The 10 Best Chinchilla Foods

Reviews

Oxbow Chinchilla Essentials Deluxe Chinchilla Food

Our top recommendation for chinchilla food is this Deluxe chinchilla food from Oxbow Essentials. It offers your chinchilla the daily fiber required for proper digestion. This pellet diet is made from alfalfa and includes a combination of minerals, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin B12, as well as the fiber-rich advantages of alfalfa.

This meal is carefully made to imitate the normal diet of a juvenile chinchilla. It will satisfy all of your chinchilla’s key vitamin requirements while also supplying alfalfa for a healthy digestive tract. Oxbow is a reputable pet food company that offers premium pet feeds. This product contains a trace quantity of cane molasses, which is an essential fact to keep in mind.

Pros

• Pellet based
• High fiber density
• Combination of vital nutrients

Cons

• Only suitable for young chinchillas.

 

Kaytee Fiesta Gourmet Variety Diet Chinchilla Meals

Our top pick for the most cost-effective chinchilla food is the Fiesta Variety mix from Kaytee. It comprises a delectable blend of fruits, vegetables, seeds, and grains to provide a varied diet for your chinchilla.

Chinchillas are naturally scavengers, and this mixture provides them with a variety of forms, colors, and textures they would encounter in the environment.

In addition, it contains crucial digestive help for alfalfa grass, maize, sunflower seeds, carrots, peanuts, and bananas. It is also fortified with DHA and omega-3 for the heart and eye health of your chinchilla, as well as prebiotics and probiotics to aid with digestion.

Pellets are often the ideal food for chinchillas, as they are not picky eaters and hence consume all the necessary nutrients. While this diet offers a broad number of options, your chinchilla may not receive all the vital nutrients it needs, which prevents us from ranking it first. However, it is an excellent alternative for an occasional treat.

Pros

• A diverse assortment of forms and textures
• Inexpensive
• Prebiotics and probiotics are included.

Cons

• Some chinchillas might not consume it.
• Better as an occasional indulgence

 

Mazuri Chinchilla Food

This pellet-based chinchilla food from Mazuri is pricey yet nutritionally adequate. Pellets are great for chinchillas since they include fiber and important minerals. These pellets comprise a variety of fiber sources, including Timothy hay and alfalfa.

They also include flaxseed, an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids that promote healthy skin and hair in chinchillas. This food also contains vitamin E and vitamin C as well as active bacteria to promote digestion and gastrointestinal health.

These pellets provide a complete diet for your chinchilla; no further supplements are necessary. While more expensive than most other solutions, these pellets will provide your chinchilla with all they require.

Pros

• Pellet-based
• Various types of fiber
• No further supplements are necessary
• Contains active probiotics

Cons

• Expensive

 

Sunburst Gourmet Blend Chinchilla Food from Higgins

This delicious combination from Higgins will maintain the health and happiness of your chinchilla with its diverse array of colors and textures. Formulated with species-appropriate dried mixed fruits, sun-dried hay as an excellent source of fiber, flaked vegetables, and pre-cooked legumes.

This blend is fantastic because its range of textures and flavors stimulates your chinchilla’s urge for foraging. Additionally, the blend contains DHA omega-3 fatty acids to maintain skin and fur. It is rich in probiotics to help healthy digestion and the immune system as a whole. According to Higgins, this mixture has no artificial components.

It is created with natural and unprocessed foods, such as barley, apples, and sweet potatoes. Timothy hay will provide your chinchilla with all the fiber it requires.

The main disadvantage of this mixture is that your chinchilla may not consume all of the food within the mixture, and hence will not receive all of the necessary nutrients.

Pros

• Diverse textures and tastes
• No synthetic ingredients
• Includes probiotics for optimal digestive health and immune function

Cons

• Non-pellet-based and may not provide all necessary nutrients

 

Oxbow Garden Select Chinchilla Food

This Garden Select pellet food from Oxbow gives your chinchilla balanced nutrition in a handy pellet form. It contains a mixture of three hand-selected kinds of hay to offer your chinchilla the appropriate amount of fiber. Additionally, it contains entire yellow peas, tomato, rosemary, and thyme for flavoring.

Non-GMO and appropriate for infant, adult, and elderly chinchillas. All of the components are grown in the United States, and their distinctive tastes reflect a natural foraging habitat. Additionally, it does not include any artificial additives or extra sugar.

Some users indicate that their chinchillas would not consume this food, and the inclusion of vegetables, which are not a natural food source for chinchillas, is the subject of contention.

Pros

• Complete nutrition formula
• There are three distinct types of hay.
• Non-GMO

Cons

• Multiple clients claim that their chinchilla refuses to consume it.
• Contains veggies

 

Forti-Diet Pro Health Chinchilla Food by Kaytee

This Fort-diet Pro Health pellet food from Kaytee is a comprehensive diet for your chinchilla. It contains sun-dried timothy alfalfa meal, which provides the necessary fiber for excellent gut health. It is also high in protein from grains such as oats and wheat, which will help maintain a healthy fur coat and promote muscular growth.

The pellets contain prebiotics and probiotics for healthy digestion and are supplemented with DHA and omega-3 essential fatty acids to improve brain and eye function. In addition, there are no artificial flavors or colors, and the pellets are incredibly appealing and simple to chew. These pellets are designed only for adults.

There are little, colored bits intended to promote tooth health and stimulate chewing in your chinchilla. We believe this addition is unneeded, as colors and extra sugar are unhealthy for your chinchilla.

Pros

• Pellet-based
• High in protein content
• Simple-to-digest textures

Cons

• Only adults permitted
• Unnaturally colored objects produce colorful stools.

