Feeding On A Budget!

Status
Not open for further replies.
GinaG

GinaG

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
142
Reaction score
126
Points
285
Location
Chester, UK
We've just gone from 2 to 4 piggies But we are on a tight budget and need to keep a fund for potential vets bills so looking for where I can save money...so where is best value for hay, nuggets and veggies? Currently get dust free Timothy hay from pets at home, a mixture of own brand, Oxbow and burgess excel, burgess excel nuggets also from pets at home, veggies from Aldi
 
I am very interested in this, having the same issues though we went from 2 to 9 piggies very quickly.

I have heard good things about ASDA pellets, believe it or not (@BossHogg and some others swear by them). Myself, I buy a 10kg sack of Harringtons (around £15 off Amazon), as I've heard it's a little better than Burgess. A mix to prevent selective feeding is always good though!

Re: hay, Ings from HayAndStraw is £18 delivered for 10kg, and timothy from TimothyHayUk is £22 delivered for 10kg. You could always ask local horsey people in your area if there's any good farm hay -- this is the cheapest if you have the means to store a bale (~23kg) or more. I myself am going to drive 1hr 45mins to pick up some Ings bales at £6 a bale very soon... even with petrol, if I pick up 3 bales it's only about £30 for over 60kg of hay! The things I do for these pigs :doh::wub:.

Re: veggies, we do Aldi too but it gets expensive quickly with lettuce, tomatoes, and especially herbs. I'd be interested in hearing what rescues feed their pigs (my local one does carrots and spring greens/spinach, with some cucumber added in, and the odd pepper). This is by far my greatest expense!
 
My lot wolf down the Asda nuggets, they are £2 for a 2kg bag, I never get any left. Stanley took to them immediately when I adopted him in January. I also visit Asda in the evening as they tend to reduce big bags of salad and herbs down to 2p a bag/bunch. I've seen me leave the shop with £30 of fresh greens for 30p. Granted its got that days date on, but it's still good for a few days for the beasties. ;)
 
Danielle Smith said:
I am very interested in this, having the same issues though we went from 2 to 9 piggies very quickly.


Re: veggies, we do Aldi too but it gets expensive quickly with lettuce, tomatoes, and especially herbs. I'd be interested in hearing what rescues feed their pigs (my local one does carrots and spring greens/spinach, with some cucumber added in, and the odd pepper). This is by far my greatest expense!
Click to expand...

When I got my last-but-one piggie from Windwhistle Warren rescue, i asked what they did to feed so many rabbits and guinea pigs (about 100 of each at that time). They said, they go to the supermarket at the time when the fresh produce which is on or close to its sell-by date is being marked down (not sure what time of day is best for that though). On that particular occasion, I asked my friendly local greengrocers if they could let me have any veg that was otherwise going to be thrown, and was able to take with me 2 boxes of fresh stuff for the buns and piggies.

If you have a local small greengrocer, you could try asking them for just past-it veg that they would otherwise be chucking. I also ask for carrot tops and trimmed off cauli or cabbage leaves etc.
 
First of all I would not adopt a 3rd and a 4th piggie if I were in economic difficulty and for the same reason I have "only" two children and not 4.
Anyway, everyone does his own choices... but for my two piggies I can say aloud that I don't spend "anything"...
1- Hay. I made a order yeasterday and I paid 2€ a kg. It is an organic hay from the Alps and from the meadow. Two different brands, Gimbi and Vitakraft.
2- Bedding: fleece and underneath newspapers and flyers. I have just come back from Lidl (a great store similarto your Tesco) and I collected a huge pile of flyers. Doing that (absolutely no-cost) I don't waste hay. I can say that 98% of hay is eaten from my piggies. 2% is wasted hay.
3- Food: grass. the best food they can have for keeping a good health. This means that I need to walk sometimes; there are some private lawns here but when the gardener arrives it means that I need to go to a park 1 km from here. A good wall, good for my health! :nod:
4- Pellets: I don't use then, just 1 teaspoon as a treat. A box 900g opened last March is still half full. Anyway, I have bought a new one, totally cereal free, a "good" label, even better than certain pellets by Oxbow... Versele Laga Complete. Only as a treat, though. I bought it because online there was a discount of 50%. I will freeze some pellets because I want to keep a pellet- (almost)free diet (here the best vets agree)and this box is 500g. I paid 3,50€ and it will last one year...
5- Vegs. Only 100g a day. Here vegs cost 0,80-2€/kg but even paying more it would not be a concern. When I visited England and I spent there 3 weeks I found even lower prices...The greengrocer here often gives me for free some tops of carrots, some celery, parsley... anyway I don't use them very often. 90% of the food now is a variety of fresh grass, dandelion and wild chicory.
6- supplement vit C (my vet says it is a waste of money in summer, as the fresh grass is rich of vit C, but I prefer using it). I use Cebion drops. 4-6€ and it lasts one month (only 2 drops a piggie by syringe). In UK there is a bigger and cheaper bottle... lucky you!
I want to copy a funny picture I have found in the public account on facebook, belonged to one of the cavvy savvy vets who work for the only official rescue we have in Italy. It is a wise advice for all the owners about the diet to follow for piggies: and it is free of charge...
it says "there is grass for everyone! Get hold for this modern equipment and go and fetch food for your herbivores!":)):)):))
12805880_1314729148557164_4494820349312352619_n.webp
 
I buy the hay from B&M £1.99 this lasts about 2 weeks.. I do spend a fair bit on veg - I buy herbs from Lidl as cheaper but they never have dill which is a fav... I just don't add it up but always look for a bargain!
 
