Australia Oxbow sells in Australia?

[Piggyheaven]

Thanks to the sale at best friend's pet shop I was finally able to get a 2.2 kg bag of Oxbow guinea pig food, lucky for me it was only $27.50 marked down from a whopping $33. That might not seem much to you guys but we usually get our normal stuff for $6 per 7kg bag.
Problem is it was my money this time but normally it's my mums and it seems most places have the same sized bag or smaller for no less than $30..... I get that paying lots of money for a good brand is to be expected but I go threw bags quite quickly, I don't even have my rabbit food yet!
I was wondering if anyone knows a place that Either sells bigger bags of it or sells them for a tad cheaper? I don't know how long I'll be able to keep them on it otherwise.....

 

[Soecara]

My local vet was able to get in the 2.2kg bag of oxbow for something like $24, but much like you that was too high for me. My guinea pigs are on a pellet free diet and have been for the past 3 years.

Pellets are the least important part of their diet, serving mainly as a useful way to get them vitamins and minerals. They are in no way necessary as long as you provide them with those vitamins and minerals through serving them a wide variety of vegetables. For course if you were to go pellet free you would need to be aware of what vitamins are in vegetables, particularly vitamin C to ensure they get what they need.

 

[Piggyheaven]

What part of Australia are you in? Even $24 is better than $30+
I've thought of going without pellets but I rarely have a constant supply of fresh veggies, carrots are the only think that is constantly in the house as we can get huge bags for cheap but it seems everyone is against feeding carrots everyday anyway.

I will be growing my own Carrots, bell peppers and something else I can't remember so maybe I can get more packs of seeds of things with the right vitamins in them and see if I can get them on a pellet free diet that way?
That may help a bit money wise and then the only pellets I will need is for my rabbit's (Probably Momi as I hear them and Oxbow are both pretty good but Momi appears to be cheaper)

 

[Soecara]

I'm in South Australia, keep in mind that price was three years ago but it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask your vet what price they could get them in for.

I have 18 guinea pigs and three large garden beds. I am able to feed them all entirely off of my garden at least 2 days a week depending on the season and if I have recently re-planted - with the exception of lettuce which is more like 1 day a week (which is saying something considering how many I have).

I think I know the big bags of carrots you are talking about, the 5kg juicing carrots from Woolworths . The reason I don't feed carrot more then every other day is they are high in vitamin A which can cause kidney and liver damage in excess (but honestly you would have to feed a heap to get that side effect) and other then lettuce and capsicum I like to rotate all other veg, but a small piece (ie. 4cm chunk of an average carrot) per day should not hurt.

Next time you go into a place that sells plants have a look at their seeds and seedlings, perhaps take a print-off of the guinea pig food list so you can get a good idea of what you can grow and how often the guinea pigs can have it.

 

[Piggyheaven]

I don't think I can get your vets pellets as I'm in vic but it was worth a try :'D
And yes those are the same carrots I was talking about haha my pigs and rabbit's have about a carrot or a carrot and a half every othere day so that shouldn't be a problem for them since it's split between two rabbit's and three guinea pigs.
That sure is a lot of pigs, if you can do that with that many pigs then I shouldn't have a problem with mine!
Next time I am at a place with seeds I get some more, I have the list of good foods saved to my phone as I find it comes in handy often lol

 

[Rybo5000]

(broken link removed)

I'm pretty sure they'll have what you're after, this is where I order my hay.

 

[BIGCHAT]

I also try and get my little ones to live off the land.. but if I run short I also pay around $30.00 per bag.. its good stuff though and they all seem to like it...