chinnie eating his own poop??!!

You, my friend, are experiencing the joys of coprophagy Like bunnies, chinchillas sometimes eat poo that has been passed through their entire gut. Cows and sheep have the ability to regurgitate food from their stomach back into their mouth to chew it again. The reason is because the first time food goes into their stomach, the bacteria go to work at breaking down the food. Then they bring it back up to their mouth, chew some more, and then when they swallow it this time, it goes to a different chamber in their stomach where the nutrients are then absorbed. Chins and bunnies have to actually let it go through their entire digestive tract once and eat it again in order for them to obtain the nutrients. The first time they chew and swallow, it goes to their small intestine where some of the nutrients get absorbed. Then it goes into the cecum (a chamber that branches off of the intestine) where the good bacteria live...they break it down some there, and then moves it into the colon, but the colon cant absorb all the leftover nutrients so it has to go back through the entire process again --- mouth-intestine-cecum-colon. Hope that makes sense, but yea your chinchie is just being a sweet poop eater who wants his nutrients

Ooooooh. That's why mine does that. Chico eats his poo really rarely and I've seen him do that, but I always thought he had just mistaken it for a sunflower seed or something. Cause he usually takes a bit, looks at it, and is like "meh" then tosses it XD

Mine picks his up and looks at me then throws it outta the cage on the floor then runs and hides in his house. little trouble maker.

Pretty much every chinchilla will eat his or her droppings. Most of the time we just don't seem them do it. It's healthy and normal no matter how backwards and gross it seems!

A couple months back I had a little female baby come up to the front of the cage to see a couple, who were looking for their first chins. She then sat there for 10 minutes eating droppings as she tried to be charming for the new people. The lady said, "Oh, you're eating another one of your treats?" And, the baby chin seemed to look at her with joy almost like she was saying, "Oh yes, I made this treat myself!" Even stranger, the lady decided that she had to adopt Sadie. See, chins are so cute that it is acceptable for them to eat poopies and still be adorable.