Dried Food

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Phoebe-PP

Phoebe-PP

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I know this is old territory but I'm STILL unsure as to which dried food is the best! I want to feed the girls on a pellet, but everyone seems to have conflicting views as to which ones the best. Which one would you recommend for 3 and a half year old girls?
 
I feed mine the excel blackcurrent and oregano one. and they have wagg mixed with it at the moment while they get used to it
 
Mine get the Excel nuggets. They really love the blackcurrant ones, but it's not very often you can buy them at our local shop.
 
It seems like you guys agree on Burgess Excel Blackcurrant and Oregano, that makes things easier! How good is it nutritionally?
 
This is something I've been wondering about as well. When I first got my girls I bought a bag of Wilko's guinea pig muesli, and when I collected them I was given a bag of Waggs so I mixed the two together. I've read a lot of things about pellet, but have no idea if I should switch foods or where to get pellets!
 
I would certainly feed them a complete pellet to be honest, it stops selective feeding. I would generally say (tho others will conflict with me i suppose) that the more expensive the better quality. Good quality stuff is Burgess Excel (which i feed), Wagg, Supreme petfoods one (i cant remember the name) or the Oxbow one (which i also cant remember the name of). I personaly dont like musli or mixes. Try to steer clean of anything with E colourants in. Its not good for your piggies health.

x.
 
Abi_nurse said:
I would certainly feed them a complete pellet to be honest, it stops selective feeding. I would generally say (tho others will conflict with me i suppose) that the more expensive the better quality. Good quality stuff is Burgess Excel (which i feed), Wagg, Supreme petfoods one (i cant remember the name) or the Oxbow one (which i also cant remember the name of). I personaly dont like musli or mixes. Try to steer clean of anything with E colourants in. Its not good for your piggies health.

x.
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Thank you I will look around. Don't have a pet shop here, only Wilko or Tesco for pet food. I think I saw one of those Countrywide stores in the next town, so will check that out
:))
 
My girlfriend uses the same Burgess one for her pigs as others have mentioned on here and they all love it so it's obviously a winner! Mine however don't all like it and I have to be careful with big pieces of food for my Jasper as he has a breathing problem and if food is too big for him, he can't breathe and chew at the same time and ends up choking. I stuck to Wagg Crunch as they all seem to eat it apart from a few that won't eat the cornflake bits but it's small enough for Jasper too. But my girlfriend's ordered me a small bag of Wagg Optimum to put them onto as I've wanted to get them on a pellet for so long and I'm hoping they take to this one, they all eat the pellet bits in their mix so fingers crossed!

I'd get hold of that Burgess one if you can and see if yours like it :)
 
I recommend burgess! I've tried science selective which, although my rabbits go crazy for it, the guineas weren't keen (very odd for my food mad pigs!).

Cavy cuisine is supposed to be good but for 5 piggies I can't really justify the price, especially when burgess blackcurrant one goes down a treat!
 
Alright, Burgess it is! Thanks every one for your input :) My girls have tried Burgess before and it went down a treat, so there won't be any problems there...hopefully!
 
I would feed Burgess if the blinkin' website delivered them on time...2 weeks later I'm still waiting...
My pigs aren't fussy whether they have the original ones or the blackcurrant and oregano ones, however I think Archie finds the original ones harder to chew and I had an older pig before who lost quite a bit of weight when I used the original ones so I think he found them tricky too.
 
I've tried mine on excel, science selective & wagg optimum. They weren't keen on Excel, loved Optimum for a bit and went off it and absolutely love Science Selctive.

If you email Supreme who make Science Selective [email protected] and tell them how many guinea pigs you have and ask if they will send a sample they usually send a decent sized bag which cost around £1 in the shop.

I think Burgess will do the same for Excel http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/contact.html

Not so sure on Wagg, I think someone got told to buy it if they wanted to try it...
 
