Bugs in chin food?!

[CJR]

I am so grossed out right now it isn't even funny!

I just got home and was taking care of Tia - all the usual stuff, you know. I gave her her usual bowl of pellets (about a tablespoon of pellets and a pinch of Crysta's flower salad) and I saw a LITTLE BROWN BEETLE crawl out of her bowl!

I checked the bag of flower salad first - nothing, it was fine.

So I checked the food container.

Bugs! Little beetles! I didn't go digging, but I counted around five on top and there is probably two pounds of pellets in there or more. :vomit:

What should I do? I should throw out the pellets, obviously. I'll get more in the morning - it's 11:30pm now, everything is closed. I think she'll be fine for a night without pellets, right? I'll give her extra hay - she prefers that anyways.

How can I prevent this in the future? Her food was given to me by her previous owners, it looks like Mazuri but I'm not sure. They told me it was "Purina brand", and Purina makes Mazuri, but... it isn't labeled Purina. Whatever.

Anyway, it's kept in one of those plastic tubs that they sell cat litter in. It doesn't smell like cat litter, and it's air tight... so how did they get in there?! What should I keep her new food in? Will she be okay if I switch her food "cold"? Gah, so many questions...

I found some pictures that most closely resemble the beetles in her food...

First picture
Second picture

Thank you for reading!!

 

[Tillygizmo]

Hmm what type of food is it? Maybe it somehow got into the bag ? I would think they would die though without air.. that is very strange I hope other people have better thoughts

 

[ErinsChins]

She will be fine overnight. Throw the food out like you said. Can you call the previous owner? Surely they can find out what they fed. If not, go with Mazuri and make sure to give her plenty of hay. Purina also makes rabbit food that is good for chins, but I think they would specify that. Did they give ou the container? If so they could've already been in there, if not, check for areas to enter, if none are found clean it out and try again.

 

[ms_ramie22]

bugs

Grains can get bugs, even the flour that we use for baking...actually the eggs can be in the flour..I know, gross...but may I suggest storing most of it in the freezer to keep it fresh. That is what I do with my flour and extra hedgehog food and dog food.

 

[AZChins]

Is there more than one in the food? Are you sure it didn't just fly into the bowl? If it was purina brand, it probably wasn't Mazuri - but definitely contact them and find out what it was. It's best to keep the chin on the same food if you can, just to prevent any added stress.

 

[CJR]

The food isn't in a bag, it's in one of those plastic tubs that cat litter comes in. There are a bunch of the bugs in the food container - I didn't go digging around but I counted about five in the food itself.

They don't know what it was, her previous owners are really useless. All they will tell me is that it is "Purina brand". It does look similar to Mazuri, I've compared what the pellets look like, but there is also sunflower seeds and raisins mixed in the pellets. Not many, but some.

I'm going to get new food anyway... I think it's just gross... I really don't want her eating bugs/bug eggs/bug poop, you know?

 

[AZChins]

Just throw it away then! Go with something else.

Sunflower seeds and raisins aren't very good to have mixed in with the pellets. Bugs are gross. ick ick ick!! I'd probably have a screaming fit if I found FIVE little bugs in the food.

 

[menagerie]

Give her plenty of hay for the night. She will be fine.

It doesn't sound like her previous owners would have gone out of their way to buy Purina rabbit food, which comes in 25 + lb bags. So it was most likely Mazuri, which is made by Purina. Go buy some new Mazuri tomorrow. If you're looking to upgrade her food, you can get Oxbow at PetSmart. Since it's a kitty litter container, it may not be totally airtight. You could go to Target or Walmart and get an airtight food storage container or pick up one at the pet store, I know both PetCo and PetSmart sell airtight food storage containers.

 

[Essentia]

You can go to petsmart and grab a bad of Mazuri for now. They charge an arm and a leg for it so ordering from someone on here is most recommended. For tonight hay is more than fine. This could be why she wasn't eating as much of the food. Who knows just how old it may have been as well.

