Chinchilla Community Forums

Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: Jasonred79 on December 01, 2014, 05:54:05 AM

Title: Diet or not to diet?
Post by: Jasonred79 on December 01, 2014, 05:54:05 AM
Hi, Popsicle seems to eat quite a bit, I read online that you should feed about 20g of pellets, but some sites say that chins will not overeat the standard pellets (I use Hachi).
I was giving him unlimitted pellets and hay since guides generally say unlimitted pellets for under 1 year old/ still growing, but now he's about 1 year old, should I reduce the amount of pellets he gets?
Title: Re: Diet or not to diet?
Post by: GrayRodent on December 01, 2014, 06:56:16 AM
Make sure he has constant access to pellets. Chinchillas will not overeat them. It keeps their weight up slightly higher than if they are on a loose hay only diet which is healthy for chinchillas.
Make sure he is also eating his hay which is essential for his teeth to remain trimmed. If he stops eating hay that is an indicator something is wrong.
Title: Re: Diet or not to diet?
Post by: Jasonred79 on December 02, 2014, 09:56:01 AM
He eats plenty. I just saw some stuff on overweight chins getting health problems, but I think that's due to too many treats. I think.

He eats more hay too now that I've changed brands. Oh, and I found out why he tramples hay... IT'S MY FAULT. yeah... turns out that he always pees in the same spot, and I hadn't been changing his litter tray often enough, so he was all like "ewww... smelly!!!" so he kept trying to bury that spot under layers of hay.
Smart guy.
Smarter than his stupid owner!
Changing his litter regularly now, 90% reduction in trampled hay! ...zzz feeling guilty now... oh well, live and learn...
Title: Re: Diet or not to diet?
Post by: GrayRodent on December 02, 2014, 07:58:00 PM
Yuck. Now you know.
Ignorance is curable. Stupidity is terminal.