which one of the 3 food options do you recommend?

[petran79]

First weeks I fed them the Bunny Nature Chinchilla Dream brand, since this was the only available in the shop and it was the first day I got the chins:

https://cdn.bunny-nature.net/hp/img/ctb-en-product.e31fe42fae719c70.webp
But because it was a mixed food brand, after 2 bags were finished, I decided to buy the Versele Laga Complete that was pellets only.
Their Nature brand is mixed food as well.

Unfortunately these are the only ones available and I do not want to rely on ordering online and prefer the convenience and availability of the store.

Oxbow on this store has only food for rabbits,hamsters etc. Their hay variety is bigger on the shelves fortunately

Is the Laga Complete the best in your opinion for long term diet?

 

[Amethyst]

If you mean this one https://www.versele-laga.com/en/complete/Products/complete-chinchilla-degu it's not the worse food I've seen but it's not very good. I know for some people that is the best they can get in their country. Since the store gets Oxbow for other animals I would think they should be able to get it for chinchillas as well, they may just not stock it since no one has asked for it yet.

Although I don't normally recommend it you might want to look at rabbit food, there are a lot of chinchilla breeders that feed high quality rabbit food instead of chinchilla food because it's cheaper. If they have the oxbow young rabbit food I've heard that is fairly similar to the chinchilla pellets. I also know some other brands of rabbit food people use are, Nutrena Naturwise rabbit, Tradition, and Purina Rabbit food.

 

[petran79]

Got two Oxbow bags from the store and ordered some more online, 4.5 kilo each, though they haven't arrived yet. added oxbow sandbath too in the order.

Currently I am mixing Oxbow and VL , at 50% during second week. But I notice they are not that fond of Oxbow, while they eat VL with great appetite. Hope they'll eat Oxbow without issues when I make the complete switch. Today they didn't even touch oxbow. Probably they prefer bigger pelets to chew on. Have few vl bags just in case