Pellet Food - Nutrional Balance

[Piggy123]

Ok so I'm trying to work out what the best food to gradually swap my new piggies onto is. Obviously I know the most important part of their diet is hay and that should make up the majority of their diet, followed by veg/greens and that pellets are the smallest part of the diet (5%?) but I still feel it important that pellets have the right nutritional balance. For my bunnies I used http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp which lists breakdowns of most of the rabbit pellet foods available in the uk and the amounts you want of various things. Does something like this exist for piggy's?

If not does anyone know what values are best to look for, in the following: % of fibre, protein and fat. The ratio of calcium:phosphorous and what values important vitamins like Vit C should be?

Sorry - I can't believe I misspelt nutritional in the title! and I cant see anyway to change it.

 

[Briony_S]

Tagging @helen105281 who has done a lot of work on this its the calcuim/phosphorus ratio you need to look at I believe

 

[Perfectpets11]

Hi x

This is my boys diet! ( they love it!)

1 scoop of burgess excel guinea pig nuggets
1 scoop of pets at homes guinea pig nuggets
Half a stick of fibafirst once a week

Every 2/3 days I mix a small treat in just for a change or some forage for some variety.

They really like their diet and that normally lasts them 2 days ( they aren't the biggest pellet eaters but they do munch their way through.

My boys were on Timothy hay but decided they didn't like it so they are now on a very good meadow hay brand which they love! They get fresh veggies 2x a day and they always eat them. They have unlimited access to hay and fresh water. In summer they live in a massive bunny hutch/run which allows gem to eat/graze on the fresh grass whenever they like! In the wild pigs would pretty much live and graze on grass so make sure they have some! They love it! But nothing beats dandelions! U can feed the whole dandelion- steam, leaves and head! They love them so much!

That's my boys diet! I am considering adding in some supreme science guinea pig nuggets too so they can have even more of a variety! Remember to slowly introduce guinea pigs onto their new pellets over a few weeks.

Good brands for pellets

Burgess excel
Pets at home
Fibafirst
Supreme science
Oxbow (American but u can buy in the uk)
Harringtons
Asda guinea pig nuggets
Thanks for reading x
I hope I helped!

x

 

[helen105281]

I have done lots of research and compiled a spreadsheet but it is a work in progress, as is the food sticky thread I am writing for here. In the thread I will list all of the available pellets in the UK and compare the nutritional ratios and ingredients. I personally try to avoid pellets with un-natural ingredients and also mollasses as I have pigs with Interstitial cystitis. I also try to feed a pellet that is low in protein and calcium for the same reason. I am currently feeding the following grainless pellet, it is more expensive but they literally have a few each a day. It has very natural ingredients and is grainless. I have noticed that my pigs have so much more energy since feeding it too.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/bunny/195679

I also recommend the following:

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/vitakraft/262148