Many of us love some smooth peanut butter every now and again, and will happily spread it on toast or combine it with other foods. But can chinchillas have peanut butter?
Is Peanut Butter Safe For Chinchillas?
In short, no, you shouldn’t give peanut butter to your chinchilla. Peanut butter as a food is entirely unsuited to a chinchilla’s complex and delicate digestive system. Peanut butter is also very high in fats.
Why Peanut Butter Is Bad For Chinchillas
Although peanut butter may be considered a tasty topping for humans, it’s a terrible food for chinchillas. This table shows how peanut butter doesn’t provide the nutrients that your chinchilla needs, it also provides too many nutrients that chinchillas simply don’t need and why it’s bad for them.
Ingredients:
- Energy: Peanut butter is very high in calories. Just like humans, chinchillas need a healthy diet, so high-energy foods like this don’t help.
- Protein: Peanut butter consists of high protein. Although you may think that this is a good thing, the higher concentration of proteins in the chinchilla’s gut could cause problems.
- Fat: Peanut butter has far too much fat for chinchillas. This can sometimes cause short-term problems in the gut, and longer-term issues if the chinchilla becomes overweight.
- Carbohydrates
- Fibre: Chinchillas need a lot of fibre in their diets in order to keep food moving through their digestive system. Without getting enough fibre, everything gets blocked up and creates problems. Peanut butter simply doesn’t provide the much-needed fibre that chinchillas need.
- Sodium
- Calcium: Peanut butter doesn’t contain too much calcium and chinchillas need a low-calcium diet, as they’re prone to developing health conditions.
- Iron: Peanut butter only provides a little of the iron that chinchillas need in their diets.
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B
- Zinc
- Selenium
Can You Add Peanut Butter To Other Chinchilla Foods?
You should never add peanut butter to other foods for chinchillas. After all, you’re just adding unnecessary unhealthy fats to your chinchilla’s diet. You would also be conditioning your chinchilla to get used to food that’s far too high in salt and fat.
Alternatives chinchilla treats to peanut butter
The best treats are:
- Dried rose hips
- Dried Herbs (dandelion roots or leaves, rosemary, hibiscus, parsley, strawberry, and blackberry leaves)
- Dried fruit (apple, banana, and papaya)
- Raisins and dried cranberries
Just as humans should eat dessert in moderation, the same advice applies to chinchillas.
My Chinchilla Ate Some Peanut Butter – What Should I Do?
If your chinchilla has nibbled on some peanut butter, then there’s no need to panic. It’s the chinchilla equivalent of us having a very unhealthy snack. It shouldn’t do them harm in the long term, although it’s defiantly not doing them any good either.
If you’re still worried, then monitor your chinchilla over the next 24 hours, and make sure that they keep eating, drinking and moving around, and pooping as normal.
As always, if you’re in any doubt or have any concerns over your chinchilla’s health, then you should consult a vet straight away.
What Diet Should Your Chinchilla Have?
As chinchillas are herbivores, their natural diet in the wild includes mostly roots, grass, and plants, so they don’t have much access to fats and sugars. If you have a chinchilla, then the most important things you can provide them are lots of good quality grass hay (Timothy hay), along with pellets that are explicitly made for chinchillas, and, of course, lots of fresh water every day.
Conclusion
Again, chinchillas shouldn’t eat peanut butter as it’s very unhealthy for them. It’s simply far too high in salts and fats. If you want to give your chinchilla some treats, then you can give them dried rose hips, dried Herbs (dandelion roots or leaves, rosemary, hibiscus, parsley, strawberry, and blackberry leaves), dried fruit (apple, banana, and papaya), raisins and dried cranberries.
