Chinchilla food

Question
I gave my chinchilla the "good" food, it has more than just pellets; dried fruits, seeds, hay.  After eating this he refuses to eat pellets any more. He will literally pick up a pellet, sniff it, and throw it away.  He has hay at all times so I know that he is eating more than just the couple of goodies he gets in his food.  How ever I am really worried about him starving himself in a protest against pellets.  What should I do?

Answer
Hi there Kelly,

First of all the food that you are feeding is not coming across as a 'good' food. Any Chinchilla food containing unnecessary things such as dried fruits, seeds etc. is definately the worst food that you could give. One brand of Chinchilla food like this is Charlie Chinchilla which should be avoided.

Chinchillas ofcourse LOVE this...
(Seeds - containing a lot of fat which would make your chinchilla overweight and unhealthy overall & dried fruits - contain a lot of sugar. Raisins are toxic to chinchillas. No sugar is the best way to go! Sugar is the/one of the WORST things that you could ever give to a chinchilla.)
...but it is extremely bad for their health.

The reason why your chinchilla is not eating the pellets themselves is because he/she is filling himself up with the junk (dried fruits & seeds). Just like a kid - will go for the sweets rather than the good healthy greens.

Chinchillas come from the Andes Moutain range therefore they come from a cooler, dry climate. There, they find DRIED food - like most other animals, we want to keep their diet as similair to it (& ofcourse adding in extra ingredients that they need in order to keep them healthy. Those ingredients come in a good pellet; Mazuri, Tradition etc.)

Vegetables & Fruit come nowhere into their diet and do them no good. Healthy treats can be fed such as Rosehips (Dried Organic Rosehips found in Health shops or online.) which are full of Vitamin C! You could also give a shreddie - plain, unsweetened/plain shreddies ofcourse. Too much sugar is very bad for them. No Raisins neither...Many books say that Raisins are good. Raisins are actually toxic to Chinchillas.
All treats to be fed sparingly - 1-2 times a week.

Along with the good Mazuri, Oxbow or Tradition pellet you will want to feed a good timothy hay. Chinchillas need hay as their main part to their diet. This is very good for them and their teeth too.

Most things can be fed online for just as CHEAP as what you find in the petshop.

Remember that chinchillas also need chews to keep their teeth trim.

Hope this was helpful.

Mae.