Burgess forage/homage is it?

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Andywilson

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Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to ask some advice, I have been on the Burgess website and noticed they do bags of Forage/Homage, has anyone got a preference to which I should purchase?

Also my boys have excell pellets in two separte bowls on the top shelf of our ferplast 120, they hardly touch them, instead just eating hay and kale. They leave the carrot and cabbage we give them also, so I am wondering if there was another good pellet I should try. My thoughts were once the vegetables have been eaten they might eats some of the nuggets but we give them continuous hay and at present the nuggets are going uneaten and they need them for their goodness.

Any advice would be cool.

Thanks

Andrew and Jo. (Pictures will be up soon).

One last thing they are indoor pigs and my girlfriend doesn't want them running around the kitchen floors because of the floor cleaner she uses. Can anyone recommend a really cool in-door run? We will get an outdoor run soon but the weather is so bad at the moment and they are very young.
 
the herbage bag is supposed to be good it has dandelions in it which is good for pigs i have ordered this but havent got it yet
are you feeding them the plain excel nuggets? have you tried the blackcurrant and oregano ones they might prefer it, my pigs thought the plain excel nuggets were litter and just pee'd in it rolleyes
 
My guinea pigs love all of the burgess forage/herbage hays apart from the birch bark one. They really aren't picky. It may be worth moving one of the bowls down off the shelf. Piggies also wont eat a lot of dry food hen they have adequate hay and veg so only need a small handfull even as babies. It isn't essential, ine europe, especially in germany it would seem many people ween their guinea pigs completely off of dry foods and feed them soley on hay and veg.

You will find cabbage is one of the most left over veggies ever. Only one of mine likes it. Try mixing it up and giving them somthing sweeter like parsnip, a tiny bit of apple, some bell pepper or romaine, round or curly leaf lettuce.

One of the best indoor ones are fabric pop up ones like this : http://ukpetsonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=559

They fold flat and you dont get mess on your floor :)
 
Thank you everyone we have ordered a inside run Zombieprincess but got it from Amazon, thanks for the link.

Regarding a fleece covered floor, can you roll the fleeces over, as ours is quite big. We were going to get rid of all of the wood shavings and have fleece all over the floor on top of towels and newspaper. The reason for doing this is one of the piggies has started sneezing today, we don't know if it is the wood shavings in his bed or if it is because we have put the hay in a hay bale now and he is putting his nose into it to pull it out, this could be triggering his sneezing off? Does the sneezing sound serious, or should I just keep an eye on him? They have there free vert consultation coming up from Pets for Homes, so we were going to bring it up. I feel a little sad for the other piggy Clyde, as he loves foraging for his scraps through the wood shavings and they won't be there anymore.

In an ideal world I like the idea of a fleece floor all over but part of me still wants there to be some wood shavings so that they can forage for food like in the wild.

Is the recommenation to get rid of dust free wood shavings at all costs, which is what we are using as bedding and on the floor at the moment?

Any advice would be very much appreciated, if you can understand what I am waffling on about :-)

Andy & Jo, Clyde and Bumble.
 
What i would say, is firstly sneezing on its own is not necessarily concerning. It CAN be a symtom of a URI (upper respatory infection) But these would also have symptoms like a runny nose, crusty eyes, breathing difficulties.

Please be aware, the pets at home vets... and going to be much like pets at home, and probably not know what they are talking about. Obviously go to the free vet check up, but please try to find another cavvy savvy vet in your area if they do actually get ill. :)

The rule is ... try to get rid. However a good alternative is to put newspaper and hay on their shelf, this way they can still forage up their. *hay shouldnt really be dusty, good quality hay should smell sweet, be soft and green. :)* Often, your local farm shop or horsey place will do good hay for a good price.

Also, yes, the fleece can be folded over. :)
 
Thank you fr your advice Connie you've been wonderful.

We took the boys to Pets for homes vets last night. I didn't like the guy at all, I felt he had no person skills and wanted us in and out as faxt as possible. He spoke fast and I couldn't understadn what he was saying, he spoke so quickly. Bumble has a minor infection he said, as the nose looked a little green, I can't remember the name of the medicine he has perscribed but we have to mouth feed them both for ten days, twice a day with a syringe to bring their ammunity levels back up again. He said that due to stress of move etc, their ammunity levels have dropped and Bumble has a infection. We are also having to give Bumble eye drops twice a day and cleaning his crusty eyes. Poor thing. We are worried about both of them, Clyde he 't in as good condition as Bumble and my girlfriend and eye basically want to bring them both up to full health as we don't think Pet's for Homes looked after them very well. I will keep you posted.

We will look for a cavie/exotic vet locally, there is no way they are going back to Pets for Homes, I wasn't impressed. He didn't even know about fleece bedding and when I mentioned I wanted to get away from wood shavings, he recommnded straw or hay. I told him that straw was a bad beddign to use. Seemed to know little at the time.

