Soy free and timothy based pellets?

4GorgeousGuineas

4GorgeousGuineas

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My 4 piggies have been on oxbow pellets and I give 1 table spoon of pellets per pig per day, however I’m not keen on the ingredients as there’s soy in there and one of my boars was having the odd squeaky wee and when I took him off the oxbow he has stopped all the squeaking. I’m looking for a soy free pellet that is also timothy based, I was looking at pets at home woodlands guinea pig but those have been out of stock online for a while and are no longer available in store. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can feed? I’m looking for low calcium as well and my boys aren’t keen on the huge chunky pellets. Thanks.
 
I feed mine science selective grain free - they are Timothy based and low calcium, but are fairly chunky sized nuggets though and are not soy free
 
I won’t feed the science selective because of the soy, I know that soy is linked to tumours in rats so don’t want to take the risk with my boys. Thank you everyone for your responses though ☺️
 
I've got a sow who keeps getting lumps. Maybe she should be soya free 🤔 I'll follow this with interest.
 
I think you need to be very careful before making statements like "soy is linked to tumours in rats" please can you link the scientific research papers that actually showed this to be true? As we are an evidence-based forum and that is quite a dramatic thing to claim that could scare a lot of people unnecessarily...
 
4GorgeousGuineas said:
Estrogen Found In Soy Stimulates Human Breast-Cancer Cells In Mice

I’d just rather not take the risk, some studies say that soy is fine but other studies say a different story and so I’d rather feed a pellet that does not contain soy in order to eliminate any risk. I’m not advising other piggy owners to go soy free, it’s just my personal choice.
Click to expand...
That study showed that certain soy compounds caused human breast cancer cells to grow after they had been injected into lab mice. Human breast cancer cells. That were already cancerous. And had been freakishly injected into lab mice. Nothing about soy causing cancer and nothing about rodents. Possibly if you were a human with existing breast cancer you might avoid soy based on this one 18 year old research study. Possibly not...
 
I don't know about the animal research but the human research isn't conclusive yet. The latest suggestion is those who eat unprocessed soya beans gain an advantage in oestrogen positive cancer, versus eating processed soya. But the fomer tends to be looking at countries where people eat more veg etc than us, which makes things less clear.
 
this study seems bazaar and inhumane for the poor mice involved. Also unless your guinea pig just so happens to be a menopausal human woman with existing breast cancer I wouldn't worry the mice were just a vessel in this experiment and it really has nothing to do with rodents.

I'm strongly against unnecessary animal testing (which this is) and I feel a large scale human study looking at the diets of women with breast cancer undergoing treatment would be much more relevant and beneficial to the medical profession. sadly the consideration for animal welfare in ethics is minimal and animal testing seems to be a quick easy way to create catchy headlines when at most these studies have the potential to show that an area of research needs more attention and further studies should be done in humans.
 
I can honestly say that I don't know which pellets are Soy free without reading the ingredients of them all individually. To find one that is soy free, low calcium and timothy based could be impossible.

Have a look at the chart I've linked below, it will tell you a few things at a glance and from there you can check ingredients lists for Soy.

Nugget Comparison Chart
 
I alternate between Science Selective Grain Free and Versele Laga Complete Cavia. The latter is also grain free and doesn't list soy/soya on its ingredients - though it is probably average on calcium at 0.8%.
 
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