Alternative cavy pellets.. Please Help...

fridzalone

Post   » Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:31 am


I'm fridzalone from Indonesia. Lately there's a problem regarding cavy pellets in Indonesia. I made a thread in Guinea Pig Cages about our condition but I'm still not so sure to use the pellets that advised because it contains BHA/BHT (after several days of thinking and researching). So I come to this forum as well to ask your opinion about our problems. The whole story was already told in this thread : http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... ymore.html

So I'm still looking for the safer pellets to give for our pigs. The candidates that comes to my mind are Brown's Nutrition Plus Supreme pellets (this is the link to the thread : http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... dents.html) and Brown's Encore (here's the ingredients : http://www.ebay.in/itm/F-M-Browns-Encor ... 1922wt_754) because both of them are sold online so everybody can get it.

I've done few research about the ingredients, and what bothers me are Whey Solids and Cholecalciferol. I read Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals and Cholecalciferol is one ingredients that listed there (page 104), but from what I read in the net, cholecalciferol made from animals. And about whey solids, i can't find any information on its effect on guinea pigs.

But, both of those ingredients are also listed in Mazuri's ingredients. And Mazuri is one acceptable pellets, so it makes me a bit sure that maybe both of them are okay.

And there's an old thread (year 2006) in GPC about Brown's Encore : http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... dents.html. I'm not sure why the ingredients on this thread and on the pages that I found on the net are differents, but maybe there are some changes of the ingredients during 2006-2012.

However, I can't be sure which pellets to suggest to the others to use unless I know it's safer, by asking GPC and GL. That's why I came to you and ask your opinion about which one to use. Should we stick with Nova pellet? Or is there any better pellets other than Oxbow? Or should we just change our guinea pig diet to hay and veggies based only?

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Brainerror

Post   » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:19 am


I would go pellet free and give your pigs a good quality GRASS hay that they can munch 24/7 with fresh veggies daily.

Unless you can source a good timothy hay based pellet from online/abroad.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:49 pm


If you list the ingredients of each product, we might be able to comment. Have you read www.guinealynx.info/.html ? It provides guidelines for evaluating pellets.

I like the idea of going pelletless too.

fridzalone

Post   » Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:10 am


I like the idea of going pelletless too, but I'm lack of information about hay/grass and veggies only diet. I don't know about how much each veggies I should giving them, and it makes me worry that my pigs would get some mineral/vitamin deficiency.

The ingredients of Nova (the new product) and CP Diet are listed here :
http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... ymore.html

And these are the ingredients of the products that I found here and I asked to Ly just in case there's another better product than the one that I use :
- Gold Blend Pellet (not available in every area) : http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... ellet.html
- Premium Pellet for Guinea Pig and Rabbit (not available in every area):http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... abbit.html
- Vitakraft Emotion Beauty (which is not available in Indonesia, but I can ask the Vitakraft distributor): http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/die ... -good.html


Should we go pelletless instead?

fridzalone

Post   » Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:50 am


Does anyone know how to provide a good and healthy non pellet based diet?

My friend tried it before but she didn't successful, her piggy's weight decrease 20grams in several days. I really want to try it, but I'm afraid it would ended up bad. And I would love to add more and more veggies but I know that some veggies are bad when given in medium-large amount. And I'm afraid that doubled or tripled their veggies menu would just harm them.

Any suggestion?

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PinkRufus
Contributor in 2020

Post   » Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am



fridzalone

Post   » Sun Jan 15, 2012 6:17 am


Thank you so much for the post...It's really help me, a lot :D

I didn't know if there's information about non pellet diet in this forum before, now I can go pellet free diet without any doubt.

SardonicSmile

Post   » Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:36 am


I haven't gone pellet free, but I recently changed pellets and my pigs decided they do not really like them and are now eating way more hay and just tiny amounts of pellets.

So far so good. The young ones are still growing, the old one has lost some weight, but seems to be holding steady now.

Good luck!

Heyruthie

Post   » Mon Jan 11, 2016 4:12 pm


Hi, all! I've looked through all the pellet-free threads (there are a handful of good ones) but I'd love to touch base to see if I can get an update from anyone who is on here currently who is pellet-free for their piggies.

Most of the threads are pretty old, and some of the info isn't really conclusive (like people say they are going to try it, but don't say how it worked out.) I'd love to just get this thread going again with anyone on here who is currently pellet free, or who TRIED pellet free, and has feedback for me.

At this time, I'm feeding on-demand unlimited, high-quality timothy hay, quite a bit of veggies each day, leafy greens, and also fresh, organic grass, dandelion and clover in season, or as I can gather it in cold months. But I recently lost one of my two piggies, so I'm just re-evaluating all of our program here, including diet, even though my remaining fella is a good weight, and isn't losing.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Jan 11, 2016 4:16 pm


The main reason to go pellet-free is if you've got a stone-prone pig. If you don't, I wouldn't do it, as pellets are the easiest way to get the vitamins and minerals that they need.

I did pellet-free for about three years, and got a recurrence of a bladder stone for my efforts.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Jan 11, 2016 8:58 pm


It sounds like a pretty decent diet. You might want to look over the diet info in the guide. There are links to USDA dietary requirements.

www.guinealynx.info/.html

If you want more info on individual foods you are giving, there is a chart that might help (nice to see you are mainly going greens vs. fruits).

www.guinealynx.info/.html

Maddy_harper

Post   » Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:59 pm


Would like to go pelit free too but i think that could be quite fiddly for me having no sight n all that. dont think Chock would like the change too much as he loves his pelits. Worry that he wouldnt get the right diet if i did go pelit free. also sourceing things could be tricky for me as i cant get out alone to get his ingredience right now.

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