Starting with Fresh Food: List of Highly Tolerated Food Plants

1. Especially Suitable Fresh Foods for Beginners

These plants can be used to introduce your chinchillas to fresh food (1 leaf, small twig, 1 hazelnut-sized piece). They are very well-tolerated and often tasty.


Apple


Apple branches with their leaves and flowers, as well as branches from all other edible, unproblematic fruit trees


Basil


Berry branches with leaves (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, etc.)


Erigeron annuus / annual fleabane


Garden Bamboo


Birch branches with leaves and buds


Chicory


Prickless or low-spine thistles (e.g., cabbage thistle) or other species (e.g., milk thistle) if you remove the spines


Strawberry leaves


Daisy


Grasses (after spring, as they are very high in protein in spring and potentially bloating for sensitive digestion)


Rosehip


Callisia and Tradescatia


Hazelnut branches with leaves and buds, without nuts


Dandelion (flower, greens, root)


Carrot, carrot greens, wild carrot


Yarrow


Sunflower (leaves, flowers), not the seeds


Echinacea


Lactuca serriola / prickly lettuce


Jerusalem artichoke


Chickweed


Willow branches with leaves, flowers, and buds


Plantain (e.g., Ribwort Plantain, Broadleaf Plantain)


Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus)


Meadow hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


2. Unsuitable fresh Food for the Beginning

  • Clover (alfalfa, red clover, white clover, etc.) and all other legumes (lupine, peanut, vetch, carob, sainfoin, field bean, pea, soy)

 

Very high in protein; can cause bloating, especially if the quantity is not increased gradually or if the chinchilla digestion ist sensitive, or when you are feeding commercial pellets and other processed foods


  • Cabbage family

Very high in protein; can cause bloating, especially if the quantity is not increased gradually or if the chinchilla digestive is sensitive, or when you are feeding commercial pellets and a lot of processed food


  • Fresh grasses in spring

In spring, very high in protein; can cause bloating, especially if the quantity is not increased gradually or if the chinchilla digestive is sensitive, or when you are feeding commercial pellets and a lot of processed food


  • Citrus fruits (orange, etc.) and subtropical fruits (kiwi, fig, etc.)

Moderately to highly acidic; suitable for animals that are accustomed to and can tolerate variety; lemon is unsuitable as a food


  • Onion and leek family

Very pungent; if consumed at all, it's only in very small quantities (e.g., dried chives)


  • Pine tree branches (Spruce, fir, pine, etc.)

Contain a lot of essential oils, which can be irritating to, among other things, the stomach lining if the animals consume too much of it; they can be offered in the mix later on


  • Potatoes and cereal grains (corn, wheat, oats, etc.)

Very starchy, which chinchillas don't tolerate in larger quantities; can cause digestive issues (fermentation, increased yeast and parasite growth); occasionally, as a small treat, a dried potato chip or corn kernel is not harmful


  • Selective forage plants (ivy, lilac, elderberry, etc.)

Eaten only as needed and in small quantities; suitable for animals that are familiar with and can tolerate a variety of plants and are selective in their consumption; they can be offered in the mix later on