new(ish) owner question

[xowolfbaneox]

I have two chins, a male and a female, Buddy and Puff. I got the male from a friend who got him from a breeder on craigslist (reputable enough-- i gave them a call and asked about his pedigree) around christmas last year, and the female i bought off a different breeder around town and plan on breeding the pair.

The male's breeder gave me a few tips and the info i would need to care for him, and here-in lies the problem.

He told me i was able to feed him alfalfa or timothy and pellets.
I have consistently fed the two of them solely timothy hay and pellets, however, i sent my fiance to the store and he brought back an enormous bag of alfalfa because he couldn't remember which i had said and grabbed the type that was nearest the pellets i wanted.

Considering the breeder told me alfalfa was alright, i wasn't too concerned, however, my research prior to deciding to breed them showed that alfalfa should be used as a treat, and not a complete diet.

I am out of timothy, and don't want them to starve until i am able to make the hour long drive out to the store, would it be safe to allow them alfalfa instead of timothy until i am able to purchase another bag of timothy?

tl:dr; can i use alfalfa instead of timothy short term?

---- I apologize for the length of my question, I tend to be overly wordy

~~ Thanks in advance for your patience

 

[Godofgods]

i have no idea about alfalfa hay from a nutritional stand point, but i would guess its better temporarily then letting them starve...

word of warning tho, breeding is not always a simple easy thing. There are lots of precautions needed for kits. There are also lots of things can go wrong - lots of medical problems that can arise for the kit and the mother. Its not something you want to take lightly, especially if its your first chin.

 

[xowolfbaneox]

Thanks for the reply. I do have experience breeding animals. The basic premise is the same and the more specific details I have and can look up further. The problem when it came to their food was that I received two separate bits of information, the first being from one of the breeders saying that I can feed them strictly alfalfa if I wanted to, and the second being from at least one of the multiple sites I read while deciding I wanted a chinchilla to begin with. And I had fed them strictly Timothy prior to a misunderstanding between my fiancé and myself.
Since within the first week of this thread being up I received no replies, I went ahead and gave them some of the alfalfa in addition to their pellets.. They're doing fine and are now back to their strict Timothy diet

 

[MNChinLover]

I have had members on here tell me you can always feed alfalfa hay if you feed a Timothy based diet.

I believe the alfalfa has more calcium which is why people tend to not choose it.

One of them was better for teeth.. I want to say Timothy but don't quote me on that.

If you don't want to feed all alfalfa hay you could feed part alfalfa and part Timothy, especially with Timothy based pellets with no adverse affects.