 

[inzeos]

Mazuri doesn't come with anything mixed into it. I don't believe the Purina food does either. It was probably one of the odd house brands that the big box stores order. Our first rescue had a few of those until we found better sources online for pellets.

It is a lot cheaper online, order several pounds and break it into quart freezer bags if you don't go through it fast. Then put those bags into the freezer to extend the shelf life.

 

[Essentia]

Freezing your pellets doesn't actually do anything to extend the shelf life.

 

[inzeos]

Freezing your pellets doesn't actually do anything to extend the shelf life.

What are you basing that on?

Freezing in general extends the life of most grain products and I assume pellets being a compound product made up of many components would also benefit.

 

[Linda]

What are you basing that on?

Freezing in general extends the life of most grain products and I assume pellets being a compound product made up of many components would also benefit.

I use Purina products for many of my animals. I've called Purina (lab diets division) and talked to them. They told me that freezing only marginally increases shelf life and not to count on it to really do anything.

By the way, Purina has some charts on their website (or at least they did -- can't find them now) that show how their foods lose nutritional value over time. It really is in the best interest of our animals not to push shelf life limits.

Linda

 

[Ippo456]

I've found bugs in my mazuri before, but that's because I bought it from an online store that splits the larger size bags into smaller bags.
I've stopped buying from that supplier and buy my own mazuri (the 25-lb bag).
Since I only have 2 chinchillas, I store about half of the mazuri in an airtight plastic tupperware & keep that in the freezer (which extends its shelf life). As for the rest, I keep them in the original bag, but because it's been opened I put the mazuri bag inside an XL Ziploc bag.
I know that bugs can come from grainy food, like oats and such. But Mazuri is processed already, so I'm assuming that the bugs must have come from your chinchilla's previous home.

 

[CJR]

Thanks everyone! Gonna go get some new food today, along with a food storage container. I think I'm going to go with Oxbow. I know switching their food "cold" isn't the best, but... there is NO WAY I'm going to feed her buggy-infested food.

 

[eroomlorac]

Grains can get bugs, even the flour that we use for baking...actually the eggs can be in the flour..I know, gross...but may I suggest storing most of it in the freezer to keep it fresh. That is what I do with my flour and extra hedgehog food and dog food.

I agree, I am an avid wild bird feeder and very often those little moths are in the bird seed. Not particularly when I first buy it but upon storage, I think the eggs hatch. I read somewhere to prevent this, if you freeze the seed (in the case of bird seed) for 24 hours, it kills the eggs. You don't necessarily need to keep it in the freezer, just put it in there long enough to kill the eggs.

I do not freeze my chinchilla pellets. I buy Oxbow pellets directly from the Oxbow company and I've never had a problem with bugs. Sounds like you just got some old food that was not stored properly.

 

[Cuddlebug]

I've had bugs show up in my feed before. It was towards the end of a bag. Any grain products can and probably does have eggs in it. It's just a fact of life. If you use it up quickly, you will never notice. It's only when you go through it slowly that the eggs have time to hatch.

 

[Dolyphinm]

If I was doing a cold switch I would make sure to have some probiotics to sprinkle over the food and possibly do a few extra days of just hay if you have a variety of types. Just to help with the transition.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Stord product pests such as the beetles you found in the food are very common in grain or flour-containing foods that have not been used up quickly. The reality is that the eggs are in the product and hatch if conditions are ideal, the larvae eat the food and pupate into beetles which will also eat the food and lay more eggs. If you freeze a new bag of feed for 24 hrs. before using it, it will kill any eggs that are in the product. It is pretty gross to think about but it is common even in our own foods (I opened a box of Rice-a-Roni last week to find it infested with rice weevils)!

I work at an entomology lab where we raise colonies of flour beetles, weevils, warehouse beetles, meal moths, and other stored product pests and we have to freeze their "food" before we feed it to the colonies. Otherwise, flour beetles may hatch in the weevil colonies or weevils in the warehouse beetles and so on and so on. Often, the raw ingredients are infested.

 

[CJR]

Wow, the info about the bugs is gross. The advice is great though!

What are the probiotics?