Feeding.
Hay
An essential part of the chinchillas diet. I tend to give each chinchilla a handful of hay each morning before going to work. Do not add excess hay as the chin will just tend to pull out more than they can eat, spreading it around the cage where it will become soiled or moldy. Be warned, moldy hay can lead to fur fungus, so clean any discarded hay regularly.
Hay provides roughage, and helps to break down other foods and aids in the digestive process. As such it is an essential part of the diet. Compressed hay cubes are available on the general market. They are less messy than loose hay, and also provide another chewing surface for your pet to keep their teeth in working order. The stalks and other rough fibrous elements in a good hay help to grind down the chinchillas back teeth preventing overgrowth, and as such is an essential component of the diet.
Hay can be held in a hay rack to prevent spoilage. Some cages come with integral hay racks i.e. built into them. I do not use hay racks as I have heard too many horror stories over the years of chinchillas breaking legs by landing in them, jumping/falling from them or just simply getting their legs stuck in them. I use hay cubes that are designed to hold just enough hay for the day. They are built from the same mesh as the cage, allowing the chin to pull out as much hay as they want to eat. They become a piece of cage furniture as the chin will quite happily sit on them.
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If
you do not have either a hay rack or a cube, try stuffing a toilet roll tube
with hay. This will also serve as a toy for your little furball.
I
feed Timothy hay and Excel Supa Forage on alternating days. They both provide
necessary roughage. Excel Supa Forage can be bought in bigger volumes to that
sold in your local pet shop. It is also known as Pure Dried grass and comes
from a firm called Friendship Estates Ltd, Old House Farm, Stubbs Walden,Doncaster
DN6 9BU Telephone 01302 700220 email friendest@aol.com
or visit their site Friendship
Estates. They will deliver you a 20kg bale for £10.70 plus £4.50 carriage.
Western Timothy is a high fiber, low protein, low calcium grass hay which
helps keep the gastrointestinal tract of rabbits and small herbivores functioning
properly. Feeding timothy hay helps to prevent obesity, maintain a healthy
urinary system and improve overall health. Timothy is the hay most widely
recommended by veterinarians for rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas and other
herbivores. It is a very fragrant hay, which encourages consumption.The first
cutting is harvested in mid-summer. It is a more mature hay, containing a
higher stem to leaf ratio and is coarser in texture. First cutting timothy
is actually healthier as it is higher in fiber and lower in protein than a
second cutting timothy, but some small animals may not find it as appealing
as a second cutting. The second cutting timothy is an immature cutting of
hay, and therefore contains a higher leaf to stem ratio. It is harvested in
the late fall and is very soft and palatable to small animals.
Compressed timothy hay cubes are commercially available though the number of suppliers in the UK is limited, and the volume that they sell them in is also low (usually 1 Kg, which is not really commercially viable when you have over 70 chinchillas).
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They
are more readily available in the USA, but shipping costs can be considerable,
depending on the courier used by the supplier. Even a small amount (6 lbs)
could cost $37 to have shipped here. I recently purchased 25lbs of hay cubes
from chinchillarancher.com
in the States for only £45 including shipping, which is more acceptable. One