Dry Oats

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Gimz

Gimz

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When my piggies were away boarding, the rescue centre we left them with recommended feeding dry oats on occasion to our piggies. Not seen anyone posting about this on the forums before. We were given a small bag of oats to give out sparingly and I can confirm that my piggies go absolutely nuts for the small sprinkle I put in their bowl once a week.

Anyone else give dry oats to their piggies before and what sort of reaction did you get from your piggies?
Is there any guidance as to how much is safe to give them (i assume a small dusting once a week is ok)?
How are oats nutritionally for guinea pigs?

Thanks.
 
They are very calorific, so naturally, the piggies tend to like them! I don't feed them as a rule, but use them if there are piggies who are in need of gaining some weight or adding some condition and add an additional oat bowl, alongside the normal dry food. The won't do any harm in the quantity you are giving. :)
 
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Am I right in assuming that dry oats doesn't mean oat flakes or porridge oats? Or would oat flakes for people actually be ok for guinea pigs? Our lady from the rescue recommended them as a treat, but I haven't seen oats in the pet section of the supermarket so I haven't got any, so far?
 
Gimz said:
When my piggies were away boarding, the rescue centre we left them with recommended feeding dry oats on occasion to our piggies. Not seen anyone posting about this on the forums before. We were given a small bag of oats to give out sparingly and I can confirm that my piggies go absolutely nuts for the small sprinkle I put in their bowl once a week.

Anyone else give dry oats to their piggies before and what sort of reaction did you get from your piggies?
Is there any guidance as to how much is safe to give them (i assume a small dusting once a week is ok)?
How are oats nutritionally for guinea pigs?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Is it dry oats or bran mash? I give mine a bit of bran mash occasionally as a treat. They go bonkers with it :)
 
Dry oats, which you can get from Holland and Barrett or other health food type shops. To save any confusion here is a photo of what my piggies go nuts for :

image.webp

It doesn't get mixed with anything, just a sprinkle in their bowl as it comes.
 
Plain, old-fashioned rolled oats, and not the quick-cooking or instant variety. In fact you might be best off with oatmeal if you want to feed this to your piggies. Just spotted this with a websearch:

Fine Oatmeal 1kg (Healthy Supplies) - HealthySupplies.co.uk. Buy Online.

You basically want oats which are soft and flakey, not hard grainy texture - otherwise it could stick in their throats. Something unprocessed, unsweetened and bit like the consistency of ready brek, if you remember that from your childhood, BUT NOT Ready brek of course. But there seems to be conflicting opinion on it, so would say only use a very little as a treat infrequently.
 
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Thank you! Just found some in my cupboard so I shall give this to my underweight piggie... xx
 
Gimz said:
Plain, old-fashioned rolled oats, and not the quick-cooking or instant variety. In fact you might be best off with oatmeal if you want to feed this to your piggies. Just spotted this with a websearch:

Fine Oatmeal 1kg (Healthy Supplies) - HealthySupplies.co.uk. Buy Online.

You basically want oats which are soft and flakey, not hard grainy texture - otherwise it could stick in their throats. Something unprocessed, unsweetened and bit like the consistency of ready brek, if you remember that from your childhood, BUT NOT Ready brek of course. But there seems to be conflicting opinion on it, so would say only use a very little as a treat infrequently.
Click to expand...

Great thanks, got an ill piggy so trying to bulk her up!
 
Gimz said:
Dry oats, which you can get from Holland and Barrett or other health food type shops. To save any confusion here is a photo of what my piggies go nuts for :

View attachment 36646

It doesn't get mixed with anything, just a sprinkle in their bowl as it comes.
Click to expand...

That looks like Wheatbran mash which is what I give mine and
Gimz said:
Dry oats, which you can get from Holland and Barrett or other health food type shops. To save any confusion here is a photo of what my piggies go nuts for :

View attachment 36646

It doesn't get mixed with anything, just a sprinkle in their bowl as it comes.
Click to expand...


That looks like wheat bran mash which is what I give mine on occasion and I do get it from Holland and Barret. This is a link to what I get: Neal's Yard Wholefoods Natural Wheat Bran | Holland & Barrett - the UK’s Leading Health Retailer

I don't know much of what the difference is between that and oats but I think it's mash not oats (as I adopted from same rescue that you adopted your girls :) )
 
I know of the rescue using the wheatbran too @MrsSuzy , we discussed it once at clinic and had a laugh as someone thought they had to grate Allbran.
 
@MrsSuzy @helen105281 @Mali's Mum @5littlepigs @Flowergarden @I <3 piggies

I relooked through all my stuff from the rescue and I found this in the care guides for piggies, this should clear everything up:

Other Dry Foods -We also feed wheat bran every few days in a separate bowl alongside the pellets. They really love this even though it looks really dry and boring! I will show you what it looks like when you collect your guinea pigs and will give you a sample to take home with you. We feed it on its own, just as it is ie. dry and give half a bowl full/handful for 2 guinea pigs every 2-3 days. Bran can be bought from Holland and Barratt in a 500g bag called wheat bran.

So yes its the same stuff as you have linked to MrsSuzy. Looking at the nutrition content, it looks to be less fat in the wheat bran than the similar oats. I really thought the rescue said it was dried rolled oats they used. Well at least we all know for sure now, where to get it if you want to feed it to your piggies, and even how much to feed!

Case closed! Let me know all of you how your piggies like it !
 
Scruff didn't seem that keen on it, lol. Had a few nibbles and thought "No thanks, I prefer tomatoes". But Perky ate it up very fast!
 
My piggies don't like oats oh no! As you can see from these photo's below....

IMG_1591.webp IMG_1597.webp

It might look sedate in the photos, but the reality is they act like they haven't been fed for a week! Lots of head pushing, nose bumping and squeaks of exclamation. I might have to buy two more bowls so they can have one each!

IMG_1601.webp
 
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