We will get rid of the wood shavings but might make the top shelf like you say covered in a layer of hay with paper for Clyde. They don't climb up onto the ledge much the step up in the Ferplast 120's are quite steep I find.

Hay we are using the pets for homes hay at the moment, it's all they will eat. We tried them on some lovely hay last night, a premium hay but they didn't touch it but I will go and buy some EXCEL grass.

I will also look up a local farm to get some fresh, green, smelling hay.

Our boys are extremly fussy again probably due to being fed little variety and cheap hay at Pets for homes. So far.... Bumble loves Kale, baby corn and hay, turning his nose up at carrot, white cabbage and yellow/red peppers, raspberries and Cucumber. Clyde is only eating the baby corns, a little carrot and hay with nuggets., he also turns his nose up at everything else.

Are baby corns ok for them and if you can suggest another really lovely veggie/veggies that they won't turn down, I would be most grateful.

Their inside run/playpen will turn up tomorrow hopefully, I just hope they get better soon.

With our thanks

Andresw, Jo, Bumble and Clyde.
 
Awww hope your boys feel better soon, sounds like you are doing a really good job in trying to make them feel better!

Have you tried them on a little apple, a slice or two without the pips? My boys love it! They also love Broccoli but you cant give it too often as it can make them "gassy".

Not tried it myself but have read that honeydew melon usually goes down well, sliced with the peel on (just wash it) but take the pips out. You could try tomatoes too?

Good luck, hope everyone is feeling better soon x
 
Thank you ever so much, we will try our best, the fleece is going down tonight whilst they are playing in their in-door play-pen, we just need some more toys. x
 
Andywilson said:
Thank you fr your advice Connie you've been wonderful.

We took the boys to Pets for homes vets last night. I didn't like the guy at all, I felt he had no person skills and wanted us in and out as faxt as possible. He spoke fast and I couldn't understadn what he was saying, he spoke so quickly. Bumble has a minor infection he said, as the nose looked a little green, I can't remember the name of the medicine he has perscribed but we have to mouth feed them both for ten days, twice a day with a syringe to bring their ammunity levels back up again. He said that due to stress of move etc, their ammunity levels have dropped and Bumble has a infection. We are also having to give Bumble eye drops twice a day and cleaning his crusty eyes. Poor thing. We are worried about both of them, Clyde he 't in as good condition as Bumble and my girlfriend and eye basically want to bring them both up to full health as we don't think Pet's for Homes looked after them very well. I will keep you posted.

We will look for a cavie/exotic vet locally, there is no way they are going back to Pets for Homes, I wasn't impressed. He didn't even know about fleece bedding and when I mentioned I wanted to get away from wood shavings, he recommnded straw or hay. I told him that straw was a bad beddign to use. Seemed to know little at the time.

We will get rid of the wood shavings but might make the top shelf like you say covered in a layer of hay with paper for Clyde. They don't climb up onto the ledge much the step up in the Ferplast 120's are quite steep I find.

Hay we are using the pets for homes hay at the moment, it's all they will eat. We tried them on some lovely hay last night, a premium hay but they didn't touch it but I will go and buy some EXCEL grass.

I will also look up a local farm to get some fresh, green, smelling hay.

Our boys are extremly fussy again probably due to being fed little variety and cheap hay at Pets for homes. So far.... Bumble loves Kale, baby corn and hay, turning his nose up at carrot, white cabbage and yellow/red peppers, raspberries and Cucumber. Clyde is only eating the baby corns, a little carrot and hay with nuggets., he also turns his nose up at everything else.

Are baby corns ok for them and if you can suggest another really lovely veggie/veggies that they won't turn down, I would be most grateful.

Their inside run/playpen will turn up tomorrow hopefully, I just hope they get better soon.

With our thanks

Andresw, Jo, Bumble and Clyde.
Click to expand...

I will try to answer everything i can, bit by bit, if i miss anything remind me. :)

If the medicen is baytrill thats good (baytrill is an antibiotic that should help) If it isnt, or you arnt sure, please get them to another vet. They definatly need actuall antibiotics.

Might also be worth getting them some probiotic to go with this. This is very easy to use, you can just mix it up and syringe it. :)

Its important to remember he iisnt an exotic specialist, he treats all the animals that come in there. He might be rubish, but its not necessarily HIS fault. Just best to find someone better. :)

If you have a fiddle sticks (the little wooden bridge things) Pop one of those near it and they may use the ramp more. :) Might be worth thinking about a C&C if its an option for you.

