So Many Types Of Nuggets!

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chloeyerma

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Hi, I normally buy pets at home own brand nuggets, but was caught short and with only time to go to my local pet shop I brought the burgess excel tasty nuggets. I may have shot myself in the foot and the pigs went straight for them, with my docile quiet one actually hopping around the cage and on top of his tunnels! Is there any difference in these foods or is it just flavourings? Thanks in advance.
 
Sorry, not sure about nutritional content but the vets recommended the burgess ones to me and mine have been eating them greedily for years.
 
Mine love Burgess excel as well.Tried Harrington but they weren't keen
 
There is a lot of difference between them all in taste, nutritional value and how likely they are to aggravate certain conditions such as bladder issues. To me a pellet that is low in both calcium and protein is important. Sadly most UK pellets have high protein and calcium and are full of bad ingredients like soya and molasses.
 
Oh that seems so odd.... why are there bad things in guinea pig food?! Youd think it would be good!
 
Its not too much more expensive and they have mostly fresh veg and hay so il splash out for them as they seem to love it!
 
Sadly it's all about money to the companies that make it. Always best to feed in moderation and feed endless hay instead and a sensible amount of veggies.
 
I have just purchased the blackcurrant and oregano pellets from burgess, they have not arrived yet but I will keep you posted as to how they go down.
 
I feed mainly hay and veg and they get pellets in the evening to last them through the night. If fed in moderation they won't harm. The top brands are worst for having bad ingredients and levels in them sadly. There are a few lower range feeds but they are expensive unless you have one or two like fibre first and oxbow and I believe zoo plus do one too.
 
I am just trying Edward on these as he didn't like Harrington's and I think he is eating them if he is this is the first pellet he has eaten I have had a nightmare getting him to touch a pellet:D
 
Mine go bannanas for the black current and oregano Excel pellets :) They literally popcorn around the cage.
 
I dont feed burgess dont agree with the company plus IMHO the calcium content and ingredients are a bit poor as with most other "standard" pellets, mine are currently on Oxbow as its the best I can get hold of without ordering online :-) I would be interested to see if @helen105281 has the same conclusions as myself on her awesome spreadsheet :-P
 
I dont feed burgess dont agree with the company plus IMHO the calcium content and ingredients are a bit poor as with most other "standard" pellets, mine are currently on Oxbow as its the best I can get hold of without ordering online :-) I would be interested to see if @helen105281 has the same conclusions as myself on her awesome spreadsheet :-P

I'm the same Bekki although I am feeding a small amount of marsdens at the moment but the bulk of their diet is hays, dried leaves and veg. They also have fibrefirst as a treat.
 
Ditto that :-) in the summer ill be drying my garden weeds for them ... my mum says my yard is a mess ... I just call it a dandelion farm :-P
 
Spreadsheet still a work in progress, basically yes all the big brands have way too much calcium and protein and Oxbow is the best of a bad bunch, in that they are better than the British brands but still have bad ingredients. Ingredients are key, many have molasses, other sugars, soya, fillers etc and grains are also a big trigger when pigs have things like IC. I am using Bunny meadowfeast from Zooplus as though the calcium is still 0.6% and the protein 13% it is full of plant based ingredients and is grainless. The JR Farms grainless looked good initially too but is full of fruits which trigger IC.

I just need to tweak the spreadsheet to work out additives etc.
 
Ditto that :-) in the summer ill be drying my garden weeds for them ... my mum says my yard is a mess ... I just call it a dandelion farm :-P

I grow dandelions as I have a tortoise, well I grow weeds in general for her :))

Spreadsheet still a work in progress, basically yes all the big brands have way too much calcium and protein and Oxbow is the best of a bad bunch, in that they are better than the British brands but still have bad ingredients. Ingredients are key, many have molasses, other sugars, soya, fillers etc and grains are also a big trigger when pigs have things like IC. I am using Bunny meadowfeast from Zooplus as though the calcium is still 0.6% and the protein 13% it is full of plant based ingredients and is grainless. The JR Farms grainless looked good initially too but is full of fruits which trigger IC.

I just need to tweak the spreadsheet to work out additives etc.

I would love to see it when you have done. I have done a lot of research myself and know that all the top brands are as bad as each other. Which is appalling when they claim they care about piggy welfare. My vet said they saw less problems when pigs were on muesli then they do now with the onset of the pellet based diet. My vet recommends the oxbow pellets too. I'm still feeding a very small amount of pellets but changed over to a more hay and plant based diet and veg. Figure its more natural too. I know they do this a lot in Europe.
 
