sunseed sunatural?

[scamperlittletika]

I have been feeding our chins the sunseed sunatural for about 2 years. its what we started using from day one. I am just wondering about peoples opinions? Is it as good as it really looks?

the mass selection in it does not make my chins picky at all. they still eat all of the pellets...

TIA! :dance3:

 

[Ash]

It's actually horrible for chins. Foods with tons of treats in them are pure junk for chinchillas. Good foods are Mazuri chin pellets, Oxbow chin pellets, and there are a variety of rabbit pellets that are good for chins such as Nutrena, Purina Rabbit Chow Show, Tradition...

 

[Riven]

Actually the OP is in Canada and I think that they may have something in the rabbit pellets there and they should not be fed. Steroids or something. I can't remember fully what it was now, I just remember something about it.


www.chinchillaparkplace.ca sells quality feed, and if by chance your close you can pick it up and save on shipping.

That feed is kind of like kids eating Lucky Charms cereal all day, every day, yea it says it is fortified and has good stuff in there, but it also has a ton of junk in there.

 

[AZChins]

I was just going to send her to the same place, Nicole.

I agree, the Sunseed just has too many treats in it. Definitely try Chinchilla Park Place.

 

[Jen and the Hooligans]

My last chin came to me on Sunseed. His coat was awful, and he is just a tiny little thing. The horrid smell of that food gives a pretty good indication of how bad that food is in my opinion. All 3 of my chins are on Alderpark pellets now and I have seen some nice gains and they are healthier than ever! I had been feeding Oxbow,..but I am even happier with the Alderpark!

 

[Riven]

Usually if you get something custom milled for chins, it's going to be better than anything retail I feel.

I tried a lot of different foods, Manna, PANR, Pen Pals, etc. But the best food I've found is what I'm feeding now, and it's custom milled just for me, recipe created by a rancher, and refined by another.

 

[scamperlittletika]

My last chin came to me on Sunseed. His coat was awful, and he is just a tiny little thing. The horrid smell of that food gives a pretty good indication of how bad that food is in my opinion. All 3 of my chins are on Alderpark pellets now and I have seen some nice gains and they are healthier than ever! I had been feeding Oxbow,..but I am even happier with the Alderpark!

thats strange because my chins are thriving on it. and it smells so good im almost tempted to eat it. maybe you had a rancid bag???

anyways...we do have the oxbow at petsmart here. so ill be switching to that.

thanks everyone

 

[StevieP]

Remember to gradually switch foods.

I actually just got done switching from Sunseed Sunatural to Oxbow. Granted I picked out a lot of the treats but the pellets are just not that good.

ALL of my chinchillas have gained weight -- around 25-35 grams in the past month.

 

[faineance]

i was wondering the same thing. both of my chins were raised on sunaturals vita-plus by their breeder. i know most of it is junk, but are the actual pellets any good?

when i got my first chin Momo in january, she was only 13 weeks old but happily switched straight to mazuri pellets without any problems at all.

my baby Midna came from the same breeder in april and he told me she was three months old, but i doubt she was even close. even now she fits in one hand and only weighs 280g. i tried feeding her mazuri pellets too, which she ate and subsequently had terrible diarrhea. since then, she has been back on the sunaturals.

however, i only pick out the actual pellets, white seeds, and occasional bite-size dried carrot flakes. shes a cuddly lap baby, so she sifts through the food bag with me and picks out the white seeds for herself. i never give her any fruits from the mix at all, even as regular treats. every now and then she does manage to steal one from the bag though- they can be difficult to sift out once theyre coated in loose pellet dust and she can be very sneaky.

i plan on slooowly trying to switch her to mazuri again soon when shes a little older and hopefully has a less sensitive tummy.

 

[CJR]

i was wondering the same thing. both of my chins were raised on sunaturals vita-plus by their breeder. i know most of it is junk, but are the actual pellets any good?

when i got my first chin Momo in january, she was only 13 weeks old but happily switched straight to mazuri pellets without any problems at all.

my baby Midna came from the same breeder in april and he told me she was three months old, but i doubt she was even close. even now she fits in one hand and only weighs 280g. i tried feeding her mazuri pellets too, which she ate and subsequently had terrible diarrhea. since then, she has been back on the sunaturals.

however, i only pick out the actual pellets, white seeds, and occasional bite-size dried carrot flakes. shes a cuddly lap baby, so she sifts through the food bag with me and picks out the white seeds for herself. i never give her any fruits from the mix at all, even as regular treats. every now and then she does manage to steal one from the bag though- they can be difficult to sift out once theyre coated in loose pellet dust and she can be very sneaky.

i plan on slooowly trying to switch her to mazuri again soon when shes a little older and hopefully has a less sensitive tummy.

