Nuggets- Excel vs Wagg?

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poppylily

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hello! more advise please!
?/
at the moment, I feet gerty guinea pig, but not really happy as they select just what they want and its full of colours. I want to swap to nuggets. I'd like to use either burgess excel (normal, not oregano and blackcurrent as I like to buy in bulk) or wagg optimum. Just wondering if people have any opinion on which is which piggies prefer/ which is better? (I plan to occasionally mix in something for a bit of variety, like dried herbs of flaked peas :) )
 
my piggies prefer wagg out of all 3 (i know you dont want to include the blackcurrant ones) but i mix them in, or flaked peas :) it might be easier to try samples on your piggies first :)
 
I don't have much experience of pellet feed, although I have just bought Oxbow Cavy adult food which is Timothy based pellets & mine love it but it's not cheap :)

I am mixing it with Wagg cavy mix which is the non pellet one but they like it a lot so it is all going down well.

I am glad you are not using Gertie anymore, the colourants are dangerous in my opinion & the CCT (Cambridgeshire Cavy Trust) have had cases of piggies showing false signs of diabetes when being fed it although the symptoms stopped when the food was withdrawn.
 
In my personal opinion & experience they prefer the burgess nuggetss, I have one pair of boys who will only eat normal wagg and another who will only eat burgess, tried all sorts and have had to resort to two seperate bags of food!

The ingredient etc are difficult to understand in piggie food I think, but from what I gather both kinds of wagg and anything by burgess is very good for them. I used to feed gerty too but they always left the yellow pieces and then I found out it had colourants so thats when I started trying different things.
 
Just to clarify, in case someone decides to pick out all the yellow bits, they are corn, mine don't always eat them in the Wagg mix either lol :)) but they don't have colourants in them, I think in Gertie it may be the biscuits that are coloured, not sure but I haven't used it since both my first piggies died young from neurological problems & I was advised by the CCT to switch to Wagg Guinea pig crunch, I've not had any problems since (touch wood!) rolleyes
 
I'm currently switching from Wagg Crunch to Wagg Optimum and all mine seem to like both to be honest. As soon as I began the switch over they decided they'd eat ALL the Crunch now rolleyes Typical!

None of mine like the Excel food, they'd all leave it when I tried switching over to that one.

They did the same with the Selective actually, just ignored it, but I was switching to that from Gertie, and I think because of the additives, it was just much more enticing for them.

I'll say one thing though, my rabbit got addicted to the Russell Rabbit food that he began getting very food aggressive. He's on Wagg Optimum for rabbits now and he's calmed right down. Those types of foods do mess with animals' minds and behaviour.
 
Paddy was on a muesli mix when I got him, and Dirk Piggler and Luna were being fed on rabbit food by their previous owner. I firstly started mixing in the Excel Blackcurrent and Oregano before I introduced the original Excel nuggets, though I mix in a tad of muesli for a bit of variation, and they eat everything in the bowl.
If they came in bigger bags, I would feed them purely on the Blackcurrent & Oregano, as they seem to prefer it. But they will happily eat the normal nuggets too, so it's more cost effective for me to buy a big bag of this.
 
I had to swap from the mix food to nuggets almost a year ago now due to certain piggies selective feeding. I must say they do enjoy the nuggets more now. I buy the excel tasty nuggets and mix in a smaller bag of the blackcurrent flavour. They do prefer just the blackcurrent flavour but I also like to buy the biggest bag as it does work out cheaper x
 
thank you, I'll buy a bit of both and see what they prefer! :)
I keep hearing horror stories about gerty gpig which is why it's now time to swap
 
If your gonna get a bag of Excel from a shop make sure you go on there website and get a voucher, almost half price for the bag I bought yesterday (£2 off) :).
 
i use burgess...
i personally have a complete hatrid of wagg and gerty... its so bad for them....
i mix in with the dryed pellets barley rings and these dried grass pellets...
usually 1 scoop of barley rings and grass pelety things to 3 scoops of dried food...
and none of my 33 pigs in at the moment selective feed...
i do a similar thing with the rabbits aswell...
:)
i really would stear away from feed like gerty guinea pig.... as it has been known to cause nutritional cataracts and all sorts of terrible diet related health problems...
x
p.s.
OH!.... also try and find a small suppier for your feed...!
i pay £16 for 10kg of burgess extra tasty nuggety things... :))
x
 
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I made the switch from Gerty to Burgess Excel earlier this year after Claire at All About The Animals recommended me.