Veg i would recomend are... celery, cucumber, lettuce (not iceburg) brocilli, parsley (as a treat) corriander. :) Baby corn is ok, but quite fattening long term. Also, just because they dont eat it the first time doesnt mean they wont. try leaving it in for a day, or putting it in again another time. :)

What dry food are they on at the moment? (if they are not eating much veggies, it will be important to make sure this is a high quality one)

HTH
 
Hi,

Thank you for your help, they are both on Baytril which is good but we are struggling giving it to Bumble who is the most poorly. I guess it's a mixture of how I am holding them still and Jo's hesitation with the syringe. This morning was awful, Bumble got very worked up and we think he only got half of his dosage, I can't seem to keep him still, maybe tonight will be easier because this morning we did his eye drops first when maybe we should give him his oral medicine first. Since being back in the cage he has not come out of his cage, Clyde is fine.

Regarding probiotic, I don't know really what this is and where I can get it from, how to use it.

We will look up a vet in Colchester in case they don't get better after this course of anti-biotics. I keep stressing with Jo, maybe they are very stressed at the moment, new cage, new owners, new foods now new floor covering (fleece), new play pen, being transported back to pets, being given medicine twice a day. Should we respect that they need to relax and get better and should we leave them quietly in their beds as much as possible and not fuss around too much on a daily basis in their cage?

Regarding veggies we will give baby corn occasionally but will continue to give it to them, they both love it. We will try celerly, cucumber didn't work but we will try again in future if we eat it. lettuce and brocolli we will try, parsley sounds good we also heard parsnip was good. Peppers orange, red and yellow they left.

The dried food are Burgess Excel nuggets which they do eat but only occasionally. This morning we have given them a sample puch of Supreme Science Selective Guinea pig nuggets with Dandelion, Fennel and nettle and they love them. We were also sent a sample puch of Burgess Excel Blackcurrant and oragno nuggets. These are the three we will feed them nothing else. (We are spending a fortune :-)).

Today I spoke to Graham at Hay for Pets, I told them they are only eating the pets for homes hay. He has recommended I brought a 4.5kg bag of his Ing and Meadow hay mixed in, which will be softer and finer for fussy, poorly pigs. He said the hay will have a nice sent and for £12, I think I'll take his advice. Does this sound good and right to you? He said probably not a good idea giving them Timothy for now.

I look forward to your reply.

Andrew & Jo x
 
Hello, I'm only just caught up with this thread. sorry your little ones are unwell. As with the medication have you tried wrapping your little ones in a towel. It helps to hold them secure and makes them feel a bit safer. Might be worth a try later with the next dosage. I would give the oral dosage first, but only my opinion.

Theres no reason why you shouldnt fuss around them, but giving them a little space isnt a bad thing either. I think if you are only picking them up for medications then they will only associate you with the medication. So giving cuddles in between is important too.

Probiotics usually go into the water bottles and can be got from pet shops or vets. But you need to ask for a good quality one. Such a bio lapis (a rabbit pro biotic). Many of the pelleted foods these days do have a pro biotic mixed in, i know the excel does.

I would try whatever veggies you like. I tend to stear clear of parsnip, I'm not 100% sure its brill for them. Just introduce little bits at a time. I think there is a thread on here with a list of veg they can eat. I'm sure someone will come along soon any point you towards it.

Try whatever nuggets you wish. They are a little bit pricey i suppose but to be honest you get what you pay for. As i have so many i buy a 10kg bag of the excel nuggets for my lot. Its only £20 and lasts quite a while.

Pets at home hay isnt very qood quality in my opinion, so i agree with the man from hay for pets. I had an outbreak of ringworm in my herd last time i used the stuff. I havent used hay for pets so i cant comment on them really, but many people here do use it and love it. I tend to feed oxbow, excel and supreme science hays in general but they get mixes of all kinds of things to keep it interesting. The main hay to stear clear of (especially as you have boars) is alfalfa as it is high in calcium and will risk you piggies having bladder stones and problems.

Hope this helps.

x.

I dont actaully see any problem giving them timothy hay at the moment.
 
Thank you ever so much for all of your help, I will take everything on board and will let you know how we get on.

I have ordered his Ings Hay and Meadow hay mixed in from Hey with pets in a 4.5kg bag, so I hope they like it. I honestly can't keep up and don't know what they will like, its costing me a fortune, just going down the store again now to buy lots of veggies, they eat better than me!

Jo and I appreciate your help

x
 
For veg, if you have an aldi near you they do some great offers on fruit/veg and lidl can be pretty cheap too. I've found them great in keeping my pigs & buns fed, getting some pots of herbs could be an idea too, pretty cheap from supermarkets and taking a little off them every few days will get them growing so they're a good investment :) hope your little ones feel better soon :)
 
Sounds like your getting loads of great help! :)

dont worry, they will cost you less when you get into a routine of what they like. :)
 
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