Protein levels?

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Doeylicious

Doeylicious

Adult Guinea Pig
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Since bringing Bruno home, his wee has been a bit, well minging.

He has had it tested twice and the only irregularity is a higher than normal level of protein. The wee looks bright yellow when on a towel.

Muffin and Crumpet have now also got yellow wee (discovered this when they were on towels while Muffin was poorly)

I think it may be the food I am on - I changed recently to the Natural Pet Food co. meusli as my girls were eating it well, I wanted to come off Gerty (not happy about those colourings and the MAJOR selective feeding) and I admit it was cheaper. But now it seems to be causing this wee issue and they have all started to go off it as we get to the bottom of the bag - big problem when it only comes in 15kg bags.

Every food I look at though seems to have either 16.5% or 17% of protein in it - is this normal? Or can anyone recommend a food with less protein in it?

I am thinking of trying Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch next but again it has 16.5% protein...anyone else had good results on this at all?

Food is a minefield :(
 
Is Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch not a muesli? They might pick what they like and leave the rest. I might be wrong as i still have my boars on the pellets. I'm sure someone on here will let you know of a good brand!:)
 
I only feed a very small amount of dry food, apart from to the dental piggies who have a bowl of every food possible to help encourage them to eat. My piggies generally have lots of veg, hay, grasses and oats. I think most of the concentrates have a high protein level.
 
See of all the pigs Bruno eats like, well, it's his last meal. He has put on weight since coming, not masses, but a nice amount for what is almost a fully grown boar recovering from the snip - he won't be going on weight watchers, but neither will he be on the build me up drinks!

I wonder if he is just nomming too much of the dry food.

For animals who don't eat meat or dairy, I really don't see where protein is required in such a high concentration in their diet. Rats I could understand.
 
I'm sure it's like Vegetarian humans they need some sort of protein to function. I've only had my boys about a month so i won't pretend to know it all lol! Maybe they do need some amount of protein?!
 
Some yes, but if you think 17% is almost a fifth of the whole make up of the food. That's a lot!
 
Hmm a quick google has led me to an article on Galen's Garden (not been on there for ages!) saying it is important to get a good fibre to protein ratio, but guineas do require around 17% protein...interesting...still think I may switch to a pellet tho, am liking the look of Wagg Optimum and Bailey gave it a nice review recently.

EDIT - Yep, the food I was on has 6% fibre and 17% protein...time to change!
 
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