Opinions on weaning off Beaphar?

[Brittany]

I'm going to try and make a long story as short as possible:

Lady has had a lot of digestive related health problems. She wouldn't eat any of the American milled pellets that I tried. For a while she would bloat easily (every few weeks) and at her worst she developed a mild case of stasis (mild in the sense that I pulled her out of it with only 2 weeks of intense treatment).

11 months ago I radically changed her diet. She gets 3 tbsp. of Beaphar Chinchilla Care +, 1 tsp of. Fuzzies Kingdom Broad spectrum supplement, and timothy hay with red clover sprinkled on top. She does a great job eating the Beaphar and herbs. Hay is either hit or miss. (I think it has to do with the quality of the bag and if it's a new bag or if we're towards the bottom).

Anyway she's doing really well, her poop is great, she hasn't been bloaty in at least 6 months. It's like she never had problems. Every once in awhile she'll drop 40g or so, this seems to be stress related; it happened once when my mom was visiting and sleeping a few feet from her cage, and it happened again when I was an emotional wreck after breaking up with my ex. She puts the weight back on quickly.

Anyway today she was begging when I was feeding the other chins, so I offered her a few pellets of Tradition. She gobbled them up, and it made me wonder if perhaps I could wean her on to Tradition or a Beaphar/Tradition combo?

Here are some of my thoughts/concerns that I would like opinions on.

1. I'm concerned about her weight. Stess induced weight loss aside she has continued to gain since we started Beaphar. Prior to her health issues she was stable in the 600g range. She's now 804g and gaining, She's at least 3 years old so she should be done growing. She's developing a lot of fat rolls. I know we say chins usually don't overeat, but it's almost been a year, I'm anxious for her to level out again.

2. Since she doesn't always eat hay does she need the extruded pellets to grind her back molars? I know regular pellets don't grind the teeth down.

3. I am concerned about the bloat returning. If I did a transition I would do it over several months and monitor her closely.

4. I know Beaphar is very appetizing, and she may not take to the tradition, has anyone successfully weaned a chin off Beaphar?

 

[Spoof]

I know regular pellets don't grind the teeth down.

There is a lot of misconception about this. The act of eating is what wears teeth down. Chins bite small chunks with the fronts, then pass that to the back to do the grinding. Hay is certainly not harder than any pellet.

If she was having that much of an issue on American pellets I would have looked to see what the difference in ingredients was. Like humans chins can have allergies to wheat, oats, soy, etc. Soy is a very cheap protein source and almost exclusively used here to get high protein feeds. Tradition is one of the few feeds that cuts the soy with an animal protein.

Just food for thought.

 

[Claire D]

There is a lot of misconception about this. The act of eating is what wears teeth down. Chins bite small chunks with the fronts, then pass that to the back to do the grinding. Hay is certainly not harder than any pellet.

There is eating and then there is eating ......

The mechanics of eating pellets to eating hay are different. Eating a pellet primarily involves an up and down jaw motion. Eating hay involves side to side movements and causes full occlusion of the teeth surfaces, making the grinding action more effective.
If one observes a chinchilla eating a pellet to eating a piece of hay it is possible to see the difference in jaw motion. It is also possible to observe differences in the amount of time taken to chew a piece of hay than chewing a pellet. Chewing hay takes longer.

This research paper is based on horse anatomy but can be extrapolated across to chinchillas.

From: Comparison of mandibular motion in horses chewing hay and pellets
Equine Veterinary Journal Volume 39, Issue 3, pages 258–262, May 2007


"Conclusions: The range of mediolateral displacement of the mandible was sufficient to give full occlusal contact of the upper and lower dental arcades when chewing hay but not when chewing pellets.

Potential relevance: These findings support the suggestion that horses receiving a diet high in concentrate feeds may require more frequent dental prophylactic examinations and treatments to avoid the development of dental irregularities associated with smaller mandibular excursions during chewing."




