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[AnnieHank]

So I've been feeding my chinchillas meadow hay as it's the cheapest and most widely available locally but recently I found a good place that sells timothy hay nearby quite reasonably. I only gave them a very small bit of the timothy hay along with their normal hay and normal pellets and they all got soft pooh. I took it away and the girls pooh returned to normal within a day or two but Buddy's is still soft and sticky and it's been about 4 days. He's still chomping through his pellets and normal hay and he's as active as ever and putting on a gram or so every day or every other day so I'm not too worried about him.

I'm just wondering if I should abandon the switch to timothy hay after all or keep at it? Does their soft pooh fix itself or is it something that usually turns to diarrhoea?
The pellets I feed them are alfalfa based and I read that it's good to feed them one type of pellet and the other type of hay (timothy and alfalfa). I don't think the meadow hay that I feed them is the very best quality but it is cheap and easy to get and they have been grand on it.

[dianah]

it's up to you! i feed timothy but it's oxbow timothy which is green rather than brown like all the other brands i can buy over here. the strands are also longer. i have to order it though and sometimes i run out and have to give them timothy/meadow hay from the shops and they turn their noses up 

i would say, if they're perfectly fine on meadow hay, keep them on meadow hay. if you want to change them over to timothy, keep an eye on buddy's poo. how soft is it? is it just a bit softer but squishy? or does it sticks to his bum and fur and there are clumps of it on shelves?

buddy's in a separate cage from the girls, isn't he? you could change him over slower.