lot of the pellet selections sold at the pet store are not "quality pellets". In fact, they're junk food riddled with fruit, nuts, fillers, and treats. How can you have a healthy pet if you serve treats with every meal?

Things you'll want to avoid in your pellet choice are:

• Fillers such as Corn or Soy
• Vegetables or Vegetable products, dried or fresh.
• Fruit, dried or fresh.
• Seeds
• Nuts

A good rule of thumb, if it's bright and shaped funny.. it's a treat.

The reason we tell you to avoid fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables, is because they're very unhealthy for your pet.
Fruits + Vegetables contain a lot of natural sugar in their natural and dried forms. Pet chinchillas do not need this excess sugar. This excess sugar can resort in your Chinchilla becoming ill. Diabetes, hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia are all risks when feeding a sugary diet.

Many do not realize that a dehydrated small piece of dried fruit is just a shrunken big peice. When you dry fruit it shrinks down, but the sugar is still there. It's just concentrated into a smaller piece.

In their natural form, fruit and vegetables contain ample amounts of moisture. Chinchillas originate from a dry climate, and have developed needing a very dry diet. Excess moisture in their food will lead to bloat. Bloat is a hazard because chinchillas can not relive themselves of any gasses, meaning without intervention they can pass from buildup.

Nuts + Seeds are high in fat. When a chinchilla is fed a diet high in fat they become prone to ailments like fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease is known as a "silent killer" in chinchillas because they'll be gone before you realize that was the cause of any problems.

So please, your pet relies on you to make educated choices about their diet. Take what you've learned here and apply it to your next purchase so your pet can live a long healthy life.