My friend has also done lots of research and had discussions with vets including the exotics vet for London zoo and the emphasis is on a much more natural diet full of mainly hay and forages with a limited amount of veg and ideally no dry food but if not then grainless is best and be careful with the ingredients. It seems that the foods from Germany are much more suitable. My pigs are on a specific IC diet which was put together from her research and until recently were doing great, the only thing I did different was I was feeding a low protein and calcium muesli as it was the only thing my pigs would eat (and not the grainless pellets which were recommended) but after Maddie's recent illness I switched to Bunny and they are symptom free at the moment so will be continuing with that. They literally only have a few pellets each a day though.

One massive difference I have noticed on the grainless food is the increase in energy in every single pig, they weren't sluggish before but now they are bouncing about all the time and pigs that hid in cozies all day are running about like nutters.
 
I appreciate oxbow isn't great the same with most foods even human food, most of it is utter poop (actually a guinea pig may be more nutritious at least it has roughage in it!) I do like having a safety net in terms of nutrients in case my forage and veg dont cover it though. If there was enough research and guidelines I'd happily feed pellet free :)
 
That's the reason I am not completely pellet free. I think vitamin D is the main issue.
 
The JR Farms grainless looked good initially too but is full of fruits which trigger IC.

I didn't realise that the fruits in JR Farm could cause IC. I'll have to have a look for something else before this bag runs out...argh! I'm glad I'm not the only one who is confused :/
 
I ordered it thinking it was ok but have been advised that it's not, luckily I ordered more Bunny at the same time. These are the ingredients:

Timothy grass, orchard grass, meadow grass, plantain, red clover, meadow fescue, lady's mantle, parsley, pea flakes, diced carrots and beans flakes, diced parsnip, peppermint leaves, fennel, diced apple, flax seed, dandelion leaves, diced beetroot, nettle, chamomile flowers, black seed, vitamins

The suspect ingredients are the pea flakes, dried carrots, diced apple and diced beetroot.

The Bunny ingredients are:

Vegetation from permanent grassland*, oat husk bran, sunflower bran extract, linseed bran, whole-plant corn, carrot pomace, rapeseed bran, brewer’s hops, brewer’s yeast, amaranth, quinoa, aronia berry pomace, maca root
*Timothy grass, meadow fescue, meadow foxtail, German ryegrass, red fescue, blue grass, cocksfoot grass, velvet grass, meadow grass, ragweed, sweet vernal grass, couch grass, tussock grass, reed canary grass, white clover, red clover, dandelion, yarrow, ribwort, caraway, wild chervil, meadow sweet, mouse ear chickweed, goose grass, thyme-leaved speedwell, bush vetch, comfrey, meadow thistle, ground ivy, daisies, gamander speedwell, lady’s mantle, pimpinelle major, common vetch, meadow saxifrage, cinquefoil, field speedwell, shadflower, autumn hawkbit, common bent, cowslip, clover
 
Spreadsheet still a work in progress, basically yes all the big brands have way too much calcium and protein and Oxbow is the best of a bad bunch, in that they are better than the British brands but still have bad ingredients. Ingredients are key, many have molasses, other sugars, soya, fillers etc and grains are also a big trigger when pigs have things like IC. I am using Bunny meadowfeast from Zooplus as though the calcium is still 0.6% and the protein 13% it is full of plant based ingredients and is grainless. The JR Farms grainless looked good initially too but is full of fruits which trigger IC.

I just need to tweak the spreadsheet to work out additives etc.

My pigs are on a mixture of Burgess Excell blackcurrant and oregano and Oxbow at the moment, but two of them don't seem to care for dried food at all, and hardly touch it, (probably very sensible of them!) whereas the other two go mad for pellets. I'm quite concerned about feeding them suspect ingredients; I really don't want to give them the guinea pig equivalent of junk food, but I'm not sure how one would go about a forage based, pellet-free type diet. Do you think this Bunny Meadowfeast is the best dried food to go for at the moment? If so, I think I will buy some next time I put in an order.

By the way, I am probably being stupid, but what is IC?!
 
Either that or the Vitakraft Emotion prebiotic but my pigs won't eat it so to me the Bunny is next best. You need to break the pellets up though as they are huge.
 
IC is Interstitial cystitis which is inflammation of the bladder.
 
Just tried mine on them again as we had some from a while ago and they are eating them whereas they wouldn't touch them before, so will feed alongside the Bunny.
 
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