bloat is a build up of gas in the stomach, as chins can not burp quite the way we do, it can easily build up in thier stomachs when some thing is a bit off with thier digestion.
 
I googled it : ) I thought my female could have bloat because she stretches a lot, is always hunched over and seems depressed during the day. But at night she is extremely and I mean extremely active. So maybe during the day she is just catching up on sleep and looks depressed when i wake her to clean up the cage.
 
Ha yeah that's sleepy tiered 'leave me alone chin'
Some times is only a subtle diff from bloat chin but will usually be noticeable at all times, exercise helps get the gut moving as well. When my girl was in stasis I tried to get her to run as much as she could, tummy massages , simethicone. If your monkey acts normal at night, has normal sized poop, I would not worry
 
Back
Top