Is it normal for two chin's to eat alot

[NewChinMommy]

I was just wondering what is the perfect ammount of food for a chinchilla? Blossom and Scooter have eaten alot since they have been with me yesterday where they have drink through almost two bottles of water and two full things of their pellets and alot of hay(not sure what is the best ammount of hay for them or if i can free feed it whenever i want too) Is it normal for them to have eaten that much?

 

[Whimsy]

Depends on what "a lot" is.
Growing kits will eat more than full grown adults.
Are you sure the water bottle isn't leaking and they're not scattering the pellets on the ground?
If you're giving them high quality food, there should't be a need to ration it out.
How long have you had them?

 

[ticklechin]

If they were deprived food and water they might eat that much, I have had foster chins who have done that.

 

[Riven]

How big is the water bottle? Is it 16 ounces? Is it 2 ounces? Chances are it's leaking. If you don't have a sturdy cage and you have a ball valve style cage vibrations of the cage will make it leak.

Chins will not over eat and it's okay to free feed them. Since we don't know how much "two things" of feed is, a "thing" could be a teaspoon or it could be a 2 cup measuring
cup, it's rather hard to give a definite answer on that.

 

[Amy555]

Two bottles of water sounds like a whole lot. I have two boys who are almost 5 months old and I have two small 3" diameter, 1.5" high little crocks and they eat through those in about 2-3 days. And I'm never sure how much hay they eat since they make such a mess with it so I always make sure to give them a handful each day. Hay is always good so give them as much as they want. Since your chins didnt come from the most ideal situation maybe they're just gorging and will settle down once they are good and healthy. Also someone pointed out that they were eating colorful 'treat' pellets so maybe if you've given them more proper hearty pellets they're making up for lost time and have been chowing down.

 

[NewChinMommy]

The water bottle isn't leaking i know that much as i checked it out before to make sure it wasn't leaking. Later on today it will have only been really two since i have had them so not long at all.

 

[NewChinMommy]

I meant two full bowls of their food which is a cup of food everytime.

 

[NewChinMommy]

That is probably about the size of food bowl i have for them though it maybe a bit bigger. I gave them a handful last night and they had it done in about 5 minutes. Someone told me to try out oxbow for them so i found someone on kijiji selling 10lb and two 5lb bags of it at only $10 dollars so i am going to buy all of it and hopefully they like that stuff.

 

[Riven]

In the lower right hand side there is an edit button which can be used to add or modify your post for up to 15 minutes after it's been posted.

There is a chance that they just like the food, especially if it's different. Or maybe they came from a bad situation and didn't have enough food? I'm not sure on their history.

Oxbow is a good feed, I would just like to mention that if you can't continue to get it be cautious about switching, switching frequently can be hard on their digestive systems.

 

[NewChinMommy]

I woke up this morning and did notice something. They like taking out the multi-colored stuff and eating the pellets. They didn't come from an ideal situation but the last time i said something someone stalked my posts and i got harassed by them. They have oxbow at the petsmart here so if they like it i can get it whenever i need it. I want to stick to a food that they like and is good for them.

Also another question what kind of treats can i give them? I have yet to find anything that says what i can and can't give them for treats.

 

[MyLilPintoBean]

Acceptable treats for Chins are rose hips (either crushed or whole), old fashioned rolled oats (not the instant kind), plain shredded wheat (without frosting), plain cheerios, there are members on here that sell chinnie salad and cookies that you can give them too.
Ideally treats should be given once or twice a week is all.

 

[Amy555]

I found this thread that seems to answer your question.

This thread has what wood is safe for them to chew on.

I was giving my chins pieces of raisins and dried cranberries, but it took a lot of reading and poking around here to figure everything out. But I've learned SO MUCH in the less than 2 months I've been here!

 

[Claire D]

Personally I wouldn't give them any treats for the time being. I would get them used to eating a healthy diet of good quality chinchilla pellets (rather than a mix which contains "treats" anyway) & plenty of hay.

If they are a on a mix I would get them switched to the Oxbow pellets & keep them munching on plenty of good quality hay as well. That's all they need for the moment - getting them settled into a stable environment with a healthy diet & a safe cage (which I know you're working towards just in case the female is pregnant) are the keys for now.

 

[NewChinMommy]

We have been giving them stuff that they gave us that came from a friends farm or something but i have no idea if thats good or not. But we also have some alfafa hay from our hamsters so i have also been giving some of that as well. They have just been eating up as much hay as possible. I have been trying to pick out the mixed bits from their food with the food that we bought. We have given them a couple of cheerios as a treat but i will stop doing that today. I feel a bit bad since we gave them some last night and scooter was staring at my husband and it almost looked like he had this sad look on his face begging for some more treats.

We are going to be getting some oxbow this friday when we pick up the cage(Blossom is in our 40 gallon fish tank-I know some people say its super bad but its all we had at the moment and we didn't want to leave her with Scooter) I was going to get 20lb bag of oxbow but the people put it in with the rest of their food.