Are chinchillas easy to keep, and what food do they usually eat?
The chinchilla's appearance is very similar to that of a rabbit and a squirrel: small and plump in build, with a head like a rabbit's and a tail like a squirrel's. Nowadays some friends keep them as pets too, and they look adorably cute. Below let's take a look together: are chinchillas easy to keep? What food do they usually eat?
1. Are chinchillas easy to keep?
Chinchillas are relatively easy to keep, for the following reasons:
1. Gentle temperament: chinchillas are very peaceful and docile animals with no aggression whatsoever, so a chinchilla will not bite people; when it encounters an enemy it has only two moves: running away or spraying urine at the enemy.
2. Does not spread bacteria: the chinchilla has the densest fur in the world, with 40-60 hairs per pore, and parasites cannot survive on its body.
3. Not prone to illness: the chinchilla is a highland animal, and the harsh natural environment of its homeland gives it strong resistance, so it is usually not prone to illness.
4. Loves cleanliness: chinchillas are very clean and will bathe themselves in bathing sand; bathing twice a week is enough.
5. No odour: because chinchillas are herbivores, their droppings have no odour, and chinchillas will go to the toilet on their own.
6. Herbivorous animal: wild chinchillas survive on tree bark, grass roots, cacti and other plants, while keeping a chinchilla at home requires only staple food and pasture grass.
7. Regular habits: the chinchilla is an animal with very regular habits; it can stay at home by itself during the day without needing anyone to look after it, and in the evening when the owner comes home it can play with the owner.
8. Long lifespan: the chinchilla's lifespan is the longest of all rodents, with an average lifespan of 18-22 years; under scientific home feeding it can reach more than 20 years, so they can accompany you for a very long time.
2. What food do chinchillas usually eat?
1. Hay plants
Alfalfa hay is one of the most common staple foods for chinchillas. What we usually buy is shade-dried alfalfa hay, because fresh alfalfa hay is not suitable for chinchillas to eat; at most it can only be fed in small amounts to vary the flavour! As for why it is shade-dried rather than sun-dried, this is to keep the nutrients in the alfalfa hay from being destroyed and to preserve them as well as possible! It is also usually processed into cake-shaped and powder-shaped feed, and you can choose according to your needs!
Bean stems and leaves: when soybeans or vetches are still fairly tender, you can collect some of their stems and leaves; after these stems and leaves are shade-dried, feeding them together with alfalfa hay is very suitable!
Sweet clover: this herbaceous plant is similar to alfalfa hay, just a bit shorter, and chinchillas relatively like eating this food too; it can be fed either dried or fresh! However, we usually feed it mixed with other hay!
Timothy hay: this grass is also one of the more common chinchilla foods; its nutritional content is somewhat less than the above kinds, but it can be fed mixed with the bean stems and leaves above!
Other plants: in addition, other plants include dandelion, plantain, bitter greens and so on; these plants can all be fed fresh in small amounts, but the best is to feed them after shade-drying.
2. Concentrated feed
Generally, the concentrated feed we commonly see is made from some grain ingredients with high nutritional value, and of course it also contains powder components of some of the grasses above; it is a mixed type, but the nutrition in it may be even higher, containing rich protein and energy!
3. Concentrated supplement feed
This kind of concentrated supplement feed is specially meant for chinchillas to eat during specific periods; it contains a large amount of nutrition and can help, for example, a post-partum chinchilla quickly recover its strength, and from the mating stage to the lactation stage it can be used to replace other staple foods for feeding!