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Lessie

Lessie

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Hi there,

Soon I shall be collecting my new adoptive guinea-pig - Barney as he is nearly fully sterillised. Anyway he is currently being fed on mix and supa guinea-excel. The rescue are trying to encourage him of eating pellets instead of mix because my guinea-pig is on Supa burgess excel.

For the past 3 weeks, he has shown no interests in the pellets and is refusing to eat it. I don't blame him because he is nearly 4 and has been on mix all of his life. I don't want to force him eating something he does not like.

However the only problem I have is, like I said my sow is currenlty on pellets, as she's been on that since I've had her, so I don't know whether if I should change her pellets into mix so that way they both will like the same food. But that is of course if my sow will like the mix.

Or is it possible to feed them their foods in 2 separate bowls?

I don;t really want to change my sow's feeding diet because of high vit.C in her nuggets and I;m worried if the mix is worse than the nuggets? I have no knowledge on mix dry foods so is there any dry mix food that you reccomend?

I want to feed my guinea-pigs the best and natural quality so costs does not matter.

Of course I do also provide my sow fresh vegs and herbs daily and few fruits weekly. She has also got unlimited meadow hay and access to her grass run everyday.

Thank-you for your help!:)
 
Maybe do a mixture to start with and see how they go. They will eat each others food a bit though. I used to have my two when they were together on two diff pellets and they used to eat each others as well as their own and now they are separate I feed them half and half which seems to go down well. They have fussy days when one type has been eaten more than the other but I couldn't tell you which they prefer as they just eat whatever they fancy at the time!
 
I have a pair of girls living together, one likes Tesco Muesli, the other supa exel pellets, they have a little dish of each in their cage. Each has a nibble of the others, but if I just put one kind in it doesn't work. No harm in different foods, it's probably only for my convenience that I would like them all on the same. I have 5 different sorts of food here for my fosters, and still some of them turn their noses up! xx
 
Briony_Y said:
Maybe do a mixture to start with and see how they go. They will eat each others food a bit though. I used to have my two when they were together on two diff pellets and they used to eat each others as well as their own and now they are separate I feed them half and half which seems to go down well. They have fussy days when one type has been eaten more than the other but I couldn't tell you which they prefer as they just eat whatever they fancy at the time!
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Hi,

So what you are saying is that I should have half of supa excel mix with guinea-pig mix, so that way Barney and Revolver will eat what they normally eat from the bowl?

If I do this, won't the mix upset my sow's tummy in case she has a nibble of it because she has never had it before?

I just really don't know what to do as they both are going to live together so I can't really feed them separatley and guinea-pigs require mix/nuggets unlimited all the times.

Is there any guinea-pig mix which has got high in vit.c and is reccommended by vets and all of you ?

Thank-you for your help! :))
 
I doubt very much that a little nibble on the mix food will upset your piggies tummy.
I have always fed my piggies on a mix and have changed some of them over from pellets without a problem.

I would put 2 small bowls in to start with 1 with the mix and 1 with the pellets. Then over time merge the 2 bowls into one, decrease the amount of mix you put in and increase the amount of pellets.

You may need to do this for a few weeks before the new piggie will get used to the pellets.
 
it won't upset her tummy as she will have her own stuff too. They suggest when trying to change from one type to another to mix it in. She will have a bit of the other but mostly her own so will be fine. You can either have two bowls one with each type or two bowls of mixed either will work and the latter will stop then fighting over a certain bowl!
 
I adopted Jenny & Betty last year and as they were used to museli, I decided to have two bowls in the cage, one with museli the other with pellets. Soon the pellets went mostly ignored and all my ladies preferred the museli.

However one of my older sows, Chloe, started bloating on a regular basis until the vet advised to remove the museli and since then she's much better (and Jenny & Betty are happy with just pellets).

Chloe has always been a sickly piggy and it just appears that the museli did not agree with her, while I'm sure for most piggies it's fine. It was certainly fine for my other piggies.

So what I'm trying to say is that I would just keep an eye on your sow and make sure the museli agrees with her.
 
Hi there,

Thank-you for your helpful replies.

I have decided that I am going to try a different nuggets as Barney may prefer other nuggets than excel and hopefully if he does like Wagg nuggets for example then I will introduce Wagg nuggets to my sow gradually and hopefully she will eat them without a problem.

However the rescue said if I do this, they reccommend me to buy smaller nuggets so it's easier for him to eat. As excel nuggets are quite chunky.

So what nuggets do you all reccommend that is small, and best quality for older guinea-pigs?


Thank-you for your help :))
 
Wagg Optimum pellets are good quality and very small, so easy to eat.
I had a sample of these and all my piggies ate them, even though they will not touch any other pellets.?!
 
I use excel - they are not that chunky - they used to be but they have changed the design and they are alot smaller.

I would recommend these. I've used others and the piggies hated them! i have lots of samples at home of ones brand, off the top of my head i cannot think what it is! i could always have a look and see if they are still in expiry and could forward them to you?
 
I received a sample of Excel Guinea Pig with Blackcurrant and Oregano today and the pellets look a lot smaller than the normal ones.

Have a look at the sample thread in the general chat section. Might be an idea to write to a couple of companies to get some samples before buying big bags.
 
moonie8404 said:
I use excel - they are not that chunky - they used to be but they have changed the design and they are alot smaller.
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The regular nuggets are the same, no difference in size or shape. The Blackcurrant and Oregano ones are small though - I prefer these! My lot won't touch the old Excel nuggets though - shame as I mixed them in with the Science Selective now!

Lessie, you could try Burgess Excel Blackcurrant and Oregano Tasty Nuggets - I've yet to hear of a piggie who hasn't taken to this one (of course there will be exceptions!). Science Selective is another good one. You can get sample packs of most dry feeds so it's worth getting a few and trying them out.
 
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