Brittany, in answer to your questions (since I have several chins here I feed/fed on Beaphar over the last few years)

Weight gain - you could always cut down on the amount of Beaphar your chin is getting if you are concerned about too much weight gain.
The other option would be to mix the pellets and the Beaphar and see if the chin's digestion remains constant and whether the chin eats everything in the bowl.

Molar wear - extruded pellets are great but they don't replace eating long fibre forage (see above) - it is worth experimenting with different types of hay and forage to see what your chin will eat. If she's pigging out on Beaphar then she may well be ignoring the forage in favour of the tasty food.

Bloating - if you're going to transition then, yes, I would take plenty of time to do any swap and monitor.

Weaning off Beaphar - it is possible to do it but it's a tasty food so sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge! I often add in normal pellets and go from there but sometimes it takes a cold switch (which you cannot really do in this scenario).

 

[Brittany]

Brittany, in answer to your questions (since I have several chins here I feed/fed on Beaphar over the last few years)

Weight gain - you could always cut down on the amount of Beaphar your chin is getting if you are concerned about too much weight gain.
The other option would be to mix the pellets and the Beaphar and see if the chin's digestion remains constant and whether the chin eats everything in the bowl.

Molar wear - extruded pellets are great but they don't replace eating long fibre forage (see above) - it is worth experimenting with different types of hay and forage to see what your chin will eat. If she's pigging out on Beaphar then she may well be ignoring the forage in favour of the tasty food.

Bloating - if you're going to transition then, yes, I would take plenty of time to do any swap and monitor.

Weaning off Beaphar - it is possible to do it but it's a tasty food so sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge! I often add in normal pellets and go from there but sometimes it takes a cold switch (which you cannot really do in this scenario).

Hmm... those are a lot of good points to consider. The only reason I've been thinking about this is because she is still gaining weight, and she is getting very fat. My only concern is about her health. I've been doing everything I can to keep her healthy, and now I just don't want her to have any issues from being too overweight. Like I mentioned in my first post, before all this started she was stable and healthy in the 600g range. Now she's 200g over that.

To my human nose Tradition is the best smelling American pellet I've used, so when she took a few pieces as a treat I thought maybe she would eat it as a regular pellet. Last year I tried oxbow, nutrena, mazuri, and psrc. She either wouldn't eat them, or in the case of mazuri it made her bloat worse.

 

[Claire D]

I'd cut down on her Beaphar intake, add in a few Tradition pellets and monitor her weight and gut function. I'd do that for at least a couple of months or more and then you can decide which way to proceed.

 

[Sandi]

Bloating - if you're going to transition then, yes, I would take plenty of time to do any swap and monitor.

Weaning off Beaphar - it is possible to do it but it's a tasty food so sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge! I often add in normal pellets and go from there but sometimes it takes a cold switch (which you cannot really do in this scenario).

I'd cut down on her Beaphar intake, add in a few Tradition pellets and monitor her weight and gut function. I'd do that for at least a couple of months or more and then you can decide which way to proceed.

:thumbsup: Claire!

Brittany, I had to do the cold switch with Coco after he got pulled from the violets and settled in with Benny. I was on pins and needles for a bit but both Benny and Coco are digging the Tradition now so in my case, weaning from the Beaphar did work. Definitely would not recommend that with Lady.

 

[Brittany]

UPDATE:

Just thought I'd let you know how everything is going. Thank you again for all the help and advice.

We've been working on this for a month now. Poop is slightly smaller, but consistent and still within the realm of what I would consider to be healthy. No issues with bloat so far (knocks on wood and partakes in all superstitious ritual). Weight is stable around 800g, no more gaining and no significant loss.

We're now at a ratio of 2/3 Beaphar and 1/3 Tradition. She only eats the Tradition AFTER the Beaphar is gone, but she is eating it. Still have my fingers crossed that I can get her completely over to Tradition.