With chinchillas you should always provide fresh, high quality pellets and hay. I recommend using Mazuri pellets. Kaytee chinchilla foods, Charlie Chinchilla foods, and most others you find at pet stores contain too many sweets and I do not recommend these at all.

I free feed all my chins, in small bowls that usually last two days before needing a refill. I find that if you use a larger bowl chins have a tendency to urinate in them, thus ruining the food and making a dirty dish. Also food commonly gets poop in it so its necessary to change the pellets often, and I find with the big bowls too much food gets wasted. Your should not be concerned with your chinchilla overeating.

If you do decide to feed daily, I recommend about 3 tablespoons, but this varies from chin to chin, which is why I recommend free feeding.

Providing fresh, high quality pellets to your chinchilla is a must. It is key to their health and longevity, feeding them cheap food would be like feeding your kids fast food everyday, and is just not a good choice.

High Quality Pellets

- Mazuri – alfalfa based
- Tradition – alfalfa based
- Oxbow - alfalfa based
- American Pet Diner (APD) -timothy based*
- Kline - alfalfa based

*if you feed a timothy hay based pellet, you should free feed alfalfa hay, or vice versa.