how much food

[fbodgrl]

I don't have my Chin yet and am not totally decided what I will feed when I do get my chin. Although I am kind of leaning towards Oxbow.

I was reading about Mill dates and food freshness. I am wondering how much food I should purchase at a time for 1 chin (possibly 2)?

 

[greychins]

It does somewhat depend on how fast your chin goes through the food and how easily you can get the food. We have 17+ chins, so we usually have 2 - 25 pound bags in our feed storage container (which we feed from daily) and then an extra bag on the side... but they also go through it really quick when you have this many.

With only one or two... we used to have a rescue on Oxbow and he'd go through one of the 5 pound bags maybe every month? As far as I know, food is good up to 6 months from the mill date, so depending when the mill date is, you could probably buy 2-3 bags and have them last you a few months...

I know there's a member on here who sells Oxbow, and if you're going to go with Oxbow, it'd be cheaper to buy from the member and get it shipped in than to buy from the store... I don't remember the membername, but maybe someone else can chime in. It's worth a thought if you're going to go with Oxbow, as it's one of the more pricy chin feeds.

 

[Tanya]

Sandi sells Oxbow pellets! She always has freshest pellets possible http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15193&page=3
I'd get 10 lbs for 1-2 chins.

 

[Anne-Lise]

A single chin qill eat a 5lb in about 3-4 months.
If you buy Oxbow bags already packed (rather than bulk I mean) the used-by dates is minimum a year. When in bulk it's few months.

 

[Jazicat]

I have one chinchilla and he eats 1-2 pounds of food a month. He also has an unlimited supply of timothy hay and an alfalfa block. Treats are rosehips, Mrs. Pasture's Horse cookie bits or an few oats once a day. We just give one treat a day but rotate them as Edgar loves his treats. We buy Edgar's food from his breeder and she sweetly gives a small bag of treats that we know are chin safe.

If you buy your chin from a breeder or rescue I'd recommend keeping in touch if it's encouraged. I love the conversations I have with my breeder when I order Edgar's food and she gets updates. Now that we are going to show Edgar I have a mentor who is going to walk me through it. I also have someone that I can call 24/7 because she will help me if I can't get a vet.

 

[QnMidnight]

I agree with the 1-2 pounds of food per month for one chin; I usually order 2 pounds at a time, and I think it comes out to be just about once a month or so. Plus, two pounds fits perfectly in my chin food container:

I buy the Purina food (I always forget the new name) from QMC and I've never had an issue with it going bad before I could use it all.

 

[jamanalo]

Consumption varies per animal because some have bigger appetites. I would say, start off with a 5 lb bag, and then if they finish that faster than expected grab some more. Its better than getting too much and having wasted food, which is wasted money, and wasting money is never a good thing! haha

 

[Idgie]

If you have one chin, I'd say buy about 5 lbs. or less at a time. That will last you a few months.