Dried rose hips and salt

wolfy2449 · Sep 3, 2015

Okay, I'm trying to figure out some last minute stuff and I keep coming up with more questions so I'm sorry if I've gotten annoying with all of my posts.
How many dried rose hips can an adult chin have?
Dried rose hips are fine just sealed up in a container, right? (no refrigeration or anything like that)
Salt and mineral wheels/blocks? I keep seeing some sites say that chins need these and some sites say that they are extremely harmful. Since I don't know if the people who made those sites are large scale breeders or a little kid who's never even seen a chinchilla, I thought I'd see what all of you chin lovers have to say about the salt and minerals.
Thank you everyone for sharing your seemingly infinite chin wisdom with me :heart5:

ticklechin · Sep 4, 2015

A rose hip a day is fine, so a few pieces of crushed ones a day. No salt or mineral blocks, a healthy chin on a good quality diet does not need mineral supplementation.

wolfy2449 · Sep 4, 2015

Okay thank you. I wasn't sure about the salt or minerals since it seems like every site says something different about that.

ticklechin · Sep 12, 2015

If you get the calcium/phosphorus ratio out of whack, meaning you give too much calcium the chin will actually end up calcium deficient because the body will excrete calcium.
If there is still a desire to increase calcium do it by giving loose alfalfa hay as a addition to the grass hay diet.

Snickers · Sep 12, 2015

ticklechin said:
A rose hip a day is fine, so a few pieces of crushed ones a day. No salt or mineral blocks, a healthy chin on a good quality diet does not need mineral supplementation.

Have to agree with ticklechin.

CalicoPrairie · Sep 12, 2015

Sorry to hijack, but when you guys say a "good quality diet", what exactly do you mean? At this point, I feed Mazuri chin feed, timothy hay, alfalfa/timothy cubes, one shredded wheat (no sugar) each evening, dried blackberry branch chews (no pesticides), and bottled or r/o water. I have some rose hip (organic/seeded) on order and am planning on adding a bit more alfalfa hay for those of my chins whose teeth are looking yellow (versus orange). Is there enough salt in this type of diet?

wolfy2449 · Sep 12, 2015

Okay, thank you very much ticklechin

ticklechin · Sep 13, 2015

Calico, good quality diet means a high quality pellet, hay and fresh water. Mazuri is fine as long as the chin tolerates it well, the higher protein in it does not agree with some chins resulting in loose poo. Chins do not need salt supplementation.

CalicoPrairie · Sep 13, 2015

Thanks! My guys tolerate it fine, I think it's been their diet forever, but it's hard to get without traveling. Is there a better feed than Mazuri? Maybe it might be worth switching if it is more easily obtainable.