What the devil is this!

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

This was in a brand new bag of Oxbow Chinchilla Deluxe! I did buy it from the pet store, but the date on it said it was good until October of this year.

What is something I can feed Herby until I can get her some more food? I do not feel comfortable feeding her out of this bag, since I found this in there.

And does anyone know what it might be? It smells like pellets but feels like rocks or pumice and breaks easily...but is really gross to the touch..:vomit:

 

[starleomach]

I would feed just hay until you get more..that looks like moldy feed

 

[AZChins]

I hope that it isn't a clump of moldy food. Take the bag back and get another one. Ick. It could just be a clump of pellets that wasn't milled properly or something...I'd throw it out to be safe.

When I had some PANR I was mixing in my feed a few years ago I found clumps on occasion and I took it right back. I also had several bags that had blue plastic in with the pellets...that went right back for exchange, as well. The worst I find in the Mazuri bags is something that obviously didn't get chopped up properly into the mix...but it's never clumpy, moldy, icky like what's in your picture!

 

[Riven]

Good chance it's a chunk out of the mill from when they changed pellets, etc. Write Oxbow or take the bag back to the store for an exchange. It happens, if it happens regularly, then be concerned.

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

I was hoping it wasn't moldy food either..but I did throw it out and weighed what I had given her earlier today and she did not get that much of it, thank goodness. Fortunately, I had some CC in the house, so I mixed some of that together and let her eat that until I can get to the store tomorrow. She is so used to eating her pellets at night that she got pretty angry when I took them out and started rearranging her cage...but the CC mollified her and I gave her some fresh hay, as well to make up for it.
I honestly do not think I would have found it, had I not torn the seal on the original bag and had to transfer it to a Ziploc bag to keep it fresh. Thank God I am so clumsy!
But I do think I am going to order from some of the people off of here who sell it by the pound. I think I will feel a little better doing it that way..

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

Good chance it's a chunk out of the mill from when they changed pellets, etc. Write Oxbow or take the bag back to the store for an exchange. It happens, if it happens regularly, then be concerned.

I will definitely be writing them and letting them know about it. and I do think I am going to stop buying it from this particular store for that very reason..this is not the first time this has happened to me or someone I know.

 

[jags]

Its not moldy feed. It is the mash used to make the pellets. When the die for making the pellets gets plugged or the cutter messes up that what you get is a glob of unpressed pellets.

 

[tunes]

I was going to say what JAGS and Nicole said. It's not moldy, it's just unformed feed. Those irritate me because I used to see huge clumps off those in Tradition that was milled out here, and it made me wonder if it was a huge clump of some important vitamin or mineral that I was throwing away.

 

[Sandi]

I have never seen those clumps in the 50 lb. bags that I currently get but I did see a clump a little bigger than that in a 10lb. bag of oxbow that I got from petsmart last year in April. I didn't think it was mold either, it reminded me of the few clumps I've seen in cereal. I returned the bag and that's when I started calling oxbow to order my pellets.

 

[AZChins]

Whew...I'm glad that that is all it is! Those were scary looking clumps.

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

Me too! Of course, I read the last few posts AFTER I threw it away and bought new..LOL! But the new bag did not have any scary clumps in it, but I still plan on writing a letter to Oxbow just to give them a heads up..even if nothing come of it.

 

[3CsMommy]

Probably best. Their q.c. measures might need revamping if those go through as often as it seems they do. It's probably like that last lump of cookie dough after you've done all the cut outs that just gets tossed onto the tray with the rest, but if they want to claim they deliver a superior product, they shouldn't make people pay by weight for feed they can't use.