Advice on best guinea pig dry food/pellets?

[iamsnape]

Okay so I've been meaning to get an opinion on dry food/pellets for a while as I know how important having good quality dry food is.
My pigs have been eating Wagg Guinea Pig crunch since birth so are very accustomed to it. However, I'm not sure how great it is so was hoping you guys could give your opinions. They're kinda fussy with it and only eat certain things - particularly the flakey bits rather than the nuggets. I have tried switching them to the pig food that my vets sell...can't remember the name but I know it cost about £1.40 a kilo. They wouldn't touch it. But I wanna know I'm feeding them good stuff!

Other than that they have lettuce daily (some days just green, others red and green), and carrot in the afternoon. Then I try and offer them a bit of variety by switching the other veg they get between days/when we have it - spinach, chard (the stuff you get in the mixed packets of leaves, y'know? Can't remember all of it. But no iceberg, I check for that), sometimes they have fresh coriander, tomato, green beans, etc. What do you reckon - are we all okay in the veggies department too? I give them fruit as a treat but they don't really like it - they'll have a nibble on a grape or kiwi but that's basically it, won't touch anything else.

 

[sport_billy]

We use 2 different types of dry food.

Meg our lone girl has burgess excel pellets and Cookie and Treacle have Wagg pellets which are now called Harringtons pellets.

We used to feed our first girls gertie guinea pig food, which is similar to wagg crunch as it is different shapes and colours. It does, as you have said make them selectively eat some bits over others... Is it worth swaping? Some may say it is... I'm not so sure. The promblem with fakes is they have lots of colourings in so i wiulnt choose to feed that to our pigs now. But our girls ate Gerty guinea from day one and lived until they were 4 and 5 so it did them no harm.
If you do want to swap dry food then don't change it change in one go... Add a little of the new food to your current and decrease the old biT by bit, so you swap them over slowly.

As regrds to veggies, Here is a link to a thread by Laura on calcium and phosphorus ratios, halfway down the thread it gives you an idea on feeding frequencies on foods http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...sphorus-Ratios-Explained-Diet-Advice-included
We switch our veggies around but tend to give cucumber and celery daily everything else is switched so lettuce, parsley, celery leaves gets interchanged each day. Unfortunately due to having one long term bloat pigge and a diabetic we have to not have as much variety In their diets as they had when they were younger.

 

[Hermes]

You could try Burgess Excel (comes in normal, mint, and blackcurrant and oregano) or wagg/harringtons pellets, both seem to be popular choices and reasonable quality. Pellets are generally considered better than muesli as they tend to be less fattening, contain less inappropriate foodstuffs (seeds, coloured pellets etc., though it varies between mixes) and prevent selective feeding so the entire nutritional value of the food is met and there's no wastage. The recommended way to change foods is to mix together new and old and gradually change over. Personally, I tend to change them over quite quickly and I don't replace the food until what is their bowl has been eaten (making sure you measure out correct amounts helps with this, I feed 50g pellets twice a day between two). It can take time for them to get used to a new food so perseverance is key. Of course when changing foods you should always make sure they have plenty of hay and their usual veg rations (as usual), don't worry about them going hungry if they're taking their time about eating new pellets, some people don't feed dry food at all and I think really it's just a sort of nutritional 'catch all' to back up the hay/grass/veg.

I think carrot is something that's not recommended to be fed daily (something to do with vitamin A and the liver) but is better 2-3 times a week, as for other veg I feel (capsicum) pepper and cucumber should be mentioned, both favourites with my pigs and peppers are great for vitamin C. Variety is the spice of life and what have you, try reading through this thread to give you an idea of all the things they could have - http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?42-Guinea-Pig-Shopping-List.

 

[Stewybus]

Mine have been tried on most dried foods but it's only Gerty that they'll touch & then it's only less than half that's put out. Ours also get Readi-Grass all year round though they don't eat as much from spring till autumn when they get lots of fresh grass either picked or when they're out in their run on the lawn. If you buy Readi-Grass & you've got room to store a it, it's best to get a large bag (I think it's 20 kilo) from a farm store for about £12 as it's about £3 to £4 a Kilo in pet shops.

Hay is essential & it's up to you whether you buy the bagged stuff from pet shops or supermarkets. Personally I prefer to buy a bale of hay from a local farm for £4 & this lasts for about 3 months & probably still fresher when I get to the last than most new bought packets from shops.