She helped me analyse the ingredients of this, and I also looked at the fibre ratios and amount of phosphorus as advised by Flintstones, and it came out top.

It isn't cheap and sometimes when I'm forking out £21 for a 10kg bag, when I know I could get 15kg of spillers meusli for £12, I do feel frustrated, BUT I personally don't buy eggs from battery hens and cheaply produced meat for myself, so if I am willing to look after my own diet and digestive system, I should do the same for my piggies.
 
Doeylicious said:
I made the switch from Gerty to Burgess Excel earlier this year after Claire at All About The Animals recommended me.

She helped me analyse the ingredients of this, and I also looked at the fibre ratios and amount of phosphorus as advised by Flintstones, and it came out top.

It isn't cheap and sometimes when I'm forking out £21 for a 10kg bag, when I know I could get 15kg of spillers meusli for £12, I do feel frustrated, BUT I personally don't buy eggs from battery hens and cheaply produced meat for myself, so if I am willing to look after my own diet and digestive system, I should do the same for my piggies.
Click to expand...


HERE HERE...!....:))
i said a very similar thing the other day to some one when they handed me their "economy guinea pig mix"
and got a very filthy look... :))
x
 
My lot are all on Wagg Optimum pellets which has gone down very well with them! I did try them on the burgess before but they didnt like that very much. I actually think it was the size of the pellets that put them off - they are much larger than the wagg ones. I think my piggles are just lazy and prefer to just stuff the whole pellet in their mouths rather than put all that effort into chewing up the burgess!

Good luck finding the right food for your piggies!
 
claremw92 said:
...
i personally have a complete hatrid of wagg and gerty... its so bad for them....
i mix in with the dryed pellets barley rings and these dried grass pellets...
usually 1 scoop of barley rings and grass pelety things to 3 scoops of dried food...
Click to expand...

Just wondering why exactly Wagg food is so bad? Are you just referring to the muesli mix or also the Optimum nuggets? Lots of people here use Wagg Optimum (myself included) so if there's something we should know then please share! :)

I guess everyone has their personal opinions and way of doing things. Personally I wouldn't feed my pigs barley rings every day (even just a few) as I consider them to be a rare treat due to the fact that they're so fattening.
 
My pigs much prefer Wagg Optimum to anything else. I'd rather they ate Burgess Excel (as I think it's better for them and is more widely available in my local shops) but they'll eat it sometimes and then suddenly go off it for ages, whereas they'd always eat Optimum, given the choice.
 
missy said:
Just wondering why exactly Wagg food is so bad? Are you just referring to the muesli mix or also the Optimum nuggets? Lots of people here use Wagg Optimum (myself included) so if there's something we should know then please share! :)

I guess everyone has their personal opinions and way of doing things. Personally I wouldn't feed my pigs barley rings every day (even just a few) as I consider them to be a rare treat due to the fact that they're so fattening.
Click to expand...

Most of my pigs that come in are under weight or malnourished...
Barley rings are used for fattening them up and also all round conditioning of them... And my ratio works out at 2 rings per pig...
And sorry I should have been more specific I ment the musli I have little issue with the pellets...
It's musli all round I hate...
And again I did say I personally have a hatred of it... :))
Lol
Sorry should have been more clear...
x
 
claremw92 said:
Most of my pigs that come in are under weight or malnourished...
Barley rings are used for fattening them up and also all round conditioning of them... And my ratio works out at 2 rings per pig...
And sorry I should have been more specific I ment the musli I have little issue with the pellets...
It's musli all round I hate...
And again I did say I personally have a hatred of it... :))
Lol
Sorry should have been more clear...
x
Click to expand...

Of course everyone's entitled to their own personal opinions! As I use Wagg pellets myself I was just worried that I might be unaware of a reason why it might not be ok...so, phew! Thanks for clarifying!

And barley rings are a great way of feeding up underweight piggies, I agree. Thankfully mine are ok so in our house barley rings would defo be a rare treat :)
 
When noodles was small she didnt put on weight as much as her sister, so the wagg pelletts which are much smaller were fed and she wolfed these down - she does have a smaller mouth than truffles - I also had to cut her veg up in very small pieces - I fed my 3 week old boar on the wagg nuggets as well - purely because he had been fed on rabbitt mueseli and the Burgess nuggets are really big (I was shocked at the size of them when I first saw them compared to the wagg) - but now feed mainly burgess with a few wagg mixed in (just to use the bag up ) as I have read in the past that the burgess excell has the best nutritional content for them.
 
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