Hay

[chiaismypet]

Hi all. I was wondering how long I can keep hay in my chinchilla's cage. It's in a hay rack, so it doesn't get dirty. Can I keep it for more then a day? Can i just wait till she finishes it then refill? Also what about the pellets? Do I have to change it everyday?

 

[Tanya]

You can keep hay in a hay rack for more than one day; also, you do not have to change pellets every day. However, I give my chins fresh hay and pellets daily.

I offer fresh hay daily because it tends to lose its pleasant aroma pretty fast while out of a bag/bale – as a result, chins are less interested in it. Also, my chins love to pick out things they love most (it is like foraging fun!) so they are very excited when they get fresh hay.

I use a small ceramic cup for pellets (this way, it is easy to see how much pellets chins eat daily; so, if a chin suddenly stops eating pellets, you can notice it pretty quickly).

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I refill pellets daily. I switched between loose hay and hay cubes every other day. However, on hay cube day any loose hay on the cage floor goes in the trash while any left inside the hay box stays in the hay box. The next day on loose hay day, all loose hay on floor goes in the trash and if there is any left in the hay box then it also goes in the trash, and fresh loose hay put in.

Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[chiaismypet]

Thanks, it helped a lot.

 

[Shenanigans]

Yuki will throw out his hay when he's done with it. If I don't clean it up off the shelf/floor after a day he will pee on it instead of his usual corner (Well why didn't you take care of this Human?) If he has hay in the holder still he isnt done eating/playing with it, but I'll top it off. And Yuki also gets a small scoop of pellets daily. If he eats a lot and they run low or I ever tried to give him extra because I wont be playing with him in the morning he ends up pooping in his food bowl. He never does this unless he's really low, and he wont eat his food once he poops in it. Just a couple odd ways of letting me know his things need attention.
So for us it's a daily thing. I can monitor his food intake and not deal with his weird bathroom habits.But the food shouldn't go bad just sitting there for a day.