Australia diet & nutrition: harringtons guinea pig food

[oldnewie]

A few months ago one of our local supermarkets started stocking Harringtons Optimum Guinea Pig Food. My girls just love it! It seems to be better quality than any the pet stores stock. Previously, rather than the mixed pellets, I would buy plain rabbit pellets. Now I buy Harringtons only. They are small plain pellets with stabilised vitamin C, & the ingredients are better than the other stuff. The calcium content is calcium iodate pentahydrate instead of calcium carbonate & is 0.8%. I don't know if that's a good ratio but is certainly less than other pellets on offer.Fibre content 17%, again higher than the others. It's by far the best we can get up here rather than having to order Oxbow (which I think is limited) from Auckland. Anyone else tried it?

 

[bpatters]

It's nothing I'd feed my guinea pigs. That .8% calcium rate is twice as high as I'd like to see it. I try to limit my pigs to .4% or less.

The principal ingredient is sunflower extract, whatever the heck that is. The second ingredient is wheat, which is not good for guinea pigs. There's no hay in it at all, and there's a lot of sweetener in the form of fruit.

Ideally, pellets should be mostly composed of hay, along with the vitamin and mineral additives. I'd suggest ordering Oxbow.

 

[PiggieWigglies]

It's nothing I'd feed my guinea pigs. That .8% calcium rate is twice as high as I'd like to see it. I try to limit my pigs to .4% or less.

The principal ingredient is sunflower extract, whatever the heck that is. The second ingredient is wheat, which is not good for guinea pigs. There's no hay in it at all, and there's a lot of sweetener in the form of fruit.

Ideally, pellets should be mostly composed of hay, along with the vitamin and mineral additives. I'd suggest ordering Oxbow.

Im not available to order KMS right now, so whats the 2nd best pellet, if its the Oxbow your talking about, could you give me the name? I have Kaytee Timothy Fiber pellets right now but they arent that good.

 

[bpatters]

@PiggieWigglies, what state do you live in? I'm 2,000+ miles from KMS Hayloft, and their pellets and Oxbow are almost the exact same price here. One time KMS will be a nickle or a dime more per pound than Oxbow, the next they'll be a nickel or dime less.

 

[PiggieWigglies]

What is the specific Oxbow name of pellets you are talking about? Im going to look into that and KMS

 

[bpatters]

Oxbow Cavy Performance for young pigs, Cavy Cuisine for those over six months.

 

[oldnewie]

Thanks for your advice @bypatters. Unfortunately I'm not able to order & purchase online, so I'll have to stick with Harringtons which seems to be the best of a poor bunch available here in Northland. With there being