Pellets Causes Dental Issues?

anyar.dris

anyar.dris

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We are currently trying to adopt a guinea pig from RSPCA. My husband has informed them of everything, like accommodation, food, etc. What was unusual though was that the reply from RSPCA staff he was talking to said that according to their exotic vet, guinea pigs shouldn't be given pellets because it causes dental issues (due to pellets being hard to chew and such). We've never heard anything about such stuffs. Even the RSPCA website tells you to feed them pellets along with loads of hay.

We feed them these. Bunny eats the Excel Dual Care a lot since we gave her that because of her ongoing stomach problems. Mind you, they eat loads of hay and comparing that to how much they eat the pellets, it's like they are treating the pellets just as treats. We just have 3 bowls of each and leave it there. I replace them regularly whether it's been touched or not.

Burgess_Excel_DualCare_1kg-e1505727962771.webp393620011_0_640x640.webp81xvO8OLjQL._SY450_.webp
 
Our vet recommends pellets for good diet and helps with teeth. Pellets are a plenty but if you look at supermarket ones which are cheap and wow the piggies love them. Because they are CRAP full of sh..t and sugar. Horrible stuff I had to wean a piggie off Asda stuff once and he was not happy. Burgess Selection purple I think from P@H it's not cheap but it's better in the long term for Piggies.
 
David Pet Lover said:
Our vet recommends pellets for good diet and helps with teeth. Pellets are a plenty but if you look at supermarket ones which are cheap and wow the piggies love them. Because they are CRAP full of sh..t and sugar. Horrible stuff I had to wean a piggie off Asda stuff once and he was not happy. Burgess Selection purple I think from P@H it's not cheap but it's better in the long term for Piggies.
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Yeah, we tried that Burgess Selection and they didn't like it. We've actually tried a lot of those pellets we can buy from Pets at Home (even the expensive ones) and those 3 I posted above are all they tolerated. We had to give away or throw the others because it filled up our cupboard. :doh::doh:
 
They can be very fussy piggies.
I was very shocked at what goes into the feed and pellets. In the long run it's better for them to eat quality feed.
I have bought expensive treats and sat watching them totally bypass it :nod:for hay and like you had to give them away. I'm not being sexist but I have all girls and they treat me as a proper slave. :nod::own:
 
Yeah, my piggies never liked the treats that you can buy from pet shops, hence we stopped buying any of them. It was just a waste of money. We splurge on them with hay though. We buy Oxbow Orchard Grass Hay and Oxbow Western Timothy Hay and they are flipping expensive. They eat loads of it and we have to buy 1.13kg bags of each every month. :own::own:
 
David Pet Lover said:
Our vet recommends pellets for good diet and helps with teeth. Pellets are a plenty but if you look at supermarket ones which are cheap and wow the piggies love them. Because they are CRAP full of sh..t and sugar. Horrible stuff I had to wean a piggie off Asda stuff once and he was not happy. Burgess Selection purple I think from P@H it's not cheap but it's better in the long term for Piggies.
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I wasn't aware that the asda stuff was so addictive :o
We used to feed our this till we saw that chart a few months ago about the best pellets? They get Harringtons now, which i believe is much better, but we never had an issue getting them off the asda one which they had for years, lucky escape I guess!

I wondered why it was so much cheaper then the other pellets, guess we know now,
But how companys are allowed to sell the things they do baffles me sometime? :^/
 
anyar.dris said:
Yeah, my piggies never liked the treats that you can buy from pet shops, hence we stopped buying any of them. It was just a waste of money. We splurge on them with hay though. We buy Oxbow Orchard Grass Hay and Oxbow Western Timothy Hay and they are flipping expensive. They eat loads of it and we have to buy 1.13kg bags of each every month. :own::own:
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TheLottiediarys said:
I wasn't aware that the asda stuff was so addictive :o
We used to feed our this till we saw that chart a few months ago about the best pellets? They get Harringtons now, which i believe is much better, but we never had an issue getting them off the asda one which they had for years, lucky escape I guess!

I wondered why it was so much cheaper then the other pellets, guess we know now,
But how companys are allowed to sell the things they do baffles me sometime? :^/
Click to expand...
I know what you mean about the hay.
20180112_073528.webp our girls eat sleep poop in theirs. We wizz loads away on clean day. But they love it when put out fresh hay iand hide food under it. Bless Um
 
The only two good brands of pellets we get over here are burgess excel mint and 4 types of oxbow brand, oxbow for adults (can never remember the real name) are their fav. The girls like the burgess hand feed to them but not in a bowl but it's not their favourite so only get it occasionally if they are begging for a treat otherwise they would have me stand there all day feeding them like god's lol. They love anything oxbow. We get only 5 brands of pellets where we are and 3 of them are cheap brands and full of alfalfa/lucerne.
 
Pellets do not harm dental health, infact they are a good source of vital chewing for pigs teeth :) I think the RSPCA at your end need to get a more piggy savvy vet!
 
here, too, the BEST vets don't suggest an abuse (more than few pieces a day, max 5 grams a day) of pellets and they worry of the teeth, too, but the reasons sound different: a piggie who eats a good amount of pellets (=too much) feels FULL and stops chewing for the next 2-3 hours. A piggie eating hay is always hungry and chews more. That is the key of the problem: the more a piggie chews during the day the better and the teeth can naturally be eroded.
Long ago I had a piggie who ended up with enlongated teeth (and other bad consequences): he used to eat the amount of pellets suggested in the box (and suggested by an idiot vet). He was 2 when he died.
My Osvaldo, 2 years old, adopted two months ago, was fed with a lot of pellets and the vet here found his premolars a bit enlongated. The vet here and the vet of the rescue prescribed a diet pellets free (or just few pieces a day as a threat) based on hay/grass and Osvaldo spends the whole day eating and chewing. In 3 months he will be checked again: the vet is confident that his teeth will be eroded.
My sows adopted when they were 2 months old have been following the same diet since the birth: their teeth are perfect and the vet says that rarely he has seen such eroded teeth in a piggie.
Hence, it is not the pellet itself with its component to ruin the teeth, but the fact that maybe the pellet is too rich of nutrients.
Moreover my vet showed me a short video he made in his clinic about the movements of the mouth eating vegs, hay and pellets: three different movements... and only chewing long fibres (hay and grass) the movement is totally correct (similar to the chewing movement of a llama) and useful for eroding premolars and molars...
80% hay/grass, 15% vegs, 5% pellets. This is the rule recommended here, too. Put those amounts on the scales respecting the proportions and you will see how many pellets is 5%... (80% is a lot of hay/grass);)
 
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