Improving my piggies' diet

[Piggie Mom]

Hi!
With becoming the main caretaker of my piggies (we got Nöpö & Lakrits while I was still a kid and it was actually my little sister who wanted them! ) I've for the past almost 2 years been researching to improve the health and living conditions of my piggies as much as possible (going from "normal" piggie parent to "crazily obsessed" with these little cuties). They've never been on a actually unhealthy diet, as my parents did do their research, however we did mainly follow the simple information that leaves out some concerns and things that I now want to take into consideration and implement or avoid in my piggies' diet.

I've read all of the diet guides here on the forum and also done some research into what piggie owners whom I trust feed their piggies and veggie wise I feel really up to date, especially as it's so easy to change that part of the diet without having to spend much more on it. Where I'm slightly unsure what to do is with hay and pellets.

Hay-wise I used to feed the piggies timothy hay, but as we've got twice the piggies it got quite pricey to pay 10+€ for 1-2 kg of hay that the piggies would finish in two weeks so we changed to kesäheinä, which translates to meadow hay I believe (straight translation would be summer hay so I'm not 100% on if this is the right translation...) which we get 3x 7-8 kg size haybales for 29€ which lasts for like almost half a year! However I wonder if I ought to buy timothy hay to occasionally mix into their main hay? I've only got longterm experience with feeding the piggies timothy hay and lucked out with incredibly healthy piggies with that hay so I'd rather not sacrifice their health, but I also feel it criminal to put 20-30€ on hay every month when I can insted spend that much on hay that'll last 6x longer...

Pellets I've come to understand isn't a necessary part of the piggie diet, but as my piggies adore pellets and will be paitently waiting for their pellets every evening I don't want to completely remove them from their diet. Especially Töpö would be heartbroken if I stopped with pellets, he'll come running leaving his supper as soon as I walk by if I didn't give pellets immeidately along with their supper Over the years I've fed many different pellets and ended up landing on Versele-Laga complete cavia as that was what Söpö and Oreo were on when we got them, as the first ingredient listed is timothy hay I didn't think too much of it until I began seeing more and more people recommending Selective naturals grainfree. (I've also seen that people recommend piggie parcels and I'd love to use their products, however living in Finland that sadly isn't a viable option) My question when it comes to pellets is whether it is worth it to change from the versele-laga pellets to the selective naturals ones as they're 2x the price of versele-laga's pellets?

Also: are the selective urinary care treats about the same quality as the oxbow ones/do the same? I usually order piggie stuff from a french site and it doesn't have oxbow products, but I'd like to give them as Töpö drinks a bunch (his pee was also a bit suspicious when we got him, so I don't know if he had such a healthy diet in his earlier home) and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

To summarize:
I feed meadow hay (I think?) and am wondering whether to add timothy hay to the mix/if I ought to take the blow to my wallet and go back to only timothy?
I feed a very restricted amount of pellets but won't completely stop with them as the piggies love them, but is it worth the 2x price to change from Versele-Laga complete to Selective Naturals grainfree?
Are the Selective urinary care treats an equivalent to the oxbow urinary treats/ about as good?
+ any other treats/forages that you recommend for joint support/urinary care/gut care?


Söpö and Töpö to compensate for the unnecessarily long text <3
Thank you in advance!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Meadow hay alone is absolutely fine. You don’t need to feed Timothy at all.
I have only ever fed meadow hay and have done for the 40 years of keeping small animals. I did trial Timothy hay and orchard hay but I always come back to meadow hay.

There is no need to change pellets if you don’t want to. Stick with what your budget will allow (and of course what they like). Versele-laga are on the ‘recommended’ list along with the selective grain free anyway.

There is no real difference between the oxbow and selective urinary treats.
They certainly won’t harm if you give them, but they also aren’t going to cure any serious issues.
Supplements in general are unnecessary for otherwise healthy animals.

 

[Piggie Mom]

Meadow hay alone is absolutely fine. You don’t need to feed Timothy at all.
I have only ever fed meadow hay and have done for the 40 years of keeping small animals. I did trial Timothy hay and orchard hay but I always come back to meadow hay.

There is no need to change pellets if you don’t want to. Stick with what your budget will allow (and of course what they like). Versele-laga are on the ‘recommended’ list along with the selective grain free anyway.

There is no real difference between the oxbow and selective urinary treats.
They certainly won’t harm if you give them, but they also aren’t going to cure any serious issues.
Supplements in general are unnecessary for otherwise healthy animals.

That's great to know about the hay! I've had so mixed results to whether it's fine to only feed meadow hay so wonderful to know you've been happy using it. Supplements I'm mostly wondering as my mother loves spoiling the pigs and I'm trying to point her towards more healthy options She likes having some treat she can give them every once in a while so I think it wouldn't hurt if they were supposed to benefit the piggies a bit too c:

 

[Merab]

Mine have never had Timothy hay.
I feed them meadow hay and Ings hay which is grown in water meadows.
I buy my hay in bulk from a local supplier.

Mine get a tablespoon of pellets between them most days.
They also love green oats and forage mixes which are what they are given as treats

 

[Roselina]

That's great to know about the hay! I've had so mixed results to whether it's fine to only feed meadow hay so wonderful to know you've been happy using it. Supplements I'm mostly wondering as my mother loves spoiling the pigs and I'm trying to point her towards more healthy options She likes having some treat she can give them every once in a while so I think it wouldn't hurt if they were supposed to benefit the piggies a bit too c:

For a bit of variety you could use some dried forage like dandelion, dried nettles etc to mix with their hay ….this would encourage them to find it and be a source of enrichment for them.