Feeding

Pellets

Chinchilla pellets are nutritionally balanced. If a good quality pellet is fed your chin should not need supplements in their diet, the pellet should meet all the nutritional requirements.

Always use dedicated chinchilla pellets, NOT rabbit or guinea pig pellets as these have the wrong nutritional balance. Remember that the calcium to phosphorous ratio of the diet is very important, it should be 2:1, with a low protein content, and high roughage content. Plus rabbit pellets have hormones in them to increase weight gain. Once you find a supplier of chin pellets, stick to them and don't change them without first gradually weaning your animal onto them. This must be done over at least a week, possibly two to ensure that the chin does not have problems dealing with the change.

Quantity of Pellets to Feed. Try to give about 2 tablespoons of pellets per chin each day, no more. Any extra will just be dropped out of the feeder and wasted. If by the end of the day they have eaten the lot you might want to add a bit more, but no much.

Always discard the pellets from the previous day. They will probably be damp and unappealing to your chinchilla, and any new pellets put on top of them are likely to be viewed the same way.

I have always been told to look for a low protein content and with a Vitamin A content of roughly 14000iu/Kg. Now vitamin a is a fat soluble vitamin, and excessive levels can cause liver damage. It is worth checking the expiry date on any pellets you buy as vitamin A degrades quickly in storage, losing a great deal of its activity in a short time frame. Also of interest is the fact that vitamin A oxidises. The chinchilla tries to remove this oxidised form from its body, thereby putting excessive stress on it's body, this has been linked to "yellow-fat disease" which is a metabolic disease that has been associated with feeding excessive levels of vitamin A. To prevent oxidisation of the vitamin A store chin pellets in a cool dry place.

1Kg of pellets should last a chinchilla about a month. They will eat slightly less in the Summer. Be careful not to overfeed your chinchilla. If there are pellets left the next time you come to feed them then you are giving too much, cut back a bit.

For those interested, I use pellets manufactured by Charnwood Mill (their URL can be found in my links section). The nutritional breakdown of their pellets is :

Protein : 20%
Fibre : 12.2%
Digestible Energy (DE) : 11.30 mj/Kg
Copper (as Cupric Sulphate): 20.00mg/Kg
Vitamin A : 10,000iu/Kg
Vitamin E (as alpha tocopherol): 15 mg/Kg
Vitamin D3 2,000ius/Kg
Vitamin K 2mg/Kg
Folic Acid 1.0 mg/Kg
Nicotinic Acid 60mg/Kg
Vitamin B1 2.0mg/Kg
Vitamin B2 6mg/kg Vitamin B6 2.0mg/Kg
Vitamin B12 12mcg/Kg
Biotin 50mcg/Kg
Pantothenic Acid 20mg/Kg
Iodine 2mg/Kg
Cobalt 1.0mg/Kg
Selenium 200mcg/Kg
Copper 20mg/Kg
Iron 100mg/Kg
Choline Chloride 300mg /Kg
Manganese 50mg/Kg
Zinc 100mg/Kg
Magnesium 250 mg/Kg
Lysine : 1.00%
Methionine 0.39%
M + C 0.71%
Threonine 0.77%
Calcium 0.85%
Phosphorous 0.72%
Salt 0.45%
Linoleic Acid 1.57%
OIL : 4%
Ash : 7.8%
Vitamin D3 : 2.00iu/Kg

The Raw Materials are :

Wheat Feed
HIPRO soya E
grass
Soya Hulls
Micronized Wheat
Oats
Maize Gluten
Full Fat Soya
Molasses
Oat Feed
Peanut Meal
Limestone
Rabbitvit/minisupple
Salt
Di-methionine

Contact address :

Charnwood Milling Company Ltd
Framlingham,
Woodbridge,
Suffolk.
IP13 9PT

There are numerous alternatives available, some easier to find than others, and some more nutritious than others.

	Nutritional analysis	Ingredients
Charlie Chinchilla Mix	Protein : 20% Fibre : 16% Oil : 3% Ash : 6.5% Moisture : 11% Vitamin A : 12,000iu/Kg Vitamin D3 : 1000iu/Kg Vitamin E : 50mg/Kg Copper : 10mg/Kg EC permitted colourants	Alfalfa pellets wheat extrusions flaked peas, alfalfa stalk flaked maize raisins hipro soya carrots vitamins and minerals
Duggins Pellets	Protein : 17.3% Fibre : 12.5% Oil : 3.5% Ash : 9.6% Vitamin A : 14000iu/Kg Vitamin E : 80iu/Kg Vitamin D3 : 2400iu/Kg	Grassmeal oatfeed hipro soya wheatfeed molasses Duggins Supplement linseed vitamins and minerals
Ridgeway	Protein : 18.0% Oil: 3.75% Fibre : 15.0% Ash : 9.25% Vitamin A : 1400iu/Kg Vitamin E : 60iu/Kg Vitamin D3 : 2000iu/Kg Moisture : 14.0% Copper : 26mg/Kg	Cereal grain product and by-products oilseed products and by-products dried forages high fibre materials cereal grains minerals oils seeds fish products methionate
Harrison's	Protein : 18% Fibre : 10.5% Oil : 3% Ash : 9% Vitamin A : 1000iu/Kg Vitamin E : 25iu/Kg, Vitamin D : 1000iu/Kg	Wheatfeed dried grass extracted soya bean wheat molasses barley oatfeed, calcium carbonate, calcined magnesite, dicalium phosphate, minerals, vitamins, cupric sulphate copper
Henry Bell	Protein : 17% Oil : 4.8% Fibre : 14.5% Ash : 7% Vitamin A : 15000iu/Kg Vitamin E : 50iu/Kg Vitamin D3 : 2000iu/Kg Copper : 25mg/Kg	Wheatfeed oatfeed sunflower grass peas soya vegetable fat barley minerals Binder E565 and vitamins

My thanks to those people who e-mailed the information required to produce this table.

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