Chinchilla diet – what to feed your chinchillas

Chinchillas are fibrevores. This means they only eat plant-based food and should not be fed meat, dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables.

Feed your chinchillas a good quality pellet food to avoid health conditions like dental disease and obesity.

Your chinchilla’s diet should be made up of the following:

• 75% good quality hay
• 12.5% good-quality chinchilla pellet food
• 12.5% healthy forage

 

Hay

Spread this around their whole enclosure, on shelves and in hiding spaces. Chinchillas need constant access to hay, as it makes up the largest portion of their diet. It’s also great for helping to keep their teeth healthy and it’s a lovely bed for them to snuggle in too!

Offer a mixture of varieties such as:

• Timothy Hay
• Meadow hay
• Orchard hay
• Alfalfa hay – which can be fed to pregnant, nursing, and young chinchillas that are still growing. For adult chinchillas, Alfalfa hay can be fed to them in small amounts as an occasional treat. It can also encourage reluctant hay eaters to get used to eating other types of hay.

 

Pellets

A single chinchilla should eat around four tablespoons (30g) of pellets a day. Chinchillas should not be fed muesli mixes as they’re high in sugar and can lead to dental problems. There are many different brands of chinchilla pellets on the market, including Science Selective, which you can buy online or from pet shops. Instead of placing their food in a bowl, try scattering it around their enclosure for them to search and forage for.

 

Forage

Feed your chinchilla forage as well as pelleted food. Scatter around four tablespoons (30g) of healthy forage in their cage, per chinchilla, per day. Take care to choose healthy treats as it can be very easy to over feed your chinchilla with sugary foods, which will lead to health problems like diabetes. Below are some ideas of what to feed your chinchilla daily (in addition to pellets). They’ll need a variety of these foods, so only feed them small amounts of each:

• Apple, pear, willow (weeping, goat or pussy willow only) or hazel tree twigs and branch cuttings
• Wild rose (be sure to remove any large thorns)
• Dried flowers such as marigold (calendula), dandelion, hibiscus, rose, cactus, cornflowers
• Dried leaves such as birch, apple, nettle, pear, plantain, rose
• Dried herbs and roots such as dandelion and mallow
• Burgess Excel Forage & Feast Mini Bales

 

Healthy treats (to be fed occasionally)

Avoid colourful chew sticks. Instead, stick to healthy, natural food options that they can enjoy occasionally alongside their weekly diet:

• Dried rose hip (feed as an occasional treat)
• Dried hibiscus flowers
• Bitesize shredded wheat (feed sparingly as this can cause gas)
• Rolled oats (feed sparingly as this can cause gas)
• Chinchilla cookies (we recommend Paula’s Bespoke Cookies)

Herbs (dried)

• Basil
• Nettle leaf
• Dandelion
• Oregano
• Alfalfa leaf
• Thyme (small amounts)
• Raspberry leaf
• Blackberry leaf
• Milk Thistle

Flowers (dried)

• Rose
• Calendula
• Cone Flower (echinacea)
• Hibiscus
• Dandelion
• Hawthorn blossom
• Lavender
• Apple blossom
• Chamomile

Hay

• Oat grass
• Timothy
• Readigrass (only for a treat/weight gain)
• Alfalfa (for young chinchillas or weight gain)

Supermarket treats (to be fed sparingly)

• Rolled oats
• Shredded wheat

Other

• Bee pollen
• Marshmallow root
• Dried rosehip

 

Water

It’s important your chinchillas have access to daily, fresh, clean water. Ideally, provide this in two bottles or securely mounted bowls at each end of the cage, or across both levels if you have a large two-tier cage, in case one spills or breaks.