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Which Pellets are best

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Wolfvampgirl

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi all, I’ve just recently got my guinea pigs and wondering what type of pellets are best? I have had a look at the food chart but I don’t really know what I’m looking at to be honest. Thank you.
 
You in the UK? Welcome to the forum by the way, sorry I didn't see you were new at first👍
 
thank you @SkyPipDotBernie. It was a toss up between the science selective and the science Selective Grain Free.

Yes I’m from the U.K., born and bred 😂. And thank you, I can’t wait to meet everyone and get to know everyone. So far, everyone has been nice and friendly.
 
My lot were on Harringtons which is very good and my Rainbow Piggy Velvet ( :yikes: :yikes: DA BOSS:yikes::yikes: and cue music from the Shower Scene of Psycho) would have given her soul for. Then Velvet developed bladder stones and bladder sludge (may be unrelated) so I changed all 5 of them to Science Selective Grain Free as it has less calcium but this didn't help my lovely Velvet. 3 of my other piggies are her offspring (shop pregnancy) and they all had the same diet and they don't appear to be affected. May just be that Velvet was prone to bladder stones. I have stuck with the Grain Free pellets and am giving the other 4 a low calcium diet as I don't particularly want to have to go through the trauma of pts.
 
All four piggies started on burgess excel (girls had the mint one). I moved them to harringtons though.
 
Pellets are such s tiny part of the diet (just one tablespoon a day) but overfeeding pellets and not filtering their drinking water is where they get most of their calcium from so it’s best to watch the quantity of pellets you feed and filter water to control their calcium intake. Choosing a low calcium pellet can help.

You need to look at the first ingredient on each packet. The first ingredient is the one which the feed is based on. You are looking for a pellet which is grass or hay based. Ideally, you would then have a feed which is lower in grain (wheatfeed coming lower down the list ie not a second of third ingredient) or completely grain free.

Burgess excel is grass based. It does contain some alfalfa/Lucerne but it isn’t a main ingredient.

Harrington’s are sunflower extract based, with wheatfeed a second ingredient and grass as a third ingredient.

Science selective, the normal one, is alfalfa meal based with grains as a second ingredient.

Science selective grain free is Timothy hay based and doesn’t contain any wheat.

I have always fed burgess to my rabbits and originally to my guinea pigs but recently decided to switch my piggies to science selective grain free (now that I can get hold of it regularly!j.
 
Partly because it worked out cheaper than burgess. And partly because the boys ate it when I switched them over.
 
Welcome to the forum.
I give my 4 piggies 2 handfuls of Science Selective grain free per day. They seem to love them more than any other pellets I’ve tried.

I should clarify that they share 2 handfuls which is approximately a tablespoon per piggy per day
 
I've found mine maintain the best coat, weight and health on country value fruity nuggets mixed with science selective and graze on dried grass
 
Piggies&buns said:
Pellets are such s tiny part of the diet (just one tablespoon a day) but overfeeding pellets and not filtering their drinking water is where they get most of their calcium from so it’s best to watch the quantity of pellets you feed and filter water to control their calcium intake. Choosing a low calcium pellet can help.

You need to look at the first ingredient on each packet. The first ingredient is the one which the feed is based on. You are looking for a pellet which is grass or hay based. Ideally, you would then have a feed which is lower in grain (wheatfeed coming lower down the list ie not a second of third ingredient) or completely grain free.

Burgess excel is grass based. It does contain some alfalfa/Lucerne but it isn’t a main ingredient.

Harrington’s are sunflower extract based, with wheatfeed a second ingredient and grass as a third ingredient.

Science selective, the normal one, is alfalfa meal based with grains as a second ingredient.

Science selective grain free is Timothy hay based and doesn’t contain any wheat.

I have always fed burgess to my rabbits and originally to my guinea pigs but recently decided to switch my piggies to science selective grain free (now that I can get hold of it regularly!j.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, this has helped me understand some a little more. I’m thinking going with SS grain free.
 
Thank you all for you comments. You have really made me think. I know the pellets are such a small thing but I want to get it right.
My only concern is (and it is only a small little thing) is I do have quite a few pigs and the pellets are a little on the expensive side (it will be almost double what I pay now).
 
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