So, this has come up a few times lately, so I wanted to touch on this, as a bit of an educational post, as a nice break from me talking about what goes on here all the time.
For a lot of animals, we limit their food. Think about it. Dogs often get a meal or two a day, portion controlled. My older dog Kailey is free fed, because she picks at her food. Misty... well, she's currently being free-fed because of the pups, but normally Misty and Sky are on about 3/4 cup per day of kibble, plus all the pooches get some canned food.
With rabbits and guinea pigs, you often hear of limiting the pellets, as they should eat more hay and greens. Obviously, this is different with chins, because they don't eat the greens. However, people often look at how rabbits and guinea pigs have their pellets restricted in favor of their other foods, and think it should be the same with chinchillas.
For chinchillas, the thing you seem to read about, the magic number, as it were, seems to be 2 tablespoons. Where that magic amount came from, I don't know. They may very well eat that much... but they also may eat more or less. They're all tiny little furry individuals. Just like people, some are pigs, some are skinnier. Some are couch potatoes, some are marathon runners.
The thing is, there's no magic amount. At least, not for chinchillas. The super convenient thing is, chinchillas won't overeat! Of course, if you give them a food chock full of treats and goodies, they're going to pig out on that, but if you give them a healthy pellet-only (as in, no extra goodies mixed into the pellets) diet, like Tradition / Oxbow / Mazuri / Nutrena / Manna Pro / etc etc etc... they will not overeat.
So, there is no need to restrict your chinchilla's pellets. No need to portion control. Just fill up the bowl, and refill when it's getting low. Simple as that. Now you know. :)
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