Chinchillas need to be fed fresh food on a daily basis. There are many types of chinchilla food or pellets available on the market today, providing you with several good quality brands for your pet for you to choose from. This will provide your chinchilla with everything he needs to maintain a healthy diet. In order to supplement his diet, give him fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts. Foods like carrots, apples, lettuce and different types of unsalted nuts will round out his diet as well as keep his tummy happy.

Do not give him any kind of citrus fruit though, these fruits are much too acidic for him and can make him very sick. Their tastes in food can be as varied as ours so you may need to try a few different types of food before you hit on the ones that he likes best; just be sure that his intake is balanced. You can hide bits of his favorite treats in the bedding of his cage. This will provide amusement for you and him as his innate foraging behavior will have him digging and “snow-plowing” his nose through the bedding to “forage” for the hidden bits of food.

Chinchilla food comes in two different major forms; one is a loose mixture of things chinchillas like to eat, like nuts, seeds, and fruits. These are dehydrated and come in a bagged mixture. This is a good food for your chinchillas’ daily, main staple however, he may pick out the things he prefers and leave several remaining things in the bowl, which can be wasteful as well as keep your pet from acquiring everything he needs for a balanced diet. If he is only “passing over” one or two things, you can supplement these with something else he does like. But, if he is not eating the majority of it you will need to try another basic food source.

This takes us to the second major type of basic food. Chinchilla food also comes in the form of a pellet. Though rabbit pellets are not a suitable long-term substitute, they are much the same as chinchilla pellets. These pellets are made by grinding up the different types of ingredients in the above mention bagged mixture then mixing a sweetened, sticky substance with he ground formula. This mixture is then pressed out through a die, forming the pellets. These pellets are completely formulated for your chinchilla and have everything he needs to stay healthy; another sure way to know your chinchilla is getting what he needs to maintain a healthy and balanced diet.

You will need to get a bowl for your chinchilla that he is unable to chew up to put his food in; remember DO NOT use plastic, of any kind. Even very hard plastic can be chewed up by a chinchilla as their teeth are adapted to gnawing through hard woods and, harder still, nut casings. Small pet bowls of all shapes and sizes can be found at your local pet store. Some stores may tell you that a certain type of hard plastic bowl will be “un-chewable“ but it is safest to place your bet with your chinchilla’s jaw strength and determination.

A bottom-weighted metal or ceramic bowl will work best as the weight will keep your pet from tipping the bowl over and spilling the food. Another amusing thing to watch: chinchillas’ will often, no matter how small the bowl is in comparison to his own size, “perch” on the edge of the bowl as he eats. It appears that they may be trying to dominate the food source as they will often try to “run off” another chinchilla who approaches the bowl when he is thus “perched”. If you do indeed have more than one, which is recommended, (two females is best unless you plan to breed them) and it looks as if you have a bit of a “bully” in the cage then using two bowls, placed at opposite ends of the cage should solve the issue.