Nutri-Cal, 4.25 oz. tube
	Quantity in Basket: none Code: CW070001 Price:$6.49
	Quantity:
Nutri-Cal is a "high calorie palatable dietary supplement in a low volume form." Nutri-Cal is widely used for pregnant females, youngsters and almost any time a chinchilla is ill. Nutri-Cal is a clear golden brown substance that has about the same consistency as toothpaste. You can put a small glob on the end of a spoon and a chin will lick it off or you can even feed a chin directly from the tube. If a chinchilla becomes ill, one of the first things that will happen is that it stops eating. Nutri-Cal is very useful in these situations to help prevent weight loss and weakening referred to as "failure to thrive." Nutri-Cal can be given to smaller "runt" kits to help them catch up with their larger siblings. Basically, it's a very good supplement anytime a chin requires quick nutritional help. We recommend that Nutri-Cal be included in every chin owner's "chinchilla first aid kit." It keeps very well and is very palatable to chins. Hint: We know of some chin owners who feed a bit of Nutri-Cal to all of their baby chins. After the babies are grown, if they ever require Nutri-Cal, they will have already developed a taste for it. We don't know whether or not this really works, but it does seem to make sense.

Customer Reviews	Add Your Review
My Chins Love This Stuff	04/22/2009 - by DeeAnne Lau from Colorado Springs, CO US
I wasn't so sure whether this would go over very well with my picky eaters. However, when my rescue chin refused to eat despite a high energy level, I had to find something that would fill his "hollow leg" and this stuff is great! (We have been feeding him three times a day with a paste of ground up chinchilla pellets, and his tummy can't take any more food!) Trouble is, his very robust mate loves Nutri-Cal, too (and the pellet paste, and the Bene-Bac...). I really don't find that the stuff smells all that bad either - it seems to be like Petromalt - and I am sensitive to bad smells. My robust chinchilla hates any kind of yogurt, and I really think that yogurt smells pretty good!
Oily	02/28/2009 - by Janice from CA US
Nutri-Cal is great in theory. In practice, it's a gel that separates from an oil and is very messy. One of my chins reluctantly eats it when mixed 3:1 with Petromalt (which they love) and the other refuses it completely. I keep trying and he actually runs and hides--and he's the friendly one! Maybe I need to just keep trying. I currently have two unused tubes that might not do me much good if I need them. I wish I had started them both on this stuff when they were babies.
My chins love it	02/20/2007 - by Johanna Checksfield from Waldport, OR US
It does smell bad, but from what I hear my chins are abnormal. They love this stuff, they can't get enough. They just suck it right out of the tube.
Smells bad	10/28/2006 - by anonymous from CA
My chin was disgusted by the smell of nutri-cal (even myself) because it contains cod liver oil! (I know it contains a lot of nutrients, but if it smells so awful, even the most nutritious stuff on earth can't do anything good to a chin because s/he simply won't take it!) I thought it'd taste and smell sweet that's why I bought it in case my chin gets sick. Now she's sick and she is disgusted by the smell of it... I mean not even kids or some adults would like the smell, not to mention a chinchilla. And when you squeeze it out of the tube, the oil may spill your clothing easily which is even more annoying. [OUR NOTE: Most chins don't like Nutri-Cal at first, but after time, learn to crave it. We suggest training chins to like it before while they are healthy so that if they ever do become ill, they will already love the taste. And really it is true, they do learn to crave the taste some faster, some slower.]