Shoots chinchilla food?

[Ki77ybunny]

I was wondering if shoots chinchilla food is a good choic for my baby (3 month old) chin, or if she needs a special diet.

She also gets the compressed hy cubes, loose hay, and water. A small treat one every 1-2 days.

 

[LoveBug]

i'm new to the whole chin owning thing (don't have her yet) but i have done my research.
i can't help you with the food. but i do believe that she isn't suppose to have treats til about 6 months. someone can correct me if i am wrong.

 

[EMSChins]

Shoots pellets is very good feed if you can get it reliably where you are located. I have over 45 chins and that is what I feed.

 

[Ki77ybunny]

I dont give her sugar treats, just a pinch of herb or rose once in a while.

 

[danilinn]

my girl's breeder (she has 50 pedigreed chins she breeds/shows) said absolutely no treats til 6 months, then 1 plain shredded wheat/day is okay, and that people have mixed views on 1 raisin/week. she only uses them if the chinchies can't poop, but occasional is okay, if not great. no fruits.
she also told me that she uses Tradition food (avail. through Ryerson's, if no local seller) and that Oxbow is her 2nd choice. Mazuri is supposed to be pretty good, too. Fiesta is about like a McDonald's sundae. plan to order online. it strikes me as interesting that Love Bug and i are both researching like crazy, and i've never heard of Shoots, and she has no input on it.
of course, if you change her food, be sure to do a gradual mix so she adapts.
also, a lot of people give varieties of hay-grass/hay-grass cubes. i think the big ones are timothy, alfalfa, and orchard grass.
interesting note: she gives hers plain rawhide chews sometimes for variety, with no problems. i may try giving Dusty one around Christmas, when she's 6 months.

oh, are you giving her filtered water? get a brita or PUR as soon as you can, if not.

 

[ChinnyMom]

Brita does not filter out giardia, but the PUR 3 filter does. get the PUR.

the best pellets to get are the ones that you can easily obtain and are also one of the recommended brands. this is why i feed Oxbow, as it is available locally in a few different stores and i never have to worry about running out/shopping online/waiting for delivery.

 

[LoveBug]

i will be getting Mazuri since the local feed store has it available.

 

[danilinn]

ChinnyMom, you might want to qualify that statement about pellets--some of the junk sold at petco & petsmart is a big nasty sugarfest.
i ordered Dusty her 12 lbs of Tradition from Ryerson's, made a note of how long it took to arrive, and plan to order about a month in advance when i know how much Dusty eats. i'll keep enough on hand that if we really get in a pinch, we can do a gradual mixture of Tradition and Oxbow.
i read up on Brita v. PUR this afternoon, and you're right there--PUR filters a LOT more. but what about zinc? there's going to be trace minerals, etc., in any water. the next thing i did, since we already have Brita and we're bleeding $ (i always like to keep an emergency $ stash, and even more so with baby coming home).
just a thought: location may be a major factor in what is and isn't filtered. i had a long conversation with our city's water manager, and he filled me in on all the facilities and testing that goes on in our area. we are in the Chicago area, so our water goes through (among several others), a facility dedicated just to filtering and testing for giardia. our city has continual testing to back up Chicago's procedures.
my guess is that you can't count on this kind of vigilance in a more rural area, where water may not come out of Lake Michigan. research, research, research, right?

 

[ChinnyMom]

ChinnyMom, you might want to qualify that statement about pellets--some of the junk sold at petco & petsmart is a big nasty sugarfest.

i meant the quality pellet brands recommended by members here on the forum, not what your pet store would 'recommend'. heck, i'd never take the 'advice' of the average petsmart employee!

 

[GorillaJTA]

i read up on Brita v. PUR this afternoon, and you're right there--PUR filters a LOT more. but what about zinc? there's going to be trace minerals, etc., in any water. the next thing i did, since we already have Brita and we're bleeding $ (i always like to keep an emergency $ stash, and even more so with baby coming home).
just a thought: location may be a major factor in what is and isn't filtered. i had a long conversation with our city's water manager, and he filled me in on all the facilities and testing that goes on in our area. we are in the Chicago area, so our water goes through (among several others), a facility dedicated just to filtering and testing for giardia. our city has continual testing to back up Chicago's procedures.
my guess is that you can't count on this kind of vigilance in a more rural area, where water may not come out of Lake Michigan. research, research, research, right?

The thing is, they get out giardia to a level that is safe for humans. While giardia may give us a bad upset stomach, the same level of infection could kill a chin. I don't see a problem with some trace minerals in water. I would use a filter anyway just to get any residuals out, and we have the best water in the country (from an aquifer hundreds of feet underground).

 

[yoomster]

Shoots Chinchilla are breeders that are highly respected and have high quality chinchilla and feed. My chinchilla is quite happy and healthy and I feed it shoots pellets.