Shellza said:
I would feed Burgess if the blinkin' website delivered them on time...2 weeks later I'm still waiting...
My pigs aren't fussy whether they have the original ones or the blackcurrant and oregano ones, however I think Archie finds the original ones harder to chew and I had an older pig before who lost quite a bit of weight when I used the original ones so I think he found them tricky too.
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I wonder why the original ones are harder to chew? Seems strange, but oh well, seeing as my girls are entering their twilight years (don't tell them I said that!) I reckon I'll go with the blackcurrant and oregano ones!
 
I'd like to echoe the thanks as I've found this thread very useful too. Went on the Burgess website and found a stockist not far from me, so will start introducing my girls too it with their Waggs, ready to change completely when the Waggs has run out :))
 
I can't afford to feed mine on Excel at the moment because of how many I have and I can get Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch for half the price of Excel. So yep mine have the Wagg variety of food, they aren't too fussed about what they get as long as I am on time with it haha
 
Bailey said:
If you email Supreme who make Science Selective [email protected] and tell them how many guinea pigs you have and ask if they will send a sample they usually send a decent sized bag which cost around £1 in the shop.

I think Burgess will do the same for Excel http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/contact.html

Not so sure on Wagg, I think someone got told to buy it if they wanted to try it...
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I emailed Science Selective last night, and they said they will get a sample sent out! Thanks for the tip Bailey, will try Burgess next :))
 
anmolmark said:
Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms and hinders quality decay. Drying food using sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been practised since ancient times, and was the earliest form of food curing.Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation. Bacteria, yeasts and molds need the water in the food to grow, and drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food.
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:{
 
Actually if you want the best for your pigs you should look after the protein and fiber levels.

Protein shouldn't be higher then 15%
Fibers should be atleast 16%

If those two are too high/too low, then the guinea pigs can easily get an issue called 'broken back' in which the hair along the spine falls out. The skin gets irritated and pigs can and will stratch themselves open. IT looks like maince, but unlike that it won't go away with medicins only with a good diet.

Also little to no sugar is best, since guineas progress sugars badly and are prown to issues such as bloodsugar troubles.

This has been proven bij studies, and Dutch research (try and error methode) has shown that pigs that get a good diet, get healthier overal, get happier, and have less coat-issues (such as maince, fungus etc).
 
I'll stick my neck on the line here & say I never fed anything but Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch because it's the only one recommended to me by the CCT.

If you look closely at the ingredients, it doesn't have sugar beet pulp or colourants unlike some others.

Science Selective has sugar beet pulp & salt added (why?) Added salt may cause piggies to drink more if they are eating these pellets.

It also lists as it's first ingredient Alfalfa, which is not supposed to be given to adult pigs in any great quantity so why would you want to feed it every day?!

Check the ingredients here:
http://www.seapets.co.uk/products/p...ience-selective-guinea-pig-complete-350g.html

Burgess also has salt, Lucerne (in other words alfalfa!) and sugar beet pulp in it rolleyes you have to look at what order these are listed, the first one is what the majority of the feed is made up from.

Guinea Lynx says you should avoid sugar beet pulp wherever possible:
http://www.guinealynx.info/pellets.html

On this basis, as Wagg Guinea Crunch has no added pulp or salt I would use it above anything else even though it is cheap. The CCT has done a lot of looking into all this & I trust their experience of over 30 years :)

I will also say it may be a coincidence but my first pair of piggies both developed bladder stones, then I switched to Wagg & my last two never suffered with them.
 
Poppy'sMum said:
I'll stick my neck on the line here & say I never fed anything but Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch because it's the only one recommended to me by the CCT.

If you look closely at the ingredients, it doesn't have sugar beet pulp or colourants unlike some others.

Science Selective has sugar beet pulp & salt added (why?) Added salt may cause piggies to drink more if they are eating these pellets.

It also lists as it's first ingredient Alfalfa, which is not supposed to be given to adult pigs in any great quantity so why would you want to feed it every day?!

