New chinchilla owner with question!

[LisaJeanne]

Hi everyone, i ended up going to a yard sale where everything was free cos the people left and the landlord wanted everything gone.. well i went in the yard and found a guinea pig and chinchilla in tiny rat cages with no food or water and in probally 3 inches of poop.. it was horrible. so i asked what was gonna happen to them and he didnt even know they were there and said take them, so i took them home.. i have lots of experience in guinea pigs so hes doing great playing with my other piggies, eating and drinking. as for the chinchilla (jack) hes missing most of his toes, you can feel his spine.. and he seems to be very picky about food which i dont know if he doesnt know what it is or doesnt want it.. but i went out and bought him pellets and some snacks, i only use the snacks so he can get use to me and come to me.. he now lives in a cage thats 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide and he has so many things in his cage that he seems really happy, he jumps around and runs back and forth, making a mess of his hay, i like to think its a really nice upgrade for him. but anyways its been a couple weeks and i just found this site, was wondering what the best pellet food is or certain food your chinchillas like to eat. any advice would be great! thank you everyone!

 

[Laurie]

Welcome to the forum. Not everyone feeds the same pellet, however there are more than one quality pellet for a chin. Don't feed them anything with snacks such as dried fruit or nuts in with the pellets. Good choices are Oxbow, Tradtion, Mazuri and Purina or Nutrena Rabbit feed are also very good feeds for chins.

As for snacks or treats again no fruits or veggies, expecially no dried fruits they are high in sugar. Plain cheerios, a plain shredded wheat, old fashioned and not quick cooking oats--just a tiny pinch of these, and dried rose hips whole or crushed are great treats for chins.

Glad you have separated the chin from the guinea pig--they don't house well together at all.

I'm happy for both the chin and guinea pig that they have someone to love them and take care of them now.

 

[greychins]

Welcome to the world of chinchilla ownership.

What brand/type of food did you buy for Jack? And what type of snacks did you buy him?

The "best" food is sort of debatable. Everyone on here has their favorite. I personally use Mazuri Chinchilla Chow, though some people's chins don't do well on it. There is also Oxbow Chinchilla, a bit more expensive, but also a good food. There are also several rabbit feeds that can be used for chinchillas, but I don't know them off the top of my head, someone else would have to chime in. Also, there is Tradition and Shoots pellets, though those may be a bit harder to find if you're not near someone who sells them. The stuff you can typically find in a pet store or feed store is going to be the rabbit feeds, Mazuri, or Oxbow.

Good snacks are cheerios, shredded wheat (non-frosted), a pinch of oats (not the quick cook kind!), some good wood to chew on (not the peach stuff they sell at pet stores). All those (except the wood to chew) should be given sparingly. Don't overdo the treats.

Chinchillas only eat about 2 Tbsp of pellets a day, so you won't notice him eating and eating and eating. If he's skinny, it will take awhile for him to get some weight back on his bones, but even with a good food, it takes a bit of time.

 

[LisaJeanne]

Thank you, they both are very sweet and it was very upsetting to see them that way and how someone could just leave them there. Ralphe loves to play and popcorn with the other piggies and try to show off to one certain little female piggie its adorable hes amazing. And Jack the chinchilla loves to run!! sometimes i think hes worried about going back to where he came from so he thinks he needs to run and jump super fast and he can go for hours! but hes so sweet. never thought i would get a chinchilla, always thought they were cute but my heart belonged to guinea pigs till he came along now he won part of my heart too! thanx for the list of foods. im gonna go out and buy a few different brands tomorrow and see what he likes best!

 

[LisaJeanne]

thanx greychins! ha, so i guess there not like guinea pigs who will eat nonstop! just making sure im not starving the little guy, seems like hes had enough of that. i dont know the name of the pellets i got, i brought the bag home and put the pellets in containters but it was from a local feed store, the treats i got are ultra bites for chinchillas fruit and nut with vitamin rich fruits.. so should i stop feeding those to him? i havent given him much of that so i'll stop if its bad. i do give him cheerios which he eats one and throws the other one usually. thanx you for the advice!

 

[greychins]

No, definetly not quite like guinea pigs. I used to have a rabbit that would just sit at his bowl and eat and eat and eat... The chins, on the other hand... when I put fresh food in, they'll go down to the bowl for a few nibbles.... but at least mine won't eat the entire 2 Tbsp (or whatever amount they eat) at one sitting, they just eat a little here, little there...

I would stop the ultra bites treats. The nuts are too high in fat, and I can't think of what it's called at the moment, but chins have something where it's like they can't process fat? so it builds up in their body. I'm sorry I can't think of what it's called, not enough sleep today, but too much fat is not good for them, I know that, and nuts are high in fat. Fruits as well, not the fat, but they have sugar in them (naturally), and as chinchillas are hind-gut fermenters (sp?) they can't deal with sugar well either. So, not the best thing to give them to the chins. On that note, no raisins either.

I personally wouldn't buy several foods to see what he likes... you don't want to be switching up his diet all that much, chins have delicate digestive systems. I would just buy one of the good brands listed and leave it in his foodbowl. Sooner or later he's gonna get hungry and eat it. Some chins do well on some foods, others don't. Like just as an example, I feed Mazuri, but some people's chins get soft poos on that brand. If you were to buy Mazuri (or whatever brand you buy) and you noticed soft poos, ok, then it would be time to switch to a different food. But I wouldn't start out with the thought that you're going to buy a lot and see what he likes. Buy something that you can find locally, that you can afford, and try to get him to eat that. If there's a problem, or he absolutely refused to eat what you bought, then you could switch, but I'd give it a few days, cause sooner or later he'll get hungry...