With fruit & veg they need a good variety, sounds like you're feeding yours a good variety already. Peppers of any colour are essential as they provide a good natural source of vitamin C which piggies need but don't produce naturally. Ours also like celery, most greens apart from sprouts & cabbage. They love brocolli stalks sliced. Try to avoid grapes in quantity but a treat once in a while shouldn't harm them

 

[iamsnape]

I think carrot is something that's not recommended to be fed daily (something to do with vitamin A and the liver) but is better 2-3 times a week, as for other veg I feel (capsicum) pepper and cucumber should be mentioned, both favourites with my pigs and peppers are great for vitamin C. Variety is the spice of life and what have you, try reading through this thread to give you an idea of all the things they could have - http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?42-Guinea-Pig-Shopping-List.

Ah okay, so it's alright to leave the food in their until they've eaten it? I normally swap it when the stuff they don't normally touch is in there so I'll feed like I'm being cruel haha.
Thank-you for the tip of carrots too, didn't know that. They normally have one small one to share, and actually now that I'm thinking about it it's every other day they get one so probably 4 times a week. Is that alright or should I reduce it?

Hay is essential & it's up to you whether you buy the bagged stuff from pet shops or supermarkets. Personally I prefer to buy a bale of hay from a local farm for £4 & this lasts for about 3 months & probably still fresher when I get to the last than most new bought packets from shops.

With fruit & veg they need a good variety, sounds like you're feeding yours a good variety already. Peppers of any colour are essential as they provide a good natural source of vitamin C which piggies need but don't produce naturally. Ours also like celery, most greens apart from sprouts & cabbage. They love brocolli stalks sliced. Try to avoid grapes in quantity but a treat once in a while shouldn't harm them

I keep trying them with peppers and they refuse to eat them! I've even cut them up mega small and tried to combine them with other food...doesn't happen :/
They only get like a grape or two every other month as we never have them and I don't specifically buy fruit for the pigs because they don't eat much of it when I do give them some, literally just a nibble. They tend to get a small piece to share of whatever I'm having but not frequently at all cos it only gets wasted.

I want to start buying bales of hay but not a clue where I'd keep it! So at the moment I get it bagged. So expensive though. But they have 24 hour access to it so they never run out, I make sure I top it up all the time


Thank-you for the tips guys. I will look in to different pellets because I do worry about what dry food they're getting at the moment and for a couple of months I've suspected wagg crunch isn't that amazing. I'll try and get a sample of the burgess food to see what they think.
Oh they also get mixed forrages but I buy that bagged because I'm too concerned about chemicals to get it fresh out the garden or anything. Never know what's gone on it.

 

[teadragon]

Bales of hay are HUGE and would require a hut or cupboard for their storage!

Best to buy in bulk if you're wanting to reduce the number of bags you're buying. It's a bit of a stab in the pocket the first time you purchase but it will last you a long time.

The Hay Experts or Dust Free Hays are the suppliers that I use when buying hay.

 

[Hermes]

Ah okay, so it's alright to leave the food in their until they've eaten it? I normally swap it when the stuff they don't normally touch is in there so I'll feed like I'm being cruel haha.
Thank-you for the tip of carrots too, didn't know that. They normally have one small one to share, and actually now that I'm thinking about it it's every other day they get one so probably 4 times a week. Is that alright or should I reduce it?

Thank-you for the tips guys. I will look in to different pellets because I do worry about what dry food they're getting at the moment and for a couple of months I've suspected wagg crunch isn't that amazing. I'll try and get a sample of the burgess food to see what they think.
Oh they also get mixed forrages but I buy that bagged because I'm too concerned about chemicals to get it fresh out the garden or anything. Never know what's gone on it.

I believe it's okay to leave in dry food if they haven't eaten it all, obviously within a common sense time frame (e.g. empty the bowl every couple of days) and if the food gets soiled then of course replace it. As I mentioned I feed mine twice a day, roughly 50g of pellets each time and that's all they get (plus hay and veg of course) so it tends to get eaten. I've found when changing foods just leaving a bowl of the new pellets in there for a few days means they eventually try it and realise it's not so bad, I think they can just be cautious of new things. It may not work but you can always try!

As for the carrots that's probably okay, for more specific info I think it's mentioned in the thread on calcium:phosphorous ratios that sport_billy posted above or the guinea pig shopping list (can't remember which!).

If you have your own garden and don't use chemicals in there then you don't need to worry about contamination, they do like fresh stuff.

 

[biscandmatt]

i feed oxbow cavy cuisine. not many though, just a small amount at night.