Having A Food Quandary!

[GeorgesHuman]

Hello everyone,

Like every other conscientious piggy human I only want to give my boys the best grub that I can afford. I've been feeding them Harrington's piggy pellets and they love them and I feel happy that they're getting good stuff but just recently the Harrington's have gone up to almost £5. I can only get it in the shop near me, so no chance of getting it cheaper anywhere else as I live away from main towns and don't drive.

So, a few days ago I stumbled upon Tesco's piggy pellets. Just over £2 a bag. I got them home and realised on the ingredients list, one of the contents is Lucerne. I know this is another form of alfalfa and isn't great for grown pigs, however, I then realised that Burgess Excel piggy food also contains Lucerne, so is it really so bad? Here are the ingredients of both. I am going to switch back to Harrington's and just suck up the extortionate cost of it (the boys are more than worth it even though me, their piggy mother will be on beans on toast for the rest of her days!), but I still have a whole lot of the Tesco one left which I'd like to use up first, so can anyone please can anyone advise if I should stop feeding the Tesco one in the meantime, and if there are other bad ingredients in it that I should know about.

Tesco ingredients;
Composition: Wheatfeed, Oatfeed, Sunflower Meal, Grass, Lucerne, Carob Bean Meal, Vegetable Oil, Minerals, Linseed (1%), Additives (Per Kg),

Nutritional Additives:
Vitamin A 15, 000 iu,
Vitamin D3 1500 iu,
Vitamin E 90 mg,
Vitamin C 250 mg,
Zinc Chelate of Amino Acid Hydrate 133 mg,
Manganous Oxide 48 mg,
Zinc Oxide 41 mg,
Copper Sulphate Pentahydrate 25 mg,
Calcium Iodate Anhydrous 2 mg,
Antioxidant,
Analytical Constituents,
Protein 16%,
Fat Content 4.5%,
Crude Fibre 17%,
Inorganic Matter 7.5%,
Calcium 0.8%,
Phosphorous 0.6%


Burgess ingredients;
Composition: Wheat, Grass, Lucerne, Soya Bean Hulls, Peas, Oat Feed, Sugar Beet Pulp, Yeast, Mint, Ligno-cellulose, Soya Oil, Monocalcium Phosphate, Salt, Short Chain Fructo-oligosaccharides 0.25%, Minerals.

Nutritional Additives
Vitamin A (retinyl acetate) (E672) 25,000 iu / kg
Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) (E6761) 2,000 iu / kg
Vitamin E (dl Alpha tocopherol acetate) (3a700) 160 mg / kg
Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid monophosphate) 820 mg / kg
Copper ( Copper Sulphate Pentahydrate) (E4) 28 mg / kg
Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) (E2) 2.45 mg / kg
Selenium (Sodium Selenite) (E8) 2.22 mg / kg
Iron (Ferrous Sulphate Monohydrate) (E1) 133 mg / kg
Manganese (Manganous Oxide) (E5) 16.1 mg / kg
Zinc Oxide (E6) 135 mg / kg
Calcium 8 g / kg
Phosphorous 5 g / kg

 

[Kerrie74]

Hiya,

have you looked online for the food you usually buy? I used to get science selective from P@H because they do the bigger bags and they aren't badly priced, however after searching around the net I found that it was cheaper for me to get a 10kg bag of food. I'm not saying to buy bigger of course, I'm just wondering if you could buy it cheaper from the internet

 

[parkdaleangela]

Could you just mix a bit of the Tesco/ Excel with the Harringtons to extend the H and use up the other? I find buying Harringtons on line is cheaper for the 10kg bag although I used to get it in Asda for £3 for the 2kg bag.

 

[Wiebke]

@helen105281

 

[Lady Kelly]

Isobel came with some of the supreme science one and I tell you what, they pick it out to eat all of that first so once we run out of burgess I will be going to supreme science permanently. I always try and buy online as I can always find it cheaper and often with cashback through sites like quidco, unless P@H send me money off vouchers of course

 

[helen105281]

I am preparing a pellet guide at the moment but it is slow progress. From the details you have posted I actually think there are less worrying ingredients in the Tesco pellets than the Burgess. Most commercial pellets do contain Lucerne unfortunately but they also contain mollasses and grains, all of which I avoid and I feed 2 brands of German pellets which have less fillers and sugars and more natural ingredients, they are expensive though.

I would not think it would be a problem using up the Tesco pellets and feeding them in a mix with the Harringtons.