 

[LisaJeanne]

Thank you so much! i will stop giving him the treats. i guess it just seems like he doesnt eat compared to the guinea pigs. After i posted my last reply i thought about it and no im not gonna buy different kinds so he doesnt get an upset tummy or anything! I'll try and find a name that you recomended and go from there.. im use to just filling up bowls everyday, and was thinking gosh he sure doesnt eat much at all! but hes a pooping machine so he must be eating, little did i know chinchillas just dont eat much so thanx again!

 

[greychins]

LOL! Yeah, the key is the pooing. As long as you see poos, (which, at least at my house, are everywhere) you know he's eating.

For most of the cages we have, we have 3-4 chins in each. With that many chins, we have to fill the bowls maybe every day or every other day. But with one chin, the intake isn't so obvious, at least not from day-to-day.

The names you're most likely to find in pet stores are Mazuri (Petsmart), Oxbow (Pet Supplies Plus), and the rabbit foods. Good luck!

p.s. you should post pics! we want to see your new cutie!

 

[KristinC1983]

Greychins is sooo right-I love that girl, lol Anyway, I feed my boy, Sunny, Mazuri and he loves it-the stuff I had to wean him off of that the breeder gave me, he did nott like as much and acted like the Mazuri was treat. Make sure to buy food that you know you'll always be able to get your hands on, cause if you're suddenly out and so is the petshop you get it from, you're screwed. Mazuri is everywhere, so I'm confident it'll be there when I need it. Oxbow is a lot of places as well, though I don't think as many as Mazuri (around here anyway). And once you've found the perfect food, you can come back on here and find out how to get it cheaper I did and am super happy about that. And as said above, any foods with any treats mixed in (should just be brown pellets-nothing else) is not good and should not be given.

Just make sure to do the switch very slowly, over like a 2 week period, everyday adding a few more of the new pellets and taking a few more of the old out. And yes, watch for wet poop or poop that isn't the right color, cause that may easily mean tummy trouble!

Check out: www.petchinchillas.info owned by a member on this site and it says almost everything you'll need to know (except about hairrings, lol-I just found out she only has girls, though, and hairrings only happen in boys). She talks about nutrition (treats, hay, food, etc), chewtoys, cages, wheels, bedding, health issues, playtime, etc. It's just a great site-this one and that one are my 2 favorites, and I rarely need others. You can trust what you read on her site and what is said on here. There are a lot of sites out there that are wrong on a lot of info, or just too vague to be much help. Books aren't necassary either, except for some cute pics!

My chin gets for a treat once a day either 1 plain cheerio (the usual treat in between the ones he loves more), 2 rosehips (dried and not crushed-if crushed, I think maybe a tsp or 2) only once a week, or a pinch of alfalfa once or occassionaly twice a month. After hearing about raisons and sunflower seeds, I've stopped them completely. He also has all the applewood he could need, some other wood from Petsmart and Petco that's all different colors he doesn't like as much, 2 pumice ledges (his fav thing in his cage tied with his new Chin SPin from Quality Cage online), a pumice block he barely touches, and a hanging applewood toy I made with wire holding it together (from a chinese food container, lol-the wire handle things on them), cause a lot of ropes and sstuff are not good for them (read on the website I gave you). Oh, he also eats his hidey house. Oh, one thing he loves, and I forgot to get yesterday at Petsmart, is the roll-a-nests (or is it Petco). He LOVES tearing them apart and throwing them around the cage.

We'd LOVE to see pics of him and his new cage. Just post a reply and under the smileys, there's a place to add thumbnails-I still don't know how to add like most of them do on hear where its a big pic in with the text Sooo happy someone was there who saved him and his piggie friend! Keep coming back for anything you need! There's soooo much experience on this site from many members whho seriously care-you've gotten answers from a couple of them like Greychins (who I love), and browse through the site, too, like the housing sections, health section, etc. You'll find lots of stuff you probably didn't even know you needed to know-I did and I'm a research maniac, so the amount I learned so far on here surprises me! I tthought I knew a lot more about chins than I do, lol!

 

[greychins]

Haha glad to hear I'm loved.

Another great site for information is www.ChinNation.com - one of the members here, Stackie, has compiled all the information for the site.

For the treats and chews, you'll quickly find that they're much cheaper to order from a member here, even with shipping, than to buy stuff at the pet store (most stuff anyway, I can't resist the little hamburger-shaped chew that Petco has, they get me everytime). What I typically do is buy a lot of stuff at once... like I think the last time I bought stuff it was about $75 worth of stuff (now, granted, we have a ton of chins), but even for one chin, it's worth it to buy a lot, and only pay that shipping once, than to buy in small amounts here and there and pay shipping over and over and over.

I tthought I knew a lot more about chins than I do, lol!

You're not the only one, haha. When I first found the site, I thought I was a chin-expert-- I had read all the books and everything on the internet... most of which was wrong, of course, but this forum is a great wealth of information, and even now being on it for several years, I still learn new things all the time.

 

[chinnychinchinchilla]

:congrats5:
on your new chinchilla! how much does he weigh? he sounds skinny