Dodson & Horrell...

ThePiggieHouse

ThePiggieHouse

Junior Guinea Pig
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Location
Lincolnshire.
Years ago, I was a member of the Lincs Cavy Club (not sure if it's still ongoing) and I remember a club discussion about Food mix, a breeder (who had won many shows and was one of the board committee chairs) recommended Dodson and Horrel Fibre P. Which was a Horse Mix... it was a peculiar mix, of hay, fibre compound and pea flake it was brown in colour and smelt rather weird, does anyone else remember being told horse feed was acceptable ?
Mine piggies don't eat horsemix by the way- they have P@H nuggets mixed with mint or blackberry or Excel nuggets with BlackBerry or mint.
 
Personally I wouldn't feed any food that wasn't marketed for guinea pigs as guinea pigs do not make their own vitamin C so relay on getting it from their food. Guinea pig food contains a extra vitamin C
 
I think at the time it was probably considered ok, but knowledge about appropriate guinea pig nutrition has moved on a lot in the last few years.
I recently came across the leaflet I was given when I adopted my first two piggies** from the RSPCA, and it said dry bread was a good addition to their diets in the winter as well as a small amount of nuts and seeds to provide essential oils for optimal coat condition!
I am fairly certain that these days the RSPCA nutirional guidelines have changed quite a lot :))

**Just to clarify tht the leaflet in question was almost 20 years old, so this is very outdated advice. Which also begs the question as to why I still have this piece of paper after 20 years, and 4 house moves across 2 different countries :hmm:
 
Swissgreys said:
I think at the time it was probably considered ok, but knowledge about appropriate guinea pig nutrition has moved on a lot in the last few years.
I recently came across the leaflet I was given when I adopted my first two piggies** from the RSPCA, and it said dry bread was a good addition to their diets in the winter as well as a small amount of nuts and seeds to provide essential oils for optimal coat condition!
I am fairly certain that these days the RSPCA nutirional guidelines have changed quite a lot :))

**Just to clarify tht the leaflet in question was almost 20 years old, so this is very outdated advice. Which also begs the question as to why I still have this piece of paper after 20 years, and 4 house moves across 2 different countries :hmm:
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I sadly remember feeding dry bread and muesli type food to my rabbit Casper, he also lived in a small hutch in our garden shed alone :( But that was over 22 years ago and me and my parents new know different at the time. I feel so sorry for that poor bunny now :(
 
Claire W said:
I sadly remember feeding dry bread and muesli type food to my rabbit Casper, he also lived in a small hutch in our garden shed alone :( But that was over 22 years ago and me and my parents new know different at the time. I feel so sorry for that poor bunny now :(
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I know what you mean Claire - I still feel bad for the diet and life that my first 2 piggies had.
I did everything with the best of intentions of course, but their hutch was tiny and they also had muesli food (was a complete nugget even available all those years ago?), and I did indeed feed them bread and seeds.
I think of them often but try to remind myself that we did the best we could with the knowledge we had at the time. If we were to keep our piggies (or rabbits) like that these days then that would be wrong, but at the time we both probabably offered what would have been considered totally suitable homes. :hug:
 
Swissgreys said:
I know what you mean Claire - I still feel bad for the diet and life that my first 2 piggies had.
I did everything with the best of intentions of course, but their hutch was tiny and they also had muesli food (was a complete nugget even available all those years ago?), and I did indeed feed them bread and seeds.
I think of them often but try to remind myself that we did the best we could with the knowledge we had at the time. If we were to keep our piggies (or rabbits) like that these days then that would be wrong, but at the time we both probabably offered what would have been considered totally suitable homes. :hug:
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Same here, I kept guinea pigs and rabbits as a child. Although I loved them to bits and thought that I was doing everything right I see now all the big mistakes I was making. But I'd like to think they still had happy lives, and as you say we did the best we knew how at the time.
 
Swissgreys said:
I know what you mean Claire - I still feel bad for the diet and life that my first 2 piggies had.
I did everything with the best of intentions of course, but their hutch was tiny and they also had muesli food (was a complete nugget even available all those years ago?), and I did indeed feed them bread and seeds.
I think of them often but try to remind myself that we did the best we could with the knowledge we had at the time. If we were to keep our piggies (or rabbits) like that these days then that would be wrong, but at the time we both probabably offered what would have been considered totally suitable homes. :hug:
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Yes that's true. My first two piggies didn't have the best either. They lived in a small 3ft hutch that Connie came with, were fed muesli food and their veg consisted of a couple of slices of apple and a slice of carrot :( That was 10 years ago but thankfully I found this forum about 4 months in to owning them but even then, piggies were living in small hutches and cages as well as being fed muesli but like you say, we did our best for the information that was given at the.time x
 
It's very sad, but we did our best at the time.... there are many things that I wouldn't dream of doing now that I did back then... but times thankfully for piggies and buns move forward in their management and care and we can embrace the new achievements and love are piggies even more.
It frustrates me tho how some people are still so ignorant to their needs of their furbaby. Don't look into their needs enough and give up just because they don't thrive...
Educate educate educate!
 
Knowledge is power.

My previous piggies (about fifteen years ago), lived outdoors year round, had 24/7 access to the garden and often chose to share the rabbits hutch.

Current piggies are treated like little princes compared to them.
 
I too kept a rabbit and Guinea together...they were called Gin and Tonic (blame my grandparents I was only 7!) to be fair they got on really well but myxomatosis was rife then and there were no vaccinations in those days and the rabbit caught it...it was terrible. Poor Tonic the Guinea pig died a few weeks later from fitting, and to this day I feel so bad that I never got her a friend and wonder what caused the fitting. They did have a huge hutch and run though and lived inside in the winter. My parents were great at making sure they were well cared for. But they were also fed muesli, dried bread and straw! As you say..knowledge is power, we knew so little then!
 
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