IS IT NORMAL FOR MY CHINCHILLA TO EAT ITS Poop?

If you're new to owning chinchillas, you might notice something amazing: your chinchillas sometimes bend down towards their bottom as if to groom themselves, and then, a dropping has disappeared into their mouth.

What might seem strange and perhaps a bit gross at first is completely normal: your chinchillas practice cecotrophy, meaning they eat their own so-called cecal droppings.

This is a special type of dropping that has a mucous layer, and from which chinchillas can extract a particularly high amount of B vitamins and proteins when they re-digest it, nutrients they wouldn't otherwise easily get.

So, this is not only normal for your chins, but even very important.

Besides these cecal droppings, there are also the normal colon droppings, which have, so to speak, completely passed through all intestinal stations of your chins.

Your chinchillas will generally not eat these droppings.

As you can see, you don't need to worry if you observe your chins eating their excretions. In fact, it's dangerous for your chin if they don't eat or can't eat their droppings, for example, if they have diarrhea. Therefore, if your chinchilla has diarrhea, you must quickly take them to the nearest vet.

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