Check the ingredients here:
http://www.seapets.co.uk/products/p...ience-selective-guinea-pig-complete-350g.html

Burgess also has salt, Lucerne (in other words alfalfa!) and sugar beet pulp in it rolleyes you have to look at what order these are listed, the first one is what the majority of the feed is made up from.

Guinea Lynx says you should avoid sugar beet pulp wherever possible:
http://www.guinealynx.info/pellets.html

On this basis, as Wagg Guinea Crunch has no added pulp or salt I would use it above anything else even though it is cheap. The CCT has done a lot of looking into all this & I trust their experience of over 30 years :)

I will also say it may be a coincidence but my first pair of piggies both developed bladder stones, then I switched to Wagg & my last two never suffered with them.
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Oh :S This completely changes my thoughts now! I did actually used to feed them on Wagg, but I changed because those pesky pigs would only eat the yummy bits! What do you know about the Wagg pellets?
 
Poppy'sMum said:
I'll stick my neck on the line here & say I never fed anything but Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch because it's the only one recommended to me by the CCT.

If you look closely at the ingredients, it doesn't have sugar beet pulp or colourants unlike some others.

Science Selective has sugar beet pulp & salt added (why?) Added salt may cause piggies to drink more if they are eating these pellets.

It also lists as it's first ingredient Alfalfa, which is not supposed to be given to adult pigs in any great quantity so why would you want to feed it every day?!

Check the ingredients here:
http://www.seapets.co.uk/products/p...ience-selective-guinea-pig-complete-350g.html

Burgess also has salt, Lucerne (in other words alfalfa!) and sugar beet pulp in it rolleyes you have to look at what order these are listed, the first one is what the majority of the feed is made up from.

Guinea Lynx says you should avoid sugar beet pulp wherever possible:
http://www.guinealynx.info/pellets.html

On this basis, as Wagg Guinea Crunch has no added pulp or salt I would use it above anything else even though it is cheap. The CCT has done a lot of looking into all this & I trust their experience of over 30 years :)

I will also say it may be a coincidence but my first pair of piggies both developed bladder stones, then I switched to Wagg & my last two never suffered with them.
Click to expand...

Wagg crunch also has alfalfa in it, as does their pellet food.

Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch contains Peas, Wheat, Oats, Wheatfeed, Oatfeed, Toasted Soya, Maize, Grass, Lucerne, Sunflower Ext., Vegetable Oil, Syrup, Carob Meal, Linseed, Vitamins & Minerals, Yeast. With Antioxidant: EC additive.

Surely you would have to feed a lot of dry food daily for it to have an effect? Mine only get a small handful each per day.

If that is a worry then I would go for Cavy Cuisine which is Timothy based.
 
I have now received the sample of Science Selective, it's a 350g bag so pretty impressed! I have heard from Burgess today and they are also sending me out a free sample.

Having checked out the prices, Science Selective won't be an option, it will either be Burgess or Wagg pellets. They are currently being fed Wagg crunch, but they seem quite picky and leave a lot of it so I do need to change their food to make sure they're getting all the nutrients! I will see what they think of the Burgess and how it compares to Wagg pellets then make a switch.

Thanks for all the advice
Gemma, Ginny and Saffy
 
Bailey said:
Wagg crunch also has alfalfa in it, as does their pellet food.

Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch contains Peas, Wheat, Oats, Wheatfeed, Oatfeed, Toasted Soya, Maize, Grass, Lucerne, Sunflower Ext., Vegetable Oil, Syrup, Carob Meal, Linseed, Vitamins & Minerals, Yeast. With Antioxidant: EC additive.

Surely you would have to feed a lot of dry food daily for it to have an effect? Mine only get a small handful each per day.

If that is a worry then I would go for Cavy Cuisine which is Timothy based.
Click to expand...


Wagg does have alfalfa in it, but it is way down the list, so the percentage is less than some of the other premium brands :)
 
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