Chinchilla Treats
Table of Contents
A varied diet is important to maintain the health of your chinchilla. Treats also provide a way to build trust. While raisins are clearly favored by our chinchillas, we also try other products to provide variety and balance.
Carrot Cake Treats
These treats currently rank at the top of our list of favorites. Their shape and size allow us to hold on to the treat while allowing our chinchillas to nibble. We can get them to sit on us or stand on their hind legs while eating. Quite entertaining.
Herb Kracker Sticks
These sticks of seeds are messy, but well liked by our chinchillas. Their size makes them good for encouraging our chinchillas to sit or stand in certain positions for photos. However, because the seeds come off easily, our chinchillas often eat and run.
Chinchilla Cocktail
This treat is a blend of dried fruit that seems like it should be appealing to chinchillas. What we found is that our chinchillas do indeed eat it, but they prefer certain items over others. Unlike some other treats that you can hold between your fingers, this mix needs to be served in the palm of your hand which means you can't do things like have your chinchillas stand on their hind legs to reach the treat.
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Hi I would just like to know what age can you start the treats(rosehips, etc) I heard 6 months, is that correct?
Veggies and fruits make chinchillas SICK.
If you had a child, would you feed them McDonalds every day, three times a day? Probably not.
If you have a chinchilla, feeding them these things is the same as feeding your child unhealthy fast food every day. The chinchilla will become overweight, sick, develop diabetes, and die young.
Where can you buy the carrot cake treats? I would love to give them to my chins...
We feed Dave almonds and trailmix for treats. Also, we get certain grasses out of our yard that he particularly likes. As an owner with a severe peanut allergy, we have to be careful on what foods we give him, so he actually gets one of the more natural chinchilla foods that contains all things that are yummy - dried carrots, rosehips, alfalfa pellets, timothy hay bits, tiny pinecones, dandilion bits, etc. He loves it, and is incredibly healthy :)
Almonds and trailmix are high in protein, which can cause issues in Dave's digestive system and kill him. From what you listed, rosehips, alfalfa pellets, and timothy hay bits are good.
none of these treats are chinchilla safe. also any fruit (even dried) or vegies have too much sugar. even sugar free dried fruit has too much sugar. all fruit is made up of sugar naturally and this makes it dangerous. for those who say a raisin a day or even a week is ok, its not. it will slowely kill your chinchilla with too much sugar and the chinchilla will get malo or bloat or some other horrible and painful disease. petstore treats are also not safe because they have too much fat and sugar. also nuts and seeds have too much fat. chinchillas should never have a lot of sugar, fat, or protein. safe treats (and their cheaper too!) are rose hips, cheerios, non frosted mini wheat, steel cut oat, or old fashioned oats (not the instant, or flavored kind) and as always these should be given in moderation. and of course chinchilla safe wood can be given at anytime:)
Onem maybe 2 raisin cranberries a day! That's It!! It can be torn into many small pieces and you get the same thing: Happy Chinny!
CARROTS!?!???? Carrots are toxic to chins... very bad idea
fruits and vegies are good if u give them just a little bit not too much. Make sure u excersise play and make sure your chinchilla health is the best it could be trust me im an expert on chinchilla health.
PLEASE do not feed your chinchillas ANY type of nut or ANY type of fruit, including raisins. Chinchillas basically have no digestive system, and if you feed them foods like nuts and fruit which are filled with fats and sugars, they can get upset stomachs, soft poops, or even diabetes. They may also become overweight.
ONLY feed your chinchilla proper pellets that do not contain extra nuts, fruits, or crappy simulated "flavours", along with good fresh (GREEN) timothy hay. You may also feed them other types of hay if you like, but do not substitute these types for timothy hay which is the best for their little systems.
We just purchased a 1yr old male chinchilla for our daughter, his name is Charlie :) we have only had him for less than a day but he seems fun :) I have him in my closed door office and have been allowing him to roam around today, very curious little friends, aren't they? :) He was sniffing out my popcorn... is it ok for them to try ??
I buy bulk dried cranberries, rasins, almonds, grounded unsalted peanuts, cornflakes, dates, and dried apricots. They love them
and they are so cheap
Just don't give them a whole date or a dried apricot it's a bit too much for them in my opinion
You can give them anything really just make sure that you give it to them in very small portions and not too much one day
granulated peanuts work best if you are doing a series of tricks because they are so small that yu are giving them 1/6 og a peanut not more. For awesome treats when they don't shut up at night I give them a whole peanut in the cover thing they come in. They love ripping it off to get to the peanut ^_^
A picture of otto delighting himself with a peanut: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i94/robotzik/Otto013.jpg
NO, YOU CANNOT GIVE THEM ANY NUTS! It's really bad for them. And also no, to givving them anything.
why cant you give them fruits and veggies some web sites say you can but why do you say we cant ? just wondering
They will get diabetes. You won't see anything bad at first, but it will happen, long with other health problems. The weird thing is that chinchillas need a very simple sugar free diet, and are very happy ith it. It is we humans who feel the need to give them these "treats" which are anything but. Are there Craisins in the Andes? That should tell us something...
Can you give your chinchillas apples or carrots or some other fruit or veggie?
Kiara,
Simple answer: no :-)
is it ok to leave a whole apple in the cage for the chin?
no because you might not know if neighbors been doing things or spraying things around your plants!!!!!!!!!!!!!common sense
Rose hips can be purchased at your local whole foods or organic grocery store for about $12/lb.
You can by them whole, or crushed and sifted.
I don't recommend the vitakraft sticks, carrot things, or the cocktail. All of these treats are high in sugar and fat- which chinchillas cannot properly digest. Over feeding these kinds of treats can result in fatty liver, diabetes and sugar od in chins.
Steven,
We never found a bricks and mortar store that had rosehips, but Chinworld.com sells them.
I have two chinchillas one standard female(sweet pea) and one violet male(booger). I am looking for rose hips but cant find any for sale other than already in food or with other treats mixed in. Do you know where to buy dried rose hips by themselves?
Jodi,
To be honest, we're not sure about fresh rosehips. One would think they are OK, but we've only used dried ones.
I have read that rose hips are a good treat for chins. I have rose hips on my plants outside. Can I feed those to my chin? No pesticides were ever sprayed on the roses.
Lauren,
We haven't tried that particular product. We're generally pretty trusting, but remember these things are treats and should be given in moderation. They aren't meal replacements so it's important that your chinchilla continues to eat pellets and hay.
I am just about to buy a pet chinchilla and before I do I would like to do a little research. At the pet shop I go to the only kinds of chinchilla treats that they have are called 'Ultra Bites, Fruit and Nut Chinchilla treats'. Are these appropriate to feed my soon-to-be chinchilla and, if so, how much should I give her a day?
Brittany,
I full grown chinchilla shouldn't get more than a raisin a day. With a young chinchilla like you're we'd probably not give any just to make sure that the proper nutrition is being received from "real" food. That last thing you want is for the raisin to be eaten in place of hay cubes and pellets.
I've read on a few websites that giving a chinchilla too many treats can make them real sick. My chinchilla is 4 months old and I was wondering how many raisins a day would be OK and wouldn't do any harm. Thanks.
Raisins are bad in general. Buy dried rosehips instead
My chinchilla absolutely LOVES raisins too.