Dried Grass

acapae

acapae

Junior Guinea Pig
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Readigrass aside, I'm wondering if anyone here has fed their piggies dried grass? By which I mean short chop stuff which is flash-dried locking in more nutrients vs the longer drying time associated with hay. I'd be feeding it alongside hay for more variety over the autumn/ winter, rather than instead of.

The two products I'm looking into are:
Northern Crop Driers Graze-On
Dengie Meadow Grass with herbs

Readigrass is 100% perennial ryegrass so obviously for adults only really suitable as an occasional add-on. Graze-on is mixed perennial ryegrass, fescue, and timothy. The Dengie is "meadow grass" and I've contacted them for more species info.

There's also D&H Just Grass, but they've not got back to me about a sample yet, let alone more info on grass species
 
I've bought timothy redigrass and oat grass readigrass they don't just do the ryegrass variety, just saying! :coat:
 
I knew Friendship Estates did oat grass (grain hay being less suitable than grass hay, so not what I'm after), but I didn't know they did Timothy!

eta - I can't find the Timothy on their website, either as dried grass, or as hay?
 
Ryegrass (Lolium?) is one of the best forages for guinea pigs, similar to timothy, therefore you can give them also huge amount of it.
here there is a good chart with the list of the grass (hay) and its property
Guinea Lynx :: Hay Chart
 
rome_italy said:
Ryegrass (Lolium?) is one of the best forages for guinea pigs, similar to timothy, therefore you can give them also huge amount of it.
here there is a good chart with the list of the grass (hay) and its property
Guinea Lynx :: Hay Chart
Click to expand...
Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) isn't even on that table, but it has really high calcium levels. As a result, the usual advise on this forum from e.g. @Swissgreys is to only give Readigrass (or whatever other brand) a couple of handfuls a week max or as a treat for adults.

I was really just wondering if anyone had experience with the two products linked :) The Dengie is a new product, and obviously searching for a product with graze in it's name has brought up 10 pages of unrelated threads.
 
acapae said:
Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) isn't even on that table, but it has really high calcium levels. As a result, the usual advise on this forum from e.g. @Swissgreys is to only give Readigrass (or whatever other brand) a couple of handfuls a week max or as a treat for adults.

I was really just wondering if anyone had experience with the two products linked :) The Dengie is a new product, and obviously searching for a product with graze in it's name has brought up 10 pages of unrelated threads.
Click to expand...
I read that Rye has calcium 0,31 and timothy 0,40 and over... Lolium has many different types but I know it is very good also for piggies and what counts more is the ratio calcium/phosphorus... and I see its ratio is good (1,7:1 just like timothy). I don't know readigrass because here it does not exist on sale, I don't know the reason why it can be used only as a treat considering that it is only dried grass (maybe too high proteins?).
Anyway my piggies are fed with huge amount of fresh ryegrass and nutgrass now which is very common here and is recommended by our vets (but I am talking of normal fresh grass, maybe it is different because it contains water of course).
Can't you read online the label of those new products?
 
Bought timothy readigrass at local pet shop, read that oatgrass was good for teeth as it is very coarse.
Felt ok giving them a small bit as I'm not actually giving them the grains just the stalky bit
 
In any case, the two brands linked are what I can easily buy locally - hence specifically wondering if anyone has any experience with them. If no one does then that's fine, but I'm not really looking into anything else at this time.
 
Personally I feed readigrass as I prefer the slightly longer chop. The others you have mentioned would be just as good but are chopped shorter. I know a lot of breeders who feed the just grass and swear by it for putting condition on guinea pigs and say that it is never wasted.
Personally I wondered about the graze on as it looked good and reasonably priced. I also personally would only feed the chopped grass as a treat a few times a week so readigrass wors for me.
 
Although they have similar names, rye is not the same thing as ryegrass. Rye is a cereal crop, the stalks of which are sometimes sold as feed in a similar way to oat hay. Ryegrass is the Lollium genus of loads of species, and perennial ryegrass is one specific species.

rome_italy said:
Can't you read online the label of those new products?
Click to expand...
I'm past the label reading checking for suitability point (other than waiting for Dengie and D&H to email back) and onto wondering if anyone on here has had any direct experience with the products in question. It's all very well if they sound good on paper, but if a lot of people's pigs have got bored with the product then that's less likely to be something I want to invest in.
 
acapae said:
Although they have similar names, rye is not the same thing as ryegrass. Rye is a cereal crop, the stalks of which are sometimes sold as feed in a similar way to oat hay. Ryegrass is the Lollium genus of loads of species, and perennial ryegrass is one specific species.


I'm past the label reading checking for suitability point (other than waiting for Dengie and D&H to email back) and onto wondering if anyone on here has had any direct experience with the products in question. It's all very well if they sound good on paper, but if a lot of people's pigs have got bored with the product then that's less likely to be something I want to invest in.
Click to expand...
In fact I am talking of the grass, not the rye. This is the Lolium perenne/ryegrass which my piggies eat in huge amounts (when it is available at the park):
Drumbo-monoculture-Oct15-1024x768.webp
I don't know if you are referring to this herb:)
 
spock said:
Bought timothy readigrass at local pet shop, read that oatgrass was good for teeth as it is very coarse.
Felt ok giving them a small bit as I'm not actually giving them the grains just the stalky bit
Click to expand...
How odd that the timothy is no longer on their website then - maybe they stopped it? How long ago did you buy your bag? I have some Alfalfa King timothy hay, which I bought a while ago following advice on here, my my two piggies don't really like it.

Hank288 said:
Personally I feed readigrass as I prefer the slightly longer chop. The others you have mentioned would be just as good but are chopped shorter. I know a lot of breeders who feed the just grass and swear by it for putting condition on guinea pigs and say that it is never wasted.
Personally I wondered about the graze on as it looked good and reasonably priced. I also personally would only feed the chopped grass as a treat a few times a week so readigrass wors for me.
Click to expand...
Ah great to know that a lot of people feed one of the brands! My two don't seem to mind short chop feeds at all. I quite often bring home little sample bags of various things that my local feed shop has. They like to experiment with different products, so more or less whenever I go in I can try a little bit of something or other. I probably wouldn't be feeding whatever it is every day, but as I have a lot of pets I find it easier to have feed which could theoretically be given daily with no ill effects, just in case my timing works out that way or whatever :)
 
Not sure, I don't buy it very often I guess less than 3 months ago.
Hope they haven't discontinued it, I only got the oat grass one because they didn't have the timothy last time.
 
Its still being sold on some websites, a company called barks and bunnies have it on their site.
Sorry only had quick look as I'm in bed on my rubbish phone!
 
Thanks for looking for me @spock :) If it's still being made then my local feed supplier would be able to do a special order for me (as they sell other products in the range). I'd prefer to do that rather than buy online as it would save me postage and also be supporting a local independent business. But obviously a less viable prospect if it's not being produced any more! I shall ask them - they're currently doing a special order for me on pigeon food anyway.
 
just grass and graze on are a shorter chop,my ginea pigs have a preference for readigrass as it seems softer !
 
I've bought some Graze-on, as they liked that best of all the options I managed to get trial packs of. Also there's no oil in that one or anything, so I'm happy with their preference!
 
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