Do you live rurally or urban? And how much storage space do you have?

Because if you're in the right location with the storage space then honestly your best bet to save money on feed is to buy small bales of hay locally, direct from growers. I buy small bales of hay (2 lengths of baling twine) for £3.50 locally - this lasts 2 piggies and 50 other rodents (who get it for bedding) about 4 months. Which is a huge saving compared to if I was buying it as sold for pets by weight, especially since it's the main part of their diet.
 
I grow what I can and also grow veg at work. There's also the option of free hedgerow and field foraging if there's any good spots near you
 
If you have a Range near you their nuggets are half the price of Pets at Home for the Burgess and Science Selective. I also use Tesco and Asda for nuggets. I only give a few nuggets to the older pigs and the younger ones get an egg cup full a day each at the moment. This time of year I don't buy much veg as the boys spend afternoons on the lawn eating grass and I have a dandelion and milk thistle patch behind the shed where I can pick food. I also grow parsley, corriander and various veg. I grow grass in trays for the winter but they only get that once or twice a week as I don't have room to keep up with demand. When veg shopping I also plan the human meals so nothing gets wasted, we eat an awful lot of strange stew type meals with cucumber and peppers in! Hay is the one thing I don't skimp on price on.
 
I buy the supreme science selective pellets and I buy them in a 10kg bag which lasts me a few months. I buy hay from hay-and-straw and I pay £18 for 9.5 kg though a local farm may be cheaper. I use aubiose bedding which costs £10-11 per 20kg bale, I buy 3 at a time which reduces the price per bale by about £1. This also lasts me around 6 months. I clean out the bedding area fully each week, the rest I clean out the soiled bedding, push the clean stuff to one side and then top it up which makes it last longer.

I also grow my own veg which can feed the pigs and us but the bonus is the pigs love the tops so radish tops, carrot tops etc don't go to waste
 
i buy 3 bales of aubiose for approx £10 a bale every month, 2 bags of megazorb each month at £7 a bag.i buy veg from the market,or lidl/aldi and go to supermarket late in the day to see if any reduced veg,get pellets from vet uk,harringtons,burgess with blackurrant and mix in with the harringtons.buy bales of hay from a local farm,use fleece liners for the indoor piggies.
 
I've only had my 3 for just over a week but so far I'm finding them pretty cheap to feed. I don't feed much pellets (following the advice and guides on this forum). I use Burgess Excel and it's a 2kg bag and I can tell it's going to last ages.

Hay I get from my local pet shop. It's probably not the cheapest around but I like to support my local store and also means I can just buy smaller bags as and when I need them.

Fruit and veggies I buy from Lidl. Main reason being it's just across the road from my house and secondly they have a good selection and it's cheaper than my other local stores.
 
I grow a lot of veg & weeds for my piggies so that really helps. I'll be growing wheat grass for them soon! Chard is an easy grower and has self seeded from last year, along with my nasturtiums although they're not massively keen of them.

There are a lot of things that are easy to grow in containers (I cannot grow things in the ground XD) and I'm not green fingered at all so if I can manage it then it must be fairly easy! :))
 
I buy Harringtons pellets in 10kg bags which last ages. Get hay in a huge bale from the farm for £5. I grow weeds in a container for free. My piggies have carrot peelings, outside leaves of lettuce, broccoli stalks. Occasionally they get kale or spinach. Unfortunately they turn their noses up at cauliflower leaves but they go mad for peppers and cucumber.
 
Danielle Smith said:
Ooh, can you elaborate on your weed-growing, @Cavy Kung-Fu? I have some stickyweed growing on my path but I don't know how to transfer it into pots!
Click to expand...

Ooh I've not got those yet, but I currently have a few plantain plants, dandelions galore and I have just ordered wheat grass and just got some yarrow seeds! I normally just dig them up, usually from a friend's garden so they think I'm quite mad! They even save me some now :))

It might be a bit difficult if they're growing in the cracks but if you try and gently pull the base and get most of the root out there's a great chance it'll take root well! If taken from the wild I usually give it a week or two to establish itself and hopefully be free of other animals urine etc but still wash the leaves before use obviously :)

The great thing about weeds is that they grow so efficiently, one day I'd like to make 80% or more of my piggies veg weed based/home grown as I think it will be healthier and more natural for them. Not to mention cheaper! :D
 
Oh another good tip for piggy feed freebies is going to markets and seeing what they have spare from plants they won't sell. I always get bags of corn silk for free and as the piggies love it you can turn it into a toy with some imagination! :D

Any type of excess leaf really, even the adored celery leaf!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top