What to feed the chinchilla

Chinchilla feeds exclusively on plant foods. The basis of her diet is hay, which ensures the proper functioning of the digestive system. Also, chinchillas need to be given nutritiouscereal mixtures, from which the animal will receive the necessary vitamins, trace elements and nutrients. Chinchillas also need juicy food: fruits, vegetables and tree twigs.

Hay must always be in the chinchilla cage, itsyou can give your pet in unlimited quantities. It is best to buy hay in a pet store. Chinchillas are more suitable for legume-cereal hay than meadow. It is coarser, and rough food is needed for chinchillas, not only for normal intestinal work, but also for grinding teeth. Quality hay should be clean, dry and fresh, green and a pleasant herbal odor. In no case can not give chinchilla wet hay, especially if it has already begun to mold.

Hay will ensure the normal operation of the digestive tract, but it does not contain all the nutrients the animal needs, so in addition to hay it is necessary to feed the chinchilla with a nutrient mixture, which contains proteins, fats, carbohydrates,amino acids, vitamins and trace elements. The mixture usually includes cereals, legumes, cereals, seeds, bran, nuts, dried fruits and other components. Food for chinchillas, again, is better to buy at a pet store - it's very difficult to prepare a complete nutritional formula with the correct ratio of components on your own.

Ready-made for chinchillas are of two types: conventional and granulated. In conventional feeds, all components are contained inin a granular form, they are compressed into granules. How to feed the chinchilla, it's up to you. Usually chinchillas like whole foods, but sometimes they choose from them separate "goodies", ignoring the rest of the ingredients. And if the food is granulated, they have to eat everything, so the diet goes out balanced.

Whichever feed you choose, it should bequality. It should have more grains and herb flour and fewer treats (nuts, dried fruits, dried vegetables, etc.). Be sure to check the expiration date of the feed. Before you feed the chinchilla, check if there are bugs and mold in it. Usually chinchillas are given 1-2 tbsp. l. feed per day.

It is also necessary to feed the chinchilla with succulent fodders, but it is important to remember that in nature chinchillas eat mostly rough food. And this means that they need much less juicy foodthan, for example, hamsters or guinea pigs. The abundance of vegetables and fruits can be harmful to their health. In general, it is better to give chinchilla vegetables and fruits in dried form, and herbs - in fresh. From succulent fodder chinchillas can be given:

• 
  vegetables: kohlrabi, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, Jerusalem artichoke, pumpkin, zucchini;
• 
  fruit: bananas, grapes, pears, figs, apples, berries;
• 
  greens and grasses: clover, nettle, alfalfa, dandelion, plantain, wheatgrass, sporish, pea, carrot, turnips, Jerusalem artichoke.

Vegetables and fruits should be thoroughly washed before consumption, they should be ripe and not spoiled. Plants need to be collected away from roads and industrial plants. Juicy forages are introduced into the diet gradually and in small quantities. It is best to give them in the morning and after sometime to clean up what the chinchilla did not eat, so that the remnants do not go bad. Do not give the chinchilla wet juicy feed! After washing fruits, vegetables and greens, first dry them, and then put in a cage.

To grind teeth it is useful to put in a cage of chinchilla twigs fruit trees, birch, willow, oak, which,naturally, it is necessary to collect away from roads and industrial enterprises. Also for chinchillas it is useful to sprout grain. Even in the cage of the animal, fresh water should always be present.

What can not feed the chinchilla? Chinchillas are contraindicated in any food from ourtable: under the prohibition of sweets, fatty, fried, spicy food, etc. Also, chinchillas are not desirable to give cabbage: it can cause bloating. Take care that your pet does not overeat indoor plants: many of them are poisonous to pets. If you want to pamper the chinchilla with some goodies, you better get a special "snacks" for the rodents in the pet store.