Which pellets?

Piggylove82

Piggylove82

Adult Guinea Pig
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I currently feed my two pigs Twitch (formerly Wagg) guinea pig pellets. They are both around 4 years old and with the exception of one barbering the other, their general health is fine.

I'm wondering if there is something that would be better for them, pellet wise. I'm aware most of their diet needs to be hay, and I can assure you they have at least 3 types to pick over in that department! But as pellets are such a small proportion of their diet, do they need to be super amazing pellets or would Twitch ones be just fine?

I'm seeing Science Selective pellets and also Selective Naturals pellets. Anyone have any knowledge or experience of either of them?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can pass on.
 
Many of use Science Selective grain free pellets which are timothy hay based, these are I think a generally accepted lowish calcium healthy option, but if the pellets are only fed in small amounts and your piggies are healthy then I think there's no need to change something you've been feeding for years! We only settled on Science Selective grain free by chance as the first type of pellets we ever bought and having found out they are quite good we just stuck with them. We briefly tried Versele Laga but they smelt very herby and my piggies wouldnt touch them!
 
PigglePuggle said:
Many of use Science Selective grain free pellets which are timothy hay based, these are I think a generally accepted lowish calcium healthy option, but if the pellets are only fed in small amounts and your piggies are healthy then I think there's no need to change something you've been feeding for years! We only settled on Science Selective grain free by chance as the first type of pellets we ever bought and having found out they are quite good we just stuck with them. We briefly tried Versele Laga but they smelt very herby and my piggies wouldnt touch them!
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OK. Thanks for your help. It's because I'm coming to the end of my current bag of pellets and wondered if I should 'upgrade'.
 
Lady Kelly said:
I feed science selective grain free but you might want to have a look at the pellet comparison chart in our diet guides
Nugget Comparison Chart
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Thanks for your reply.

I did look at that post. But it was over three years ago, and I know that the Twitch product is not the same as the Wagg product (that it replaced) which is shown in that chart. It's now primarily oat fibre, not wheat and some of the composition proportions are different now. Also, it doesn't mention the Selective Naturals, only Selective grain free. Not sure if they are the same product 🤷🏻‍♀️.

To be honest, I was just interested in what other pig owners buy and use and whether their pigs like or don't like it.
 
I was feeding science selective and went grain free when I was dealing with Donald having stones. I haven't seen science selective naturals so no idea what they are like in comparison.
 
It's so confusing sometimes, trying to research products. I've looked again online, and between Wilko, The Range and (the dreaded) Pets at Home, I now think they are just the normal pellets and the grain free ones. I think sometimes products get repackaged and different stores stock the product in updated packaging sooner than other stores. I did find that to be the case when Wagg swapped over to Twitch for the small animal market.

Did Donald's stones improve?

Sorry for wasting your time 😔
 
After a stone issue a couple of years ago we switched to SS grain free which every guinea pig that has passed through my doors will eat (including the fosters). We tried almost all the grain free pellets. SS grain free and Versele Laga cavia complete were the only ones they would eat with any regularity. But they preferred the SS grain free so that’s what we stuck with. The only downside is they only do small bags of them.
 
VickiA said:
After a stone issue a couple of years ago we switched to SS grain free which every guinea pig that has passed through my doors will eat (including the fosters). We tried almost all the grain free pellets. SS grain free and Versele Laga cavia complete were the only ones they would eat with any regularity. But they preferred the SS grain free so that’s what we stuck with. The only downside is they only do small bags of them.
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Do you think the grain free pellets version, act in any way, as prevention of any of these conditions? With my girls being older ladies, I feel I should be buying the best food I can for them.
 
I also use Science Selective grain free. My girlies can’t get enough!
 
Thanks. I'm now wondering if the yumminess is why people only feed pellets in limited amounts so the pigs don't eat too many. My pigs naturally don't scoff all the pellets I put in their dish. So is it because the Twitch ones aren't that tasty, or because they are sensible girls and know they should not be eating more than a tablespoon of pellets per day? 🤔
 
My girl Biscuit was on Twitch pellets before she passed away - simply because they were what she was given before we adopted her. She barely touched them, a couple a day if that. I switched to Selective, she scoffed them. My two girls now love them too, I limit their amount and the bowl is always empty by the end of the day.

If they could have unlimited, I’d blink and the bag would be gone I’m sure of it! Although I have no doubt your little sweeties are as sensible as they are gorgeous still. 😍
 
Piggylove82 said:
It's so confusing sometimes, trying to research products. I've looked again online, and between Wilko, The Range and (the dreaded) Pets at Home, I now think they are just the normal pellets and the grain free ones. I think sometimes products get repackaged and different stores stock the product in updated packaging sooner than other stores. I did find that to be the case when Wagg swapped over to Twitch for the small animal market.

Did Donald's stones improve?

Sorry for wasting your time 😔
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Sorry I've been out at a 1 year olds birthday party all afternoon. You haven't wasted my time. Sadly Donald's operation was complex and after two weeks he went downhill with his other kidney so we had to make the decision to end his suffering.
 
Piggylove82 said:
Thanks. I'm now wondering if the yumminess is why people only feed pellets in limited amounts so the pigs don't eat too many. My pigs naturally don't scoff all the pellets I put in their dish. So is it because the Twitch ones aren't that tasty, or because they are sensible girls and know they should not be eating more than a tablespoon of pellets per day? 🤔
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My lot are very sensible with pellets, they much prefer fresh veg and hay- when we went away for a couple of nights and my daughter filled a big bowl with pellets for them, when we got home they were looking at the uneaten extra pellets with contempt wheeking for extra leaves and hay! My pigs get about 12 pellets per piggy per meal (morning and evening) which is about 5g per day, and some days we actually skip the breakfast pellets and scatter feed extra veg and give oats and readigrass or a hay cookie instead- any more pellets and and they leave them and are offended they've been cheated out of the proper food!
 
Lady Kelly said:
Sorry I've been out at a 1 year olds birthday party all afternoon. You haven't wasted my time. Sadly Donald's operation was complex and after two weeks he went downhill with his other kidney so we had to make the decision to end his suffering.
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I'm so sorry about Donald 😥
 
I will be updating the Nugget Comparison Chart as soon as I can.
 
Harringtons pellets I'm almost sure, are owned by wagg, but I feed science selective grain free, and science select rat food to my rats. I've stuck with this brand for a few years now
 
Piggylove82 said:
I don't envy you that job. I imagine it's a very long winded one. There was an awful lot of information on there.

I meant no offence in my previous comments x
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Oh don't worry, I didn't take any offence :) Yes it's a big job but I'm happy to do it. I know a lot of new foods have entered the market since the last update so it definitely needs doing :D
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
Harringtons pellets I'm almost sure, are owned by wagg, but I feed science selective grain free, and science select rat food to my rats. I've stuck with this brand for a few years now
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I'm tempted to try one of the science selective ones. I still have enough Twitch pellets to be able to mix the two and see which ones they take from the dish. My two are the sort of pigs that are wey hey, we like this, then when I buy a bigger bag or more packs, they say actually nah, not so keen now. They did that with readigrass. Ate bag after bag of it until I bulk bought 8 off ebay to avoid paying a delivery charge, then they went completely off it 🙄
 
Hi. I used to feed SS (and tried Burgess in past) , but piggies weren't that crazy about them. Been on Varsele Laga for over two years and all are happy and healthy. I have a 9yrs old in my group, too. They eat everything straight away, never wasted any food! I will not be changing unless the quality changes. To me it's well worth the money.
 
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