 

Sunseed Chinchilla Prima Food

This pellet-based mix from Sunseed is a high-fiber, timothy hay-based solution that your chinchilla requires for optimal gut health and digestion. It includes omega-3 fatty acids to promote healthy skin and fur, as well as probiotics to improve digestion and boost the immune system. It contains all the bioavailable nutrients your chinchilla requires to remain healthy and content.

This combination includes fruits, vegetables, and seeds, which your chinchilla may choose to eat. This might result in bloating and diarrhea and a diet that is unhealthy and insufficient overall. According to some customers, the pellets are also readily fragmented, and there is a substantial amount of powder at the bottom of the bag.

Pros

• Pellet-based
• High fiber content
• Contains probiotics

Cons

• Pellets disintegrate readily.
• Contains fruit and veggie ingredients

 

Supreme Petfoods Chinchilla Dietary Supplement

This chinchilla meal from Supreme Petfoods is formulated with a high-fiber content for maximum digestion and tooth development. It contains parsley, plantain, and linseeds to help maintain a healthy coat and skin.

There is no added sugar, which can frequently result in overeating, tooth difficulties, and health concerns. It is also pellet-based and simple to chew and digest, making it ideal for chinchillas that have difficulty chewing hay and are unable to consume hay.

This meal comes in the shape of kibble, as opposed to pellets, and is bigger than typical pellets. Several consumers say that their chinchillas refused to consume these pellets and that they are low in nutrients. Pellet feeds also do not foster the natural foraging behavior of chinchillas.

Pros

• No additional sugar
• High fiber density

Cons

• Larger-than-average pellets
• Pellets are in kibble shape
• Does not promote foraging

 

Tropical Carnival Chinchilla Food from F.M. Brown’s

F.M. Brown’s “Tropical Carnival” is a pellet-based composition that is strong in fiber due to the addition of alfalfa hay. It is enriched with vitamins and nutrients, including sunflower seeds and raisins.

This meal combination has questionable components, including colorful bits that mimic morning cereal, crackers, and raisins. The combination is nutritionally inadequate and contains substances a chinchilla should not consume.

Users report chinchillas with loose bowels, and this meal contains excessive amounts of sugar, which can cause hazardous bloating. Your chinchilla will likely consume all the goodies and leave behind the little nutritional components, such as alfalfa.

Pros

• High fiber content

Cons

• High in glucose
• Containing harmful substances
• Allows your chinchilla to have loose stools
• Mostly filled with sweets

Buyer's Guide

South American chinchillas are predominantly herbivorous and native to the Andes Mountains. They are used to a basic diet consisting primarily of grasses, tree bark, and the odd egg and bug.

A chinchilla as a pet requires a high-fiber diet, which they can obtain from a range of hays. The hay you give your chinchilla must be dry since much moisture in their food might cause illness.

An uncommonly known truth about chinchillas is that they frequently consume their own feces. This technique, known as coprophagy, enables them to obtain more nutrients from the food that has previously been digested.

The high-fiber diet of chinchillas can be difficult to digest and extract all the necessary nutrients, thus they adopt this method to maximize a limited food supply.

Chinchilla owners continue to argue about the safety of feeding their pets fruits and vegetables. Some claim that fruits and vegetables are not a natural component of a chinchilla’s diet and should be avoided. However, fruits and vegetables are nutritious for animals, therefore a modest quantity should be acceptable on occasion.

There are two primary varieties of chinchilla food on the market, and both have advantages and disadvantages.

Pellets

Pellet-based feeds are not only convenient but also prevent selective feeding in chinchillas. This assures that your chinchilla receives a nutrient-rich and high-fiber diet, as it cannot select out the rewards and leave the rest. Obviously, the pellets should contain fiber and necessary vitamins and be devoid of artificial colorants, flavors, and colors.

The disadvantage of pellets is that they lack diversity and do not promote your chinchilla’s natural foraging tendencies.

Loose meals

High-fiber loose foods include dried fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and a sort of hay. A loose mixture of food will give a range of colors, shapes, and textures to stimulate and imitate the natural foraging tendencies of your chinchilla.

However, chinchillas are fussy eaters, and they will frequently select all the “treats” such as fruits and vegetables while leaving the hay and other vital elements behind, resulting in an inadequate diet. It is not advisable to consume loose meals on a regular basis, but rather as an occasional treat to provide variety.

Hay

The most popular types of hay are alfalfa and timothy. Your chinchilla needs a high-fiber diet to help with digestion, and these hays will give the necessary quantity. Hay also helps to wear down the teeth of developing chinchillas.

Foods to avoid

Some chinchilla owners believe that fruits and vegetables should not be included in a chinchilla’s diet, however, tiny amounts are often OK. However, there are certain foods that should never be given to chinchillas, since they might cause disease or even death.

An excessive amount of fruit might have a high sugar level, which is quite harmful to chinchillas. As previously stated, too-hydrating meals might create digestive problems. Additional items to avoid:

• Ample quantities of nuts and seeds
• Fast foods (chocolate or bread)
• Ripe fruits
• Fresh veggies

Conclusion

The Deluxe Chinchilla Food from Oxbow Essentials is the best chinchilla food according to our testing. It contains the daily fiber your chinchilla needs for proper digestion, as well as critical minerals and vitamins, all in a pellet form your chinchilla is certain to consume.

Our top pick for the most cost-effective chinchilla food is the Fiesta Variety mix from Kaytee. It comprises an assortment of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains, making it an excellent supplement to your chinchilla’s diet.

A chinchilla may become a member of your family, therefore you will want to provide it with the highest quality food available. There are different opinions regarding the optimal diet for chinchillas, therefore BestForPets (bestforpets.org) hope that we have simplified your search and helped you locate the best chinchilla foods for your needs.