Quantity of Oxbow pellets to buy

[zachdave]

I have one 4-5 month old GP (Peanut) and will be adopting a second pig shortly. I am currently feeding Cavy Performance for young pigs, and the 5 lb bag is getting low. My question is how large a bag to buy for the next batch. I will buy Cavy Cuisine this time, based on Peanut's age shortly being 6 months. Would it be a good idea to buy a 10 lb bag or should I keep getting 5lb bags? It's more convenient and ultimately cheaper to buy the larger bag (I shop by internet and we all know that shipping is high). But would two pigs use up a 10 lb bag before the food gets too old for maximum nutrition? I also feed veggies and Kleen Mama hay. By the way: does anyone have a good experience with a internet retailer? I have been looking at PetFood Direct and Nibblenest. Their prices are very close to each other and cheaper than local pet stores who carry Oxbow and Carefresh , but the shipping is high on both.

[Percy's Mom]

If you feed KM's hay, have you considered buying her pellets as well. They're excellent, and you could order everything all at once. Either way, I would recommend buying at much as you can store. If you have freezer space, order a large package, split it into gallon freezer bags, and freeze the pellets until you need them.

[steve_and_pigs]

I've been wondering the same thing. I did some searching, and I found different resellers of cavy cuisine claiming both a 6 or 12 month shelf life. I sent an email to Oxbow to see what they claim. I just bought 10 lbs for my 6 pigs (four locals plus two fosters). I'd like to buy 50lbs next time if it will last long enough.

[Percy's Mom]

I just recently bagged up and froze a 50lb bag of KM's timothy pellets. I have 2 pigs right now, so I won't need to order pellets for nearly a year. As long as they stay frozen, they should be basically fine. The only thing that might slightly degrade is some of the vitamin C, and if your pigs are getting sufficient veggies, they will have more than enough.

[steve_and_pigs]

I got a friendly response from Oxbow:

Thank you for contacting Oxbow, with your inquiry. 50# bags of pellets have a 1 year shelf life, a 6 months shelf life if opened and if you have the capability of freezing a 50# unopened bag, you can gain additional 6 months of shelf life. Our 5# and 10# bags of pellets have a 2 year shelf life if they are unopened. If opened they will have a 6 months shelf-life and if frozen, unopened, they will have an additional 6 months shelf life.

[Ly&Pigs]

Once you open the bags though, the C can degrade within 4 months or so as the pellets are exposed to light and air which makes the C degrade. Freeze the majority of the pellets and keep out enough for a couple months. Then keep the pellets that you are feeding in an airtight container in a darker spot and take out enough for a couple weeks and put those into another container. That way you only have to open the airtight container once every couple weeks and it keeps the pellets fresher and keeps the C from degrading so fast.