Every new chinchilla owner should know what types of food their chinchilla's digestive system can and cannot handle.
After all, you'll want to keep your new pet healthy, active, and full of energy.
Well, the digestive system of a chinchilla is fairly sensitive and your new pet will be unable to digest certain foods properly.
It's important to know what type of food is appropriate for a chinchilla to eat.
So, what does a chinchilla eat? Keep reading and you´ll find out.
In their native habitat, wild chinchillas typically eat a diet consisting mostly of vegetation and roughage.
A chinchilla's digestive tract is not designed or intended to deal with rich foods or those that have a high fat content.
To stay healthy, your chinchilla needs to eat chinchilla pellets along with some fresh grass hay to supplement its diet.
Changing your chinchilla's food too frequently can lead to digestive problems.
If you really do need to change your chinchilla's diet, make sure you do it in a gradual way so your pet doesn't notice the change and its digestive tract doesn't react poorly.
Here's the technique that many professional chinchilla breeders use when they need to change a chinchilla's food.
They first mix a tiny bit of the new food into the old.
The amount might be so tiny that the chinchilla doesn't even notice the new food.
Then, for each feeding thereafter, they introduce a slightly larger quantity of the new food into the old food, using the new food to replace some of the old.
It's a gradual process and it will take a while, but eventually your chinchilla will be eating only the new food, and it will be eating its new diet without any digestive issues.
Chinchillas love treats, just like many other pets.
Although some treats are fine, you shouldn't let your chinchilla eat all the treats it wants.
You don't want the treats to become a mainstay in your chinchilla's diet.
Your chinchilla can eat either chinchilla pellets or loose food.
The loose food is nutritionally balanced, but not necessarily nutritionally complete.
Feeding your chinchilla one or two tablespoons of chinchilla pellets a day, on the other hand, is an easy way to ensure that your new pet is eating a balanced diet.
While mixing loose food into chinchilla pellets is okay, you should only use it to supplement your pet's diet.
Loose food alone won't give your chinchilla everything it needs.
Chinchilla pellets will provide all the nutrients your pet needs except for dietary fiber.
And that's why giving your chinchilla a steady supply of fresh hay is so important.
Chinchillas think hay is delicious, but they also need to eat it in order to keep their digestive systems healthy.
It's important for a chinchilla to eat a handful of fresh hay every day.
Your chinchilla will also need a constant supply of fresh, room temperature water to drink.
Make sure the water isn't cold, because that could upset your pet's tummy.
If you've been wondering about what does a chinchilla eat you should know the basics after reading this article.
Some kinds of hay aren't healthy for chinchillas, and some chinchilla pellets don't provide everything they promise, so you might want to do some more research.