First: When you tried to switch her to Mazuri, did you do a "cold" switch (meaning you filled her bowl with Mazuri) or did you do a gradual switch?

A gradual switch takes at least four weeks to complete, but some make their switches much longer. My switches take 30 days. This is how I do food switches:

First 10 days: Mix 1 part old feed with 3 parts new feed
Second 10 days: Mix 2 parts old feed with 2 parts new feed
Third 10 days: Mix 3 parts old feed with 2 parts new feed
After that: All new feed!

I like to go in 10 day segments because I feel it gives the chins more time for their systems to get used to the new food. Again, that's just me. I also like to give a chin lifeline three times a week during a food switch if they're not doing the best, which happens sometimes.

Second: I would not buy from that breeder again from what you've said here. Sounds like a BYB if I've ever heard of one.

Third: I also would not let your girl eat the "white seeds" and definitely not the carrot flakes AT ALL. If you want to give her a treat, there are plenty of other good and healthy options such as: bite size, non sugared shredded wheat; rose hips; an old fashioned oat or two; etc. There's a list floating around here somewhere of safe treats.

If anyone else wants to chime in on this, please do so, especially if I'm doing/saying something wrong.

 

[StevieP]

First 10 days: Mix 1 part old feed with 3 parts new feed
Second 10 days: Mix 2 parts old feed with 2 parts new feed
Third 10 days: Mix 3 parts old feed with 2 parts new feed
After that: All new feed!

I think this is what Psycho Ash intended to say:

First 10 days: Mix 1 part new feed with 3 parts old feed
Second 10 days: Mix 2 parts new feed with 2 parts old feed
Third 10 days: Mix 3 parts new feed with 1 part old feed
After that: All new feed!

 

[Leo87]

Now I know for a fact that faineance does not give Midna all access to the treats in the feed, we try to get her to eat the pellets themselves. At the time we recieved Midna we started trying to switch her over to mazuri, but not cold. She had pellets from her Sunvitals and then had a pellet or two of Mazuri. Since we purchased Midna she has been more or less hand fed. The problem with Midna was that the very first day we gave her Mazuri, she had stomach problems. Now we are not certain if it was the feed, stress, new home, or her actually being ill. From there on out it has been difficult to want to start her on Mazuri because she has had other complications. My chin Momo switched happily like stated, but still leaves halves of her Mazuri because she eats them by hand. We do not want to spoil them with treats, we have rosehips to offer as treats to them, but we were not completely sure if the Sunvitals feed (excluding treats) was any good.

 

[caiti]

i was wondering the same thing. both of my chins were raised on sunaturals vita-plus by their breeder. i know most of it is junk, but are the actual pellets any good?

when i got my first chin Momo in january, she was only 13 weeks old but happily switched straight to mazuri pellets without any problems at all.

my baby Midna came from the same breeder in april and he told me she was three months old, but i doubt she was even close. even now she fits in one hand and only weighs 280g. i tried feeding her mazuri pellets too, which she ate and subsequently had terrible diarrhea. since then, she has been back on the sunaturals.

however, i only pick out the actual pellets, white seeds, and occasional bite-size dried carrot flakes. shes a cuddly lap baby, so she sifts through the food bag with me and picks out the white seeds for herself. i never give her any fruits from the mix at all, even as regular treats. every now and then she does manage to steal one from the bag though- they can be difficult to sift out once theyre coated in loose pellet dust and she can be very sneaky.

i plan on slooowly trying to switch her to mazuri again soon when shes a little older and hopefully has a less sensitive tummy.

I second everything pash said, and wanted to let you know some people have noticed their chins having diarrhea on Mazuri. It doesn't happen to everyone and a lot of people don't have issues. But it may be something you want to consider when you plan on switching her food again.

Since the gauranteed analysis (GA) of the sunseed food includes (I'm assuming) all the non-pellet parts, I don't think I'd know if the pellets are nutritous enough on their own. That being said, I would sift out the other stuff like you are but I strongly urge you to buy an all-pellet food so when you look at the GA you know exactly what your chin is getting. And make sure you know what GA you're looking for--know what % ranges are ideal for a chin.

 

[Leo87]

Thanks guys we will be trying to switch her over to something better soon. However, Midna is having a few other complications that we want to resolve before attempting to switch her over.

 

[CJR]

THANK YOU STEVIE for catching that!

 

[Ash]

I know a lot of people suggest a gradual switch, but you CAN do a straight switch.

Pitch the crap food, and just give the chin the good food with lots of hay. Your chin will probably be picky about the new food at first, but the hay will help keep them full until they give into the pellets and start eating them. It's best to get them off the junk as quickly as possible.