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General Help with deciding food.

sqweekers

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Okay so I have guinea pig pellets but I dont know.. they seem so bland besides the fruits and veggies I give them. Is there like a mix you guys would refer that guinea pigs like?
 

PiggieWigglies

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Guinea pigs need a plain timothy pellet. Good brands of pellets are Oxbow and KMS Hayloft. Usually people like KMS because they use a different source of calcium in their pellets that doesn't form bladder stones. Pellets with colored pigs and dried fruit are no good for a pig. The colored bits provide no nutritional value and the dried fruit is way too sugary to feed on a daily bases.
 

sqweekers

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Oh okay. Wasnt sure if it was good for them or not.. currently i have the walmart brand. Small world? is that okay to use?
 

PiggieWigglies

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Probably not. Some of the ingredients probably shouldn't be in there. Look at the bag, is the first ingredient alfalfa hay/meal? And no doubt the calcium is probably higher than it should be.. Try switching. I used to buy a 5lb bag of pellets that lasted me 2-4 weeks for $13, now I get a 10lb bag of Oxbow for around the same price.
 

sqweekers

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Where did you buy it at?
 

PiggieWigglies

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Where did you buy it at?
At my local feed store. You can also buy it at Dr Foster and Smith's website. Besides Oxbow, look into KMS and see which one you like better. A lot of members loveee KMS hayloft's pellets.
 

PiggyMommyWendy

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Our piggies love the SweetMeadow Farm pellets we feed them. It's a good brand - probably almost as good/healthy as KMS pellets (which I've been told are excellent). Sweet Meadow is a better option for us, as we can get them at our local Agway farm supply store. The shipping for KMS is a bit high for our area.
 

PiggieWigglies

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Ditto on what PiggyMommy said, Sweet Meadow is also good too. Sweet Meadow also uses the same type of calcium Oxbow uses, so if you were looking for a pellet with the lowest calcium possible you would go with KMS or no pellets.
 

sqweekers

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When i looked at my bag of food i didnt see anything about the calcium but it says it has added vitamin c.. but i will look into those. Thank you! :)
 

PiggieWigglies

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I used the Walmart pellets when I first got my pigs. They're alfalfa based, so they're not suitable. I haven't spent too much time with the nutritional analysis or ingredients, but I doubt they were very good even for young or pregnant pigs, who can have alfalfa pellets. I used Oxbow for a while (the adult guinea pig formula, which is Timothy based) and it was good. I bought it online from wag.com or Drs. Foster and Smith depending on who was cheaper, but I switched to KMS after a little more than a year because I started to see too much calcium discharge in my guinea pigs' urine.
Not to change the subject of this topic but Ive been wondering, how do you know if your pigs are excreting too much calcium?
 

sqweekers

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Wait.. you can see calcium discharge? im confused..
 

PiggieWigglies

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You can tell by whether they leave behind white powder or grit on the places where they pee. In particular, Alex concerned me because when he peed on a towel, it hadn't even dried before I could see lots of fairly large grained white powder. It's greatly improved with KMS.
My pigs sometimes leave just powder, and its only every once in awhile. Should I be concerned?
 

lost_lover

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Spending the extra money on good quality pellets is completely worth it. I blame a majority of the health issues that my piggy Truffle had on me feeding him pretty much nothing except the pet store brand pellets. I didn't know enough about proper care at the time and my Truffle did pass away.

I feed Oxbow to my boys now, they love love love it! They will eat every single pellet I give them so I have to even measure it. We have not had many calcium issues, occasionally I will see a little white but it is very infrequent and never grainy. I buy the biggest bag they sell on amazon then just keep a smaller container to open daily and keep the rest sealed up. That makes it very affordable for me.
 

sqweekers

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Thats sad..😞 i will start on getting the best food possible. I iust spent $50 on buying fleece and toys and quality veggies and fruits for my piggies :)
 
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