Regarding pellet change

[Winston_]

Question: Is it ok to abruptly change pellet brands if the chinchillas are indifferent/ prefer the new stuff?

My judgement says no, because it's their stomach, not their tastebuds we need to worry about. I wouldnt ask if i knew for sure.

We recently bought a bag of oxbow pellets since it seems like most users swear by it. That and its cheaper than the (probably crap) pellets that petco sells.


Another reason I bought it is Sunshine is down 30g in the almost two months of roughly weekly weighing sessions. From what i understand, around 30g difference isnt uncommon as a chinchilla goes throughout the day. Sunshine, however as been down all but two sessions at various times of the day. If she loses much more weight I think I'll have to make an appointment with the vet.

I think for now it might just be a good idea to keep both types in the cage, since discouraging her with new food is the last thing we want.

 

[LGarl]

I've read that it's recommended to gradually switch their food by mixing old and new together for a while. Though if your chin won't eat the older brand it doesn't seem like it would make much difference.

Maybe you could offer a variety of hay to encourage Sunshine to eat more. I feed mine orchard grass, timothy, oat hay, and botanical hay with some alfalfa cubes occasionally since he's an elder chin (10 yrs old). He takes turns devouring each kind in turn depending on what he fancies that day I guess.

 

[ticklechin]

I always cold turkey switch-I did it with all the rescues and never had a problem.

 

[Tagna]

A lot of times I don't get any pellets with rescues and most come in with awful food. I put them on Oxbow right away with lots of hay. Last rescue that came in had a mix of every small animal food with apricots. Her poop was awful. Now she happily eats hers pellets and hay, this after being told she would not eat chin pellets at all.

 

[Winston_]

Ah, fair point. We have two tiny dishes that we use some times. I put the old stuff in one and oxbow in the other. The oxbow is always totally empty so i just filled the big dish with oxbow. They didnt touch the old stuff.

Kiwi's now making small poops, so im wondering if her pellet:hay ratio is off now. But they both seem to like it.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Just throw out the old stuff since they are not eating it. Make sure that they have access to hay at all times and that it is fresh and you should be ok. You can sprinkle some probiotics on their pellets to help with the small poos.