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Pixel the chinchilla lost her cagemate in late Dec. 2019. Before the loss, she was a happy, healthy chin, with a preference for hay over pellets, but would gladly eat both.

After the loss, she became very depressed, refused pellets, lost significant weight, went through many veterinary treatments, disliked the other chins I tried to bond her with, suffered a moderate injury, and refused to let her fur ever grow back. This was all roughly by April 2020.

Every return to the exotics vet yields another course treatment, gains some fur, 30g, and returns to baseline (400g, very chewed fur) after treatment is over. After many trials, I found Critical Care alone yields the exact same result. (Her teeth are fine).

Critical Care is not suited for long term use. And she needs to gain more than 30g. She will eventually eat pellets, but her poos are tiny without hay. Add hay, and she'll have normal poos again. My other chins do not have this level of disparity between hay vs non-hay poos.

I have always tried to make Timothy available, but I wasn't always able to do so consistently. Orchard Grass was a huge hit when Timothy wasn't available.

Oct. 2020ish, I picked up multiple hay varieties (timothy, orchard grass, botanical, +1 other) and mixed them up to create a custom blend. I also picked up some Alfalfa to try for Pixel (approved by vet).

I've been haphazardly mixing layers of Alfalfa + Custom Blend in her hay bowl for several months now. She adores it, and recently just figured out her flying saucer wheel (an activity!). Her weight hasn't improved much, especially if I can't refill her bowl quickly enough. The Alfalfa hay is lovely quality, but must be cut every time to fit in her bowl. I end up putting off refills which doesn't help anything.

My vet is always willing to put her in treatment again, but goes mum when I ask about hay ratios, quantities, types, etc. So, I'm here now.

Restrictions:

  1. I should reasonably be able to store a premixed portion of this blend, preprepped, in a airtight container. (Min 1 week)
  2. The hays involved must be able to be purchased in small enough quantities to be stored in an airtight 50lb dog food container (each hay can have its own container, but I can't store a whole bale, let alone several).
  3. The hay blend should be wholly or nearly nutritionally complete. (Minimal pellet supplementation)
  4. The blend has some sort of ratio so it can be recreated.

Requests:

  1. The blend to be capable of bringing up weight again (possibly different ratios for malnourished vs healthy chins).
  2. Any recommendations to increase weight whatsoever.
  3. Any recommendations that will decrease chronic fur-chewing.
  4. Bonus points if 2 or 3 can be related to hay blend/custom diet in some way.
  5. Extra bonus points if the blend/hays can fit into as few 25/50lb airtight dog food containers as possible.

No, I'm not dead set on diet as the answer, it just seems to be the only mechanism that improves her condition thus far. My other chins are 2x her size, so reintroduction (again) will probably need weight/fur gain first.

Given the numerous treatments, she eats beautifully from a syringe. I'm not opposed to syringe-fed options, but it would be ideal if she could eat on her own.

Given I haven't seen any other hay-only diet posts on this SE, I hope this can also serve as a reference to anyone who has a similarly picky chinchilla.

user40385
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  • For my understanding: Do you ask for a hay only diet, or does your chinchilla/ chinchilla in general get other food too? (Chinchilla are a new topic for me) I had a look to this site, because it is a sister-site of my favorite about rabbits : chinchilla it is in German, about food-mash to increase the weight of chinchillas – Allerleirauh Feb 09 '21 at 14:35
  • A part of the site mentioned above is in english: chinchilla-scientia with information about the diet of chinchillas in nature and lists of suiting foods. For example (like in rabbits) they can eat some seeds to get weight, like seeds of sunflower, pumpkin, amaranth, quinoa and others listed at this site – Allerleirauh Feb 09 '21 at 14:41
  • Please can you give answer to my question? – Allerleirauh Feb 10 '21 at 19:03
  • @Allerleirauh My chinchillas get Oxbow Chinchilla pellets and the custom hay blend mentioned above. – user40385 Feb 10 '21 at 22:40
  • @Allerleirauh They also get occasional treats (rose hips, rolled oats, dandelion, etc.) The food mash at the 1st link mentioned Critical Care, but I couldn't quite understand their grading system (translation). I looked at the 2nd link, but it worries me bc it mentioned seeds, banana, lettuce, & grapes, which to my understanding, are not good for US domestic chinchillas, as they do not tolerate sugars as well as their wild counterparts. Sorry for the late reply! – user40385 Feb 10 '21 at 22:54
  • This myth about "the domestic does need other food than the wild animal" is common for a lots of pets. But the domestication is only one eye-blink in compare to the million years of wildlife. And to be honest: you search for a high energy food, to increase the weight. So some kind of sugar/starch even fat is needed as energy-source... Seeds seem to me the most natural here. In the wild the chinchillas would get them not all year round. But in the wild ill chinchillas would also have more risk to die. – Allerleirauh Feb 11 '21 at 12:23
  • Would you please send me a link for the "do not tolerate sugar" point? I am curious, how the arguments are for these. I could imagine some real causes, but need more information about this :) – Allerleirauh Feb 11 '21 at 12:28
  • To the ranking at the mentioned site: Because it is a german site, they rank with German school grades. (1 is the best, 6 is the weakest and + is better than -) So they rank "Critical care" weak, because of molasses, salt, added aromas, wheat flour and other chemical additives, which are not good for chinchillas. I sent this link to you, because there was the second paragraph about self made mash with baby food in a glass, for example (pure!!) carrot/parsnip or apple/pear/banana with spelt/sorghum/oat. The term "Päppel-Brei" implies that it is not for daily use, but for helping ill pets. – Allerleirauh Feb 11 '21 at 12:42
  • Oh,and Thank you for your answer! :) – Allerleirauh Feb 11 '21 at 12:49
  • @Allerleirauh Thank you for the diligent response! 1) Yes, domestication does not erase evolution. However, domestication can introduce peculiarities that do not exist in the wild populace. To my understanding, all US domestic chinchillas are descended from 11 founders https://www.cuddlebugchinchillas.com/information/history.html. I couldn't find direct support, but I'd read at some point that the bottleneck/inbreeding amplified the "intolerance" of fruits/fresh veggies. – user40385 Feb 12 '21 at 06:57
  • Yes, basic nutrition means extra fat/carb/sugar will help increase weight, so warnings should be heeded but not blindly followed in helping increase weight. 3) Thank you for explaining the ranks! It looks like many of their recommended are not available here, but the ingredient list certainly could be used for inspiration to create a similar product. I did find some recommendations to other nutrient paste while researching, so I will follow up with them later.
    • – user40385 Feb 12 '21 at 07:36
  • Regarding "sugar intolerance", after researching, I came up with a compendium of links to the many recommendations of vets/breeders/rescuers/researchers over time: https://pastebin.com/1iz9G3WL. In short: Diabetes/Hypertension is rare, but of an unusually high concern in chinchilla care. Being mountain desert animals, chinchillas usually do not have access to fruits/veg, mostly dry grasses, flowers, herbs, & seeds rarely. The apparent issue is excessive moisture in fruit/veg can cause bloat/GI issues. Dried fruit/veg contain condensed sugar (esp raisins/banana chips) which can be too much.
    • – user40385 Feb 12 '21 at 07:49
  • I also remembered that degus (a close relative to the chinchilla) have a much harder time with sugar tolerance, and a similar wild environment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109564330300268X?via%3Dihub Degus are not chinchillas, but are much more closely situated than rabbits or cavvies. Thank you so much for your help again! – user40385 Feb 12 '21 at 07:57