Are burgess excel mint pellets good for guinea pigs
No pellets are ‘good’ for them per se. They absolutely do bridge gaps in nutrition and are certainly useful in ensuring they get all they need, but pellets also contribute a lot of calcium into the diet.
Pellets are considered the least important and least healthy part of the diet - they are the part which they do not need at all.
It is possible to be entirely pellet free but then adjust the veg proportion of the diet as well as feeding fresh forage instead of pellets.
However, when choosing a pellet you are ideally looking for one which is based in Timothy hay (ie so Timothy needs to be the first ingredient on the list) doesn’t contain grain (so wheat or wheat feed isn’t listed as an ingredient), is low calcium and doesn’t contain alfalfa (aka Lucerne).
The burgess pellets are not grain free and they do contain alfalfa (listed as dried Lucerne).
There are options which are lower in the ca:p ratio than burgess.
For a commercial brand, selective grain free are well recommended.
Or a top recommendation would be piggies parcels pellets. They are purely grass based and are ideal due to that, they don’t contain grains or alfalfa. Piggie parcels is a company run by a member of this forum.
Whichever brand pellet you choose you need to keep them strictly limited to one tablespoon per day to help ensure they do not ever form a large part of the diet and as a way to ensure calcium is kept in balance (along with other requirements of the diet).
You have to choose a brand which you are happy to feed. You may need to make dietary adjustments accordingly. For example, if you choose a pellet which does contain alfalfa, you may need to ensure you monitor which other high calcium veggies you feed; ensure water is filtered etc (although I think Scotland is a soft water area so there helps) to help keep the balance
Pellet/Nugget Brands Comparison Chart
