Treats for chinchillas: what you can and cannot give, how to make it yourself

Now you have a new tenant in your house. With the first joy comes many questions: how to make the animal grow healthy and active. Caring for them at home is not so difficult; the main thing is to provide them with comfortable conditions and feed them correctly, taking into account their age, gender and health status.

The weak point of this animal is the gastrointestinal tract. Problems in this area can lead to death, which is why nutrition should be treated with special attention. The appearance of chinchillas is also important. After all, the presence of beautiful soft fur is the result of a balanced and nutritious diet rich in vitamins and minerals.

So what should you feed your chinchilla and what do they eat at home? By nature, they are rodents that prefer plant foods. This animal can eat any parts of plants: roots, stems; chinchillas eat their seeds and fruits with great pleasure.

In nature, the furry animal eats little, but all its food is high in calories and balanced. Therefore, when you decide to keep a chinchilla at home, you need to think about its nutrition. It should be nutritious and contain various vitamins and minerals. In modern pet stores, food for chinchillas is widely available. They are divided into grain mixtures, concentrated feeds and greens.

CHINCHILLA RECIPES

RECIPES OF CHINCHILLA DISHES
Treasure hunting shish kebab

3-year-old chinchilla, 400 g each, 3 large onions, soak for 30 minutes, marinate in wine for 30 minutes. With bay leaf. Thread onto a skewer and fry for 40 minutes.

Chinchilla with potatoes, treasure hunter style

Line the bottom of the pan with chinchilla meat. Place a layer of onions on top. The top layer is potatoes. Pour in 1 cm of sunflower oil, bay leaf, spices to taste. Cover with a lid and simmer for 40 minutes.

This text is an introductory fragment.

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Nutrition for a pregnant chinchilla

Pregnancy in chinchillas can last from 105 to 125 days. During this period, special attention should be paid to the animal’s nutrition. The frequency of feeding does not change, but the portions need to be increased, as well as the proportion of products changed and new “dishes” introduced into the diet.

If pregnancy is detected, veterinarians recommend reducing the amount of roughage, hay and grass by 20-25%, and increasing the amount of grain and seeds, since they contain natural proteins, amino acids and microelements necessary for the formation of healthy offspring.

You should also add more fruits, vegetables and berries to your daily menu, and regularly offer herbal infusions and rosehip infusion. During pregnancy, chinchillas' diet should include foods containing animal protein and calcium: low-fat cottage cheese, natural yogurt, boiled eggs, as well as fresh dried herbs.

You need to introduce foods into your diet gradually. It is advisable to consult a veterinarian so that he can advise in what quantity and sequence to add new dishes to the chinchilla’s menu.

Chinchilla breeding business: profitable or not

Today, chinchilla breeding as a home business is a type of entrepreneurship that has no competitors. Many farmers are interested in raising chinchillas; they ask questions: is it profitable to breed chinchillas, what is needed for business, where to start planning, how to organize the sale of products. Answers to these questions, as well as reviews from experienced entrepreneurs, can be found in this article.

Advice from veterinarians and experienced owners: how to toilet train a chinchilla

It is best to use purchased wood filler for the animal's tray. If the chinchilla does not want to go to the toilet in the designated container and leaves its marks throughout the cage, the owners need to start training the pet. To do this, every time the animal leaves its “mark” on the bottom of the cage, you should take a certain amount of filler, wipe the affected area with it and put the sawdust back into the tray. Soon the chinchilla, based on the smell, will understand where it needs to go to the toilet.

Thus, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to train a chinchilla to use a litter box is positive. But how often should you change the litter in an animal’s toilet? It is advisable to carry out this procedure every day. In this case, only the contaminated part of the filler can be changed.

Breeding chinchillas: let's weigh the pros and cons

Advantages of chinchilla business

• This is a relatively free niche in the Russian business sector.
• The demand for our products is constantly growing.
• Good profitability: the cost of maintaining an animal for up to 2 months does not exceed 1 thousand rubles, and the income from each individual is 15 thousand rubles.
• You can start from scratch with minimal effort and without investing a lot of money.

Farm maintenance costs

1. Purchase of rodents: at least 10 females and a couple of males (100-150 thousand rubles).
2. Home improvement: purchasing equipment (cages and much more can be made with your own hands).
3. Food expenses: on average 10 thousand rubles per year per head.
4. Electricity costs: light, air conditioning, convector.
5. Taxes to the state, state duty for business registration.
6. Advertising (may not be required if there are established sales channels).

