Best Foods?

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LaurenSandford

LaurenSandford

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I feed Burgess Excel nuggets to my 4 Skinny pigs. They love them. Just wondering what everyone else feeds and/or what's the best dry food out there?

Also what veg/forages does everyone give daily? My girls get fresh grass daily, and love broadleaf plantain that's just appearing near me :) and also veg.

Obviously unlimited hay and water.

Thanks everyone :)
 
Hi, my boys have p@home nuggets at the mo but I'm going to try excel next time I need dried food. Mine eat upto 4 hay racks worth of hay a day I always keep it topped up. As for veg I give them, greens, green peppers (or other colours), dandelion leaves, Savoy cabbage, green cabbage, mini corn, flat leaf parsley, raspberry leaves from my garden, spinach , fresh grass, they love cos lettuce they throw all the other veggies out of their bowl to get to it. They also eat broccoli, tomatoes, carrot, celery cucumber peas etc as a treat they have apple, honeydew melon, grapes. A few other herbs from the garden but only in small amounts and not very often.
Oh and fresh water morning and evening :)
 
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Mine have a lot of these veggies! I want the best nuggets, the excel ones are occasionally on special in the range but I'm running low and can't find an offer!
I have a hay manager and they love tugging at the hay to get it out, good enrichment too I guess.
How much are the p@h nuggets?
 
LaurenSandford said:
Mine have a lot of these veggies! I want the best nuggets, the excel ones are occasionally on special in the range but I'm running low and can't find an offer!
I have a hay manager and they love tugging at the hay to get it out, good enrichment too I guess.
How much are the p@h nuggets?
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The p@h nuggets work out roughly the same as excel
P@h a 2kg bag is £4.75, they do a 4kg bag which I think is around £9 and a large 10kg bag also
Excel is £5.50 for a 2kg bag at P@h and £10.50 for a 4kg bag.
Pets at home have great online offers on regularly just a few weeks ago they had 20% off most small pet items which included most of the foods worth a quick look every so often so we can stock up.
My hay rack hangs on the wire of their hutch and yesterday they were all trying to pull the hay from the bottom and the hay rack banged back once they got some out of it and made them all jump...silly piggies, my Oreo likes to climb or stand up to reach the top of the rack which it great to see.
 
I've been using the Excel nuggets for my boys. It often works out best to get the huge bags when they are on two for so much. That's what I tend to do and it cuts down the cost a little. :)
 
My lot do tug of war it's so funny to watch.
Ah ok, similar price then. Good idea to just keep an eye out. In the range excel went down to about £3 odd a bag x
 
Ill be moving over to bunny or similar from zooplus myself :-) just using up a bag of harringtons (bought that for unexpected pigs the week before payday when literally had nothing left and id not dip into the vet bills account for food)
 
piggyfan said:
After finding out burgess add molasses I stopped using them and use bunny as recommended by Helen. It may cost more but that is because it contains better quality ingredients.
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Never realised this! Only just been learning all about mollasses at college as part of the equine nutrition, didn't realise it was in guinea pig food too, now going to have do some more research, burgess don't seem to state how much is in their so may have to badger them for answers!
 
Very interesting, hence the post, just want the best for my girls. We all feed great veg etc then their nuggets are full of crap. Had trouble with dog food recently too, had to do so much research due to my dogs allergies x
 
Sorry to butt in here, can someone explain what molasses are? I feed excel too but now wondering if I should switch to something else (fussy piggies permitting, of course!)
 
twiams said:
Never realised this! Only just been learning all about mollasses at college as part of the equine nutrition, didn't realise it was in guinea pig food too, now going to have do some more research, burgess don't seem to state how much is in their so may have to badger them for answers!
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It is scary isn't it? I emailed them to ask why they include it and they said it was essential for rabbits despite me saying guinea pigs.
 
:( sorry to sound like a tight a**e but do any of you know of a food similar price to the burgess that would be better? I'm not working at the moment (waiting for contracts to exchange...) simply cannot afford Bunny recommended above :(
 
with dearer pellets you use less so they arent as dear as they seem, but I'm sure harringtons dont have added sugar and those are cheaper than burgess but dont quote me on that :-)
 
piggyfan said:
It is scary isn't it? I emailed them to ask why they include it and they said it was essential for rabbits despite me saying guinea pigs.
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Thank you for your e-mail

We add molasses to our products for two purposes; to enhance palatability, and as a source of quick release carbohydrates, which are essential in a guinea or rabbit's diet. Sugar naturally occurs in grass, plant and fruit materials in the wild, which is essential. Fresh grass can contain around 11% sugar, and up to 16% total water soluble carbohydrates - these levels are nearly 3 times those found in Burgess Excel products.
We are extremely careful to balance the sugar content across our small animal diets as we understand the importance of this to a pets health. When taken in the context of the overall feeding plan, the sugar levels supplied by our nuggets are negligible, against the levels provided by fresh natural grass or hay, which should make up the bulk of the diet.

Kind regards, Consumer Care

Which kind of goes with what i know as such, because molasses are used to give palatability to food in general, and often used to help horses take medications in their food etc. But i'm not 100% on how they effect guinea pigs! May check up with my vet, when i'm back to work, just to put my mind at rest :)

I've always used Burgess, well, apart from when i first got my pigs, they were on a Jollyes own brand then, but i've since only bought the large 10kg bags of burgess as it's a cheap alternative to smaller bags :)
 
this is a very interesting thread. Pellet food has always confused me . I can't understand why many brands add calcium when I spend a lot of time and effort trying to limit high calcium veggies from my piggies's diets.

I look forward to @helen105281 developing a pellet information thread.

the 2 brands I use are Oxbow Cavy Cuisine and Science Selective
 
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LaurenSandford said:
Glad I asked now. But now don't know what to feed :/
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It does get confusing - but at least you're looking into this and trying to find the best. When I last went to my pet supplies to stock up , I was chatting to the owner who told me that most people who came in went for the cheapest brands ( Muesli ) . Where's the logic in that?

My view is that you get what you pay for and I would sooner use less of a superior brand than go for the cheapest.
 
I used to use this for my hairys but left so much of it it's pointless. Now on nuggets same as my skinnies. Trouble is my skinnies eat so much. I need something reasonably priced, but good quality (don't we all)
 
helen105281 said:
I feed Bunny from Zooplus as it is grainless and has very natural ingredients and one of my skinnies is very sensitive and so this really helps her.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/bunny/195679

I am currently working on a pellet info thread though where I will list all of the brands.
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I am weaning on to this only because Burgess has alot of Mollasses in which are not good for piggies. Skinnies being a bit more sensitive- then I will do anything to help them to have the best.
 
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