Pineapples are a popular and readily available fruit that makes a great tasty treat for many of us. This can lead many owners to ask, can chinchillas eat pineapples too?
In this post, we will take a close at this question and hopefully give you all the answers you need.
So, can chinchillas eat pineapples? In short, chinchillas can’t eat pineapples as part of their regular diet or even as a treat. This is because pineapples contain high amounts of water, and like similar fruits, should be off-limits to your chinchilla.
What’s In Pineapples?
One cup of pineapple chunks (165g) consists of 82 calories, 0.9g of protein, 22g of carbohydrates, and 0.2g of fat.
- Calories: 82.5
- Fat: 0.2g
- Sodium: 1.7mg
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 2.3g
- Sugars: 16.3g
- Protein: 0.9g
- Vitamin C: 79mg
Why Your Chinchilla Can’t Eat Pineapples?
Many homes throughout the world like to keep pineapples as a tasty treat for the whole family and this can make it tempting to offer your chinchilla a small slice of pineapple as a treat, and as you have them in the house anyway, why not? Are they really that bad?
Yes, pineapples are a food that should strictly be off-limits to your chinchilla.
The reason chinchillas can’t eat pineapples is due to them containing an unbalanced amount of more than one nutrient that is harmful to chinchillas if overfed.
This can result with a chinchilla becoming extremely ill and may even result in you having to seek the attention of a vet.
It’s important to remember that as a rule, chinchillas don’t actually need treats and if you do offer them the occasional treat, you need to be very careful what you offer.
If you’re still unsure as to what foods are safe for your chinchilla, then later in this post, we will provide you with a list of 5 foods that you can safely feed your chinchilla as treats.
First, let’s take a look at reasons why you shouldn’t feed your chinchilla pineapples
Pineapples Can Cause Bloating For Chinchillas
Something that’s often overlooked when offering sugary and high-water content fruit to chinchillas is the fact that they can cause severe bloating.
As chinchillas often struggle to digest sugary and acidic foods, the food can often stay undigested in their stomach for quite a while.
This leads to the foods fermenting and causing a build-up of gas, leaving your chinchilla’s stomach bloated.
While this mightn’t sound like something that shouldn’t be a problem, however, unlike us humans, chinchillas can’t pass wind, so their stomach stays bloated.
This results in a chinchilla being in a lot of pain and, in extreme cases, it can cause major health problems such as ruptures and internal bleeding that need immediate medical attention.
While a small piece of fruit won’t cause this level of issue, it can cause this kind of issue if you feed large amounts of these kinds of fruits.
5 Treat Alternatives
Now that we’ve established that you shouldn’t feed your chinchilla pineapples, it’s now time to look at 5 foods that you can safely offer your chinchilla as a treat.
As these foods are considered as being treats, the foods included in the list below aren’t intended to be the healthiest foods you can feed to your chinchilla, rather, they’re intended to be 5 alternate treat foods that offer a variety of nutrients and for the most part, are accessible to most owners or can be easily purchased on the internet.
It’s important to remember that these foods must be offered as treats and are not to take the place of staple foods in your chinchilla’s diet.
- Rose Hips
- Apple
- Dandelion Leaves
- Parsley
- Carrots
