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What is the best chinchilla food?

  • Total voters
    86
clarinuto

clarinuto

chin smitten
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
210
Location
Michigan
Most of us know that the most-often recommended brands of food are Oxbow, Tradition and Mazuri... but which one do you think is best and why?

If you have a worst, that would be interesting too...
 
well i've only used one and she seems to like it and nothing is wrong with her poos so i'm gonna say Mazuri.
 
I use Manna Pro Sho, which are rabbit pellets. A few breeders in this area use it and don't have problems with it.
 
I also feed Manna Show, and have found my animals do very well on it, better than on both Oxbow and Tradition.
 
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I like Oxbow the best, but I use Tradition because it's so much less expensive when you have quite a few chinnies
 
I feed my chins PRSC...Purina Rabbit Show Chow...they seem to like it ...I would never use sunseed ever again!!!!! My chins are much healthier and happy on PRSC
 
I feed Nutrena Naturewise, it's what both my boys were on when I got them. I tried Oxbow and Woodrow would pick out the Nutrena pellets and leave the Oxbow during our gradual change so I just kept him on that.
 
Love Oxbow food, hate the way the company is choosing to run their business. Just switched to Tradition, so far so good.

In my opinion Beaphar Chinchilla Care + is by far the best pellet I've used. Unfortunately shipping is ridiculously expensive. If I could get it in the states all of my chins would be on it.
 
both my boys are on oxbow and i'm quite happy with the results. both have plumped up since i brought them home, their fur is in nice condition, their weight and body condition is really good, and they seem to enjoy eating oxbow..... to the point where i have to pull their pellets a couple times a week so they eat more hay.
 
Mazuri all the way here. Never had a problem with it, can find it locally, and the chins and rescues all eat it. So Mazuri it is.
 
Ive been feeding oxbow to my pebbles since before i got my second chinnie abby almost 7 years ago.. i tryed mazuri for a few months with my chinnie pebbles and she constantly had mushy pieces all the time on it.. switched to oxbow and it cleared right up..
 
sydneytaylorr said:
Oh jees! Well what are you guys' opinion on "Living world"? For pellets I've been using Living World Healthy Timothy Formula specifically made for chinchillas. & for hay, I've been using Living World Timothy Hay.
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here are the ingredients for this pellet:

Dried alfalfa meal, timothy hay, oatmeal, canola meal, ground flaxseed, ground canola seed, ground field peas, dicalcium phosphate, lignin sulfonate pellet binder, dried beet pulp, salt, dried parsley, dried carrots, dried cauliflower, dried leeks, dried spinach, dried chicory root, magnesium oxide, DL-methionine, cobalt sulfate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, folic acid, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, vitamin D3 supplement.

the ingredients that are bolded are not good for chins. veggies and fruit should never be in a chin pellet, and i believe beet pulp has way too much sugar in it.

i would switch to a better pellet such as oxbow, mazuri, tradition, etc.

as for the living world hay, whenever i see it in stores here it always looks brown and gross and devoid of any actual nutrition. if i was a chin i wouldn't want to eat it! lol. Oxbow brand hay is much better, and can be found at petsmart.
 
Actually, dried vegetables should be okay. I know beet has been used in many supplements and even pellet diets for chinchillas. Fruits are a no-no because they have too much sugar, but vegetables do not. Rather, they're full of vitamins.

But I am not suggesting we all go out and load up our chins with dried vegetables. (I don't.) It's up to the owner to educate themselves and decide what diet they want to feed their animals. Just saying that those ingredients do not raise red flags for me.
 
I used to feed Oxbow until my girls started losing A LOT of weight. After vet checkups and everything seeming good she did some digging and contacted Oxbow. Apparently they changed their formula, and that's when they started losing weight...so off to Mazuri I went and they are pleasently plump again :)
 
sydneytaylorr said:
Oh, Well there's not a petsmart near me, and the only type of hay available is living world :/ but there is oxbow pellets available, thank you for the response! but i'm not sure what to do about the hay now. :(
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Any timothy hay that your chin will eat should work, I buy from online vendors. I've used KMS Hayloft, FuzziesKingdom, quality mutation chinchillas (I don't think she has any instock though)

BeginnerChinLover said:
I used to feed Oxbow until my girls started losing A LOT of weight. After vet checkups and everything seeming good she did some digging and contacted Oxbow. Apparently they changed their formula, and that's when they started losing weight...so off to Mazuri I went and they are pleasently plump again :)
Click to expand...

This happened to us too. I think Oxbow is a great feed, but the company has been doing a lot of things that I don't agree with. They're no longer selling to individuals. In the last year they've also taken the pro-biotics out of their Critical Care and they changed the formula for their Vitamin C tablets (my vet's been having issues with his guinea pig clients). IMO if they're going to change a formula they need to make it very obvious on the packaging for several months so customers can be aware. For these reasons I've decided to not support the company anymore. But that doesn't change the fact that the pellets are a very good quality.
 
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