Comparison with other types of fur-bearing animals

Chinchillas reproduce worse than rabbits and produce no more than 3 cubs in one litter. But chinchilla skin is much more expensive than rabbit skin, because it surpasses it in quality and beauty.

Chinchilla fur is not as durable as mink fur, but a mink coat costs less because it is inferior to a chinchilla coat in several respects: softness, lightness and color range.

Possible risks

• Diseases. The risk of developing the disease in the entire population is very low, since chinchillas have good health and are naturally hardy animals. Serious deficiencies in the care and feeding of pets can lead to an epidemic.
• Lack of distribution channels. This problem will not arise if you think everything through in advance.

How to organize a business

Purchase of animals and equipment

To start breeding chinchillas at home, you need to purchase the animals themselves and arrange a place for keeping them. For this you will need:

• Cages: 1 cage for 2 rodents, it is recommended to place cages in 2 rows of 6 pieces each, minimum room area – 18 sq.m.
• Drinkers, feeders, hay bowls: nipple drinkers and hanging feeders protect food and water well from contamination.
• Houses and beds: animals need a place for privacy; the size of the bed should not be less than 12 cm in width.
• Filling: Sawdust, shavings or hay.
• Bathing suits and sand: you cannot skimp on sand; the quality of the fur will suffer as a result.
• Toys and exercise equipment for teeth: grinding teeth is vital for rodents; the ideal option is a mineral stone.
• Cleaning and disinfection products: non-toxic specialized products and ultraviolet lamp.
• Convectors: maintaining optimal humidity levels.
• 60 W lamps: per 1 sq.m. 1 lamp required.
• Air conditioning and heater: temperature control.
• Feed and hay.

Business plan

A business plan will help you keep everything under control and get the maximum benefit from your new venture.

First, you should start calculating potential profits: from the amount of expected income (calculated by predicting the receipt of offspring), subtract the amount of estimated costs for the preparation and monthly maintenance of rodents.

Approximate costs of maintaining a livestock of 50 chinchillas:

• Chinchillas - 100-150 thousand rubles.
• Cages – 2 thousand rubles X 25 (2 animals per cage) = 50 thousand rubles.
• Feed – 1,000 – 1,500 rubles per day.
• Other expenses (electricity, taxes, veterinary care, advertising, etc.) – 20 – 30 thousand rubles.
• The income from 50 chinchillas is easy to calculate: offspring of 300 puppies per year will bring about 1 million rubles.

When drawing up a business plan, you should take into account that breeding animals cost about $100, which is 2 times more expensive than pets, and the cost of a skin is approximately $80.

Features of care: how to equip the cage

Keeping chinchillas, according to many pet lovers, is not at all difficult. In order for an animal in the family to feel as comfortable as possible, its owners first of all, of course, need to properly equip its cage.

In addition to bowls for food and water, two more items should be installed in the chinchilla’s “house”:

• wheel;
• tray.

The wheel will be very good entertainment for the chinchilla. Of course, not every owner will decide to let an animal wander around the house. After all, chinchillas are nimble creatures and can easily escape either through the front door or into the cracks between the structures of the house. Active movement is very useful for such rodents, like any other.

The question of how to accustom a chinchilla to a wheel will most likely not arise at all for its owners. Most of these animals immediately climb into such a device and begin to actively run in it. True, there are also animals that wait for some time and prefer to first make sure that the new object that appears in the cage is harmless. There is also a small category of chinchillas that do not recognize wheels at all. In any case, it is unlikely that the owners will be able to train such an animal to “play sports.”

Sales of products

Sales channels

Sales of products are possible in three directions:

• breeding animals to other farms;
• skins in studios and factories, as well as at auctions;
• dietary meat can be sold by advertisement or delivered to restaurants;
• small individuals to pet stores.

Beginning entrepreneurs and farmers whose production is constantly growing may need advertising. For these purposes you can use:

Do chinchillas eat meat?

Chinchilla meat is eaten, it is dietary and medicinal. It is recommended to be used for cancer, sclerosis and tuberculosis.

Carcasses are sold after the animal is slaughtered for fur.

It is not profitable to specifically raise animals for meat, because even a novice farmer knows how much a rodent weighs—at best, the animal’s weight reaches 1 kg.

Chinchilla weight chart

Reviews from experienced entrepreneurs

Daria, Pskov region

My parents are breeding chinchillas. They started with a small number of individuals, but then they realized that these animals are very profitable, now they have more than 100 heads. The farm is located right on the plot in a special extension. To maintain the heat at least 18 degrees, a heater was installed; it doesn’t turn on that much. Once they forgot to turn it on, 6 chinchillas died. Animals are not fussy about caring for them, but they need to be fed and watered every day and cleaned regularly. The animals eat little and take up minimal space. Parents sell chinchillas to pet stores and sell them online as pets, since they are not involved in skinning.

Fedor, Saratov

When I decided to start farming, I was looking for a business in which I didn’t need to invest a lot right away. Among my friends who breed animals, there is a chinchilla specialist, he explained everything, and it turned out that chinchillas are what I need. I don’t slaughter them for fur; I mainly sell breeding specimens to beginning farmers in Russia and neighboring countries, and sell the rest to a pet store. I am glad that I chose such a profitable path in farming.

Nikolay, Moscow region

I am engaged in raising animals for their skins. The chinchilla farm paid for itself in a year, but I made the cages myself, and the females consistently gave birth to 2-3 cubs. In order to sell the skins to the atelier, I had to master the dressing technology, but now the distribution channel is established, I don’t advertise, all the products of the chinchilla business are torn off in the atelier.

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Is it possible to iron

If the owners approach the matter correctly, the chinchilla in their arms will subsequently feel comfortable and calm. The fur of these animals is so soft, “plush” and delicate that, judging by the reviews of the owners of such rodents, it is a pleasure to touch it. Therefore, many owners of such animals constantly pick them up, stroke them on the head and scratch them behind the ears. In principle, this can be done. Chinchillas are not fragile animals, they are healthy and quite hardy.

However, stroking such animals, unfortunately, in most cases only brings pleasure to their owners. From such actions of the owners, the chinchillas themselves are, as they say, neither warm nor cold. Such animals do not consider stroking as a sign of attention from the owner, but mainly only the high-quality, tasty food offered to them.

Despite the fact that chinchillas, unlike cats and dogs, always remain indifferent to the owner’s “tenderness,” such animals are able to understand the intonations of the owner’s voice very well. Therefore, when taming a pet and subsequently communicating with it, its owners should speak in a soothing, gentle voice. The chinchilla will most likely appreciate this and will soon begin to completely trust the people living in the house.

Treats for chinchillas or what they like most

Every owner pampers his chinchilla with treats, because the animal loves them most. As soon as you give a piece of treat to the chinchilla, she immediately transforms, becomes cheerful and her whole body is in anticipation. The most important thing is not to overfeed your pet with treats, otherwise he may refuse the main food or diseases will begin to develop, because the animal is very fragile in terms of health.

Treats for chinchillas play a very important role in taming; without them, it is very difficult to accustom an animal to your hands. At each lesson, the chinchilla is given a small piece of the treat that she likes most if she follows the commands correctly. Treats reinforce correct actions, and the absence of treats is used to punish the chinchilla if he did something wrong.

Next stage

Chinchilla owners will need to do the trick with a piece of food and an open cage door several times. When the animal is more or less comfortable outside the “house”, you can begin the second stage of its taming.

This time the animal will need to be trained with the aim of getting used to the hands. To do this, you need to take a piece of some food with two fingers and push it between the bars of the cage.

At first, the chinchilla will most likely be afraid to take food directly from the owner’s hands. So the owners of the animal will have to show a little patience. If the chinchilla does not take the food the first time, the procedure will need to be repeated after a while. Very soon the animal will get used to it, will no longer be afraid of fingers and will begin to take pieces of food.

What treats does a chinchilla like?

Let's start with the treats that almost all chinchilla owners give and they are recognized as the safest:

• Dried apple. A very popular delicacy, due to the fact that it is easy to buy or even make with your own hands, and the price of apples is very low. Dried apples are constantly used during training because they are low-calorie and it is difficult to overfeed the animal with them.
• Dried carrots. Has the same benefits as an apple. It's cheap in stores and you can make it yourself. The main condition for dried carrots is that they are stored properly and do not harbor moths or other nasty things. Carrots should be bought in small packages or prepared for 1-2 weeks; long-term storage will cause harmful parasites to appear, especially if the humidity in your room is above 60-70%.
• Tree branches. It’s hard to call it a delicacy, because chinchillas just love to chew on everything, and the twigs also provide a certain taste. Sticks can be given in unlimited quantities; the chinchilla will never overeat them, but will only chew them to grind down their teeth. Tree twigs are given only in dry form; you can buy them at any pet store or make them yourself.
• Berries. Strawberries, blueberries and wild strawberries. Dried and in limited quantities.
• Dried rosehip and hawthorn. This delicacy also helps boost the animal’s immunity. It does not need to be given constantly; it is best to feed it when the season changes. Give in small portions 1-2 times a week.
• Dried greens Lettuce, spinach, clover, celery, chicory, sorrel, nettle, birch, apple and pear leaves.

Now we will look at another list of treats that chinchillas love, but they are harmful or deadly to them.

Authorized Products

The list of foods that can be given to chinchillas is quite large. Animals can be fed fruits:

• Bananas,
• Apples,
• Pears,
• Figs
• Vegetables:
• Pumpkin,
• Milk corn,
• Bell pepper,
• Kohlrabi,
• Zucchini,
• Zucchini,
• Kohlrabi,
• Patissons,
• Ripe red tomatoes.

• Lettuce leaves,
• spinach leaves,
• Clover,
• Alfalfa,
• sorrel leaves,
• Dandelion leaves and stems,
• Celery,
• Chicory,
• Cornflowers,
• Vika,
• Common nettle,
• Sagebrush,
• Raspberry leaves and stems
• Strawberry leaves and stems
• Plant tops,
• Twigs with leaves of apple, pear,
• Birch and linden branches,
• Hazelnut sprigs.

• Corn (corn grains are part of the feed mixture and are given in ground form),
• Barley (given in ground form),
• Wheat (grains and bran),
• Oats (grains, bran, flakes),
• Millet,
• Buckwheat,
• Rice.

Apples, pears, as well as carrots, pumpkins, zucchini, berries can be given to animals both fresh and dried.

Some chinchillas are more willing to eat dried foods, and they are also safer for the digestive tract.

It is recommended to collect fresh grass for furry pets in places far from roads and landfills, walking pets and industrial enterprises. It is not recommended to feed grass that is wet from dew or rain. And also carefully monitor that there are no poisonous plants among other weeds.

Can be given in limited quantities

• Sunflower seeds. A wonderful treat that chinchillas love. It is not only tasty, but also beneficial for their fur; it becomes thicker and shinier due to the oils contained in sunflower seeds. They can be given, but in very limited quantities. They are dangerous because of their high calorie content, 100 grams of seeds contain 580 calories, and in grains this figure is at the level of 150-250 calories per 100 grams. Chinchillas have a weak liver, so it is very difficult to digest seeds, so do not pamper your pet more than 1-2 times a week. They can also be excluded from the diet to ensure that liver problems do not arise.
• Nuts. For chinchillas, nuts are a heavenly pleasure; they almost start singing when they see delicious nuts. Like seeds, they are harmful due to the huge amount of calories, about 600 calories in almonds and walnuts per 100 gram serving. You should give nuts rarely or exclude them from the diet.
• Legumes. Quite a dangerous food because it causes gas formation in the stomach. Chinchillas have a poorly developed digestive system and it is extremely difficult for them to remove gases, so if you regularly feed them legumes, then after a while the animal will become bloated. This disease is quite dangerous and if not cured in time, the animal will die.
• Dried fruits . (Raisins, dried apricots, etc.) Chinchillas, of course, love dried fruits because they are very tasty and nutritious. They can be given in limited quantities only 1-2 times a week, but they cannot be made the main treats. In addition to gastrointestinal disorders, they may have metabolic disorders or liver disease. Therefore, it is best to give dried fruits in very small portions so as not to harm your animal.
• Juicy food. Juicy foods include all raw foods, for example, apples, tomatoes, raw grass, berries. Chinchillas love them very much, but they are harmful to them. Due to the juicy food, they form gases that they are not able to remove and bloating occurs, which is very dangerous. It is better not to give juicy food at all, but if

leolar

All goodies are in dry form, they are given infrequently and alternately, with constant feeding, large quantities of goodies begin with indigestion, diarrhea or constipation, in the worst case, bloating or prolapse of the rectum.

Hay is the most important component of a chinchilla's diet. It should always be available to the animal. It must be added in small portions so that pets do not scatter it around the cage and pollute it. If the chinchilla starts throwing hay around the cage, you need to stop adding it for a while.

Hay helps chinchillas move food through the intestines, thereby preventing it from stagnating and causing fermentation.

Herbal food is also a source of vitamins, microelements, fiber and protein for chinchillas. Dried or young green food (which can be fed to chinchillas in limited quantities) is rich in chlorophyll, which is similar in chemical composition to blood hemoglobin.

Chinchilla business: how much do chinchilla skins cost?

Chinchilla breeding business plan: equipment and paperwork

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The chinchilla breeding business is quite attractive by many criteria and guarantees high profits.

This business is based on breeding animals and selling both them and the most precious fur in the world.

A breeding animal can be sold for approximately $100. To organize a business you will need to answer certain questions. How much do chinchilla skins cost? What is the initial investment and possible profit? We will talk about this and much more further. To organize activities, you will need to draw up a project that considers all the nuances of the work of the upcoming company.

A chinchilla breeding business plan includes the main areas: organizational, financial, legal and others. The features of the material are very attractive.

Never feed your chinchilla

Trees from the list below: Remember the names of these trees and do not give them to your chinchilla: - Resinous and coniferous trees. — Maple, cedar, cherry, — Exotic species like mango, beech, apricot — Oak. It contains substances harmful to them, so it cannot be used as food, but it can be used as a decoction to treat stomach diseases.

They contain dangerous substances that can cause not just a simple gastrointestinal disorder, but serious poisoning, even death. Tree species that contain cyanide are especially dangerous.

• Any food from your table, especially salty, peppery and sweet.
• I eat with animal fats.
• I love pastries and bread
• You can’t give fried foods, including seeds.
• Rye
• Rotten, rotten and moldy products. They cause gastrointestinal diseases in chinchillas. Because of them, the animal may develop diarrhea, constipation or bloating, as well as diseases of the abdominal organs. The digestive system of chinchillas is designed for dry food, and they cannot independently remove the gases that form from juicy or rotten food.
• Beet. It cannot be included in the regular diet, because it acts on them as a laxative, therefore the digestion process will be disrupted. Some give it when the chinchilla is constipated, but there are other, more effective remedies for constipation.
• Any fermented milk products

Recovery after illness

If a chinchilla does not eat or drink for several days, this leads to inevitable weight loss. During the period of recovery from illness, proper and balanced feeding is very important to avoid exhaustion and death of your furry pet. If a chinchilla has not drunk anything for a long time and refuses water, it must be artificially watered from a syringe without a needle. During one drinking session, up to seven milliliters of liquid are injected into the animal’s mouth. It is good to feed the animal dairy-free oatmeal, to which you can add a little calcium. Porridge is fed twice a day - morning and evening.

If the chinchilla refuses to eat on its own, you can inject a little porridge through a syringe into the animal’s cheek.

After using medications, the liver inevitably suffers. To restore normal liver function, you can use the drug Karsil. The course lasts one month. The animal is given three times a day, one-fourth of the tablet dissolved in water. It is also good to take a course of vitamin Gamovit injections. For chinchillas, subcutaneous administration of 0.5 ml of the drug once a day is enough. Minimum - five days. If appetite and activity are completely restored, you can stop injections. Gamovit can be replaced or used together with Catozal, which improves the metabolic process in the body. Catozal is also placed subcutaneously in the withers area, once a day for five days.

It is recommended to use Lactobacterin or Bifidium as probiotics. Half the ampoule is mixed with ten milliliters of water and soldered through a syringe at a time. The probiotic helps well in normalizing intestinal function and eliminates all the negative consequences of antibiotic use. You can also use the probiotic Vetom 1.1. Dosage - dissolve a gram or two of the drug in two teaspoons of water and drink it through a syringe twice a day.

What other delicacies are there?

In order not to bother with making treats or properly storing dry fruits, we came up with special ready-made treats. Most often it is sold in the form of sticks.

These sticks contain not only treats, but also other useful ingredients such as grains, seeds and herbs. The chinchilla will simultaneously receive a portion of delicious food and, unnoticed, eat healthy supplements.

They also sell sticks with treats that contain vitamin supplements and microelements to feed during illness or for prevention. For example, these crackers contain calcium, and in addition vitamins A, D3, E, C.

What to do after purchase

Experienced pet lovers do not recommend trying to tame a chinchilla immediately after it is in the house. At this time, such an enterprise is unlikely to be successful. Finding itself in a place unfamiliar to it, the chinchilla will experience fear. And to overcome a stressful situation, she will probably need a little time.

The purchased chinchilla will need to be placed in a cage prepared in advance for it and left alone. Of course, you should first place a box of food and a bowl of water in the animal’s “house”.

DIY treats for chinchillas

If it’s hard to buy ready-made treats for chinchillas in your city, you can make them yourself and this will save you a lot of money.

The most popular DIY treats:

Expert advice on feeding

So, we found out how to accustom a chinchilla to the tray and hands. But what kind of food should be offered to such an animal? Chinchillas are most often fed a specially purchased grain mixture. The composition of such products, in addition to cereal seeds, usually includes dried vegetables, fruits, and pressed herbs. Sometimes manufacturers even add a little popcorn to this food.

Chinchillas are usually given fruits, vegetables, and tree branches from their natural food. You can also offer the animals carrot tops, clover, and dandelions. In winter, chinchillas willingly eat grass hay. The most suitable grains for such animals are oats, barley, corn and wheat.