Wasted hay and pellets

[jwm]

My two chins are very wasteful with their food. One of them is especially bad.

They will eat about 1/2 a pellet, then throw it on the cage floor or back into the bowl. They rarely ever finish a whole pellet. When it comes to hay, they pull out a strand of hay from their feeder, bite it down the middle, and maybe eat one of the sides, almost always throwing down the other half. Quite often, my one boy will even take a single bite, then throw the rest on the floor (a full 6" or more of wasted hay!). Once it's on the floor, they won't eat it, even if I pick it up and put it back in their feeder; it's like they know it touched the floor (eeewww Mommy!).

What gives? They don't pee in their food area or even really close to there, and I feed them stuff that they like. The pellets are Mazuri and the hay is Kleenmama's. Now granted I haven't tried many, many types of pellets, but I have tried several types and brands of hay and this is the kind they like best (2nd cut timothy only for my boys, none of that 1st or 3rd cut stuff!). Is there anything I can do? They literally waste 1/2 their pellets and more than 3/4 of the hay. It's not a question of being able to afford it, it just drives me a teeny bit nuts to see them wasting so much food. Telling them that the starving chinchillas in China would LOVE that food doesn't really seem to do much to get them to eat their food.

 

[Brittney]

haha My boys do the same thing. I just force them to eat the hay they waste. I make sure they didnt pee in it and I put it back in their hay holder. It works most of the time.

 

[paris26]

That is very typical of chinchillas. They are not very conservative with their food/hay in these hard economic times.

 

[Sandi]

Sometimes my boys will do that too :hair: with their pellets but less often now that they have been on oxbow pellets since March. I just think its their personalities, one will pick up a pellet and take a couple of nibbles, throw it and then go to the next, while the other one does not budge until there's nothing left. As far as the hay, it's almost the same thing, especially when I had Kaytee in the beginning and recently I tried Zupreem, which both of my boys began using it as bedding, ugh. I think if they are healthy and have healthy poops, it's just them being them, LOL! I loved that quote you used on them about the starving chins in china, very funny!

 

[sheri7]

I have the same problem too. I switched from Mazuri to Oxbow pellets and I think they like it better. The pieces are longer and they don't seem to waste "as" much.

The hay is everywhere and they don't seem to like eating out of the hay rack that is attached to the cage so mostly I just put a handful on their shelves and most of it ends up on the floor. I think they are looking for that 'perfect" piece. Sometimes I'll hand them a peice of hay or pellet and they'll eat....its like they are too lazy or busy pooping to feed themselves...LOL

They also like the thin flat hay like Orchard Grass that they can suck up like a peice of spaghetti. Cracks me up...they look like the dogs in Lady and the Tramp.

 

[ABBY W.]

Ah, the age old question chinchilla owners have been asking for centuries (well actually not that long). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any real good answers. Some people have found switching hay containers helps, like using a fish bowl instead of a hay manger. I have also heard of people cutting the hay in half to make more bite size pieces, and making it easier to pull from the container. I haven't found any way to get my chins not to waste hay. They only get a limited amount of pellets, so they always eat every last bit, but they have unlimited hay, so they seem to use it as a food/play item.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I have tried everything I could think of with 3 of my chins with pellets. They just love to shovel it out on the floor and bury it further later on so I can't even put it back - They eat plenty of it (they are a good weight). If any one has a idea I would love to hear it

 

[jenjenn2005]

Ahh.. the joys of wasteful little chinnies... My chins do this all the time! Like said before as long as the hay is not soiled or peed in you can pick it up and put it back in the hay holder. I also use Mazuri pellets and the girls' alway through it out, sometimes if you cut back a little on their food the notice there is less and will eat more of the pellet. I tried this and it worked for about a week.

 

[jwm]

I've tried putting the hay back and they just ignore it. It's like they know what I'm trying to do. And I can't bring myself to not give them new hay for more than about 12 hours.

Maybe I'm being to soft on my spoiled boys.

 

[EveningChin]

For some reason when I fed loose hay Nyx and Pia liked to put it in their peep pan... But the most frusterating thing they do is some how manage to get a single pellet into their edstrom water buddy. They do this once a week and I have no idea how they get it in there. Theres no holes in it and the lid is always shut. I will just get up and go check on them and there it is, all seperated on the bottom...

 

[Parkerspetchins]

Mine are all wasteful girls as well, they have no concept of the value of the dollar...they have taught me to just live with it ).