How often and how much do you feed?

[Rudy]

i feed my chin pellets once a day and the amount of poop that comes out daily is a lot. The cage will be fill with little droppings and it seems a little excessive.

How much and how often am I suppose to feed her? She's about 5 months old.

 

[tunes]

Most people free feed their chins. Fill up the feeder and top it off as necessary.

It is completely normal to have a cage full of poop. If you didn't, then you'd have a sick chin.

 

[lauralynne]

I start w/ 2 tablespoons per chin per day. I check their bowls at least twice, and if they need more, I add more. Rarely do they finish it all so I dispose of what's left each morning.

 

[Rudy]

one more question. is their urine yellowish?

 

[AZChins]

She's probably old enough to regulate herself in how much she will eat. Since she's so young she is growing like a weed and needs all that energy. Free feeding is usually best unless you have a chin that is overeating and giving herself digestive issues.

And, yes, poop is a great thing for a chin! Beautiful, consistent, firm droppings in great abundance is wonderful. It's when you don't get the droppings that you have to worry, like Tunes said...you'd have a sick chin in that case.

 

[GorillaJTA]

one more question. is their urine yellowish?

Urine can be yellow to dark red/brown depending on hydration levels and how long it has been sitting on the shelf...

 

[Jenn]

I free feed my chin. And like has already been said, excessive amounts of chinnie poo are normal, and I would worry if I didn't see poop everywhere.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Free feed, lots of poop, everything's good!

 

[starleomach]

I free feed my chinchillas. Empty bowls get filled up at any time

 

[Snickers]

I free feed all the animals here. I empty out the coop cups when I see a lot of poop, otherwise I just pick it out if there are only 3 to 4. For hay I end up throwing it away the next morning.

 

[addictedtochins]

They have all the pellets and hay they want, every evening when they wake. I refresh or throw out and refill them and their water bottle. They are wasteful but it doesn't matter to me because we buy hay by the bale and the 20 lbs bag of purina rabbit chow show just gets stale after a month or so anyway with just 7 chins.

 

[Andrea]

I free feed pellets and hay, and I generally give 12-15 sticks of wood per day. It never ceases to amaze me just how much they go through each day...but they are healthy and happy so I don't mind them going through so much I have three girls in one cage.

 

[ChinnyMom]

my Rhino is free fed, both pellets (Oxbow) and hay (mostly orchard grass right now). his pellet dish gets filled as soon as i see it empty (usually takes 2 to 3 days after filling it up), and his hay is given fresh every night, even if there is still hay in the cage (any hay not still in the hay containers gets tossed, since i don't know if he's peed on it or not).

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

I free feed and fill as necessary, personally. As for the urine, I have noticed that it ranges from yellowish to a dark orange/brown in my chins. And lots and lots of poop is a very good thing!

 

[fbodgrl]

I was free feeding pellets, but my girl started peeing in her food dish, so I went to measuring it out until I am sure I have fixed the issue of her peeing in her food. I feed about 3 Tbsp a day. She usually has some left over.

I free fed hay. She usually has one hay cube and then a container of orchard grass and a container of Timothy hay. She usually gets 3-4 new small twigs a day plus the sticks already in her cage that get cleared out/replaced as they get chewed up.

 

[xoxoimhers]

we free feed ours in a feeder that always has a supply. is this okay?? ours poop CONSTANTLY. we thought that was normal.

 

[fbodgrl]

Yes they poop all the time

From everything I have heard it is completely fine to free feed and they won't over eat.

 

[Dewdrop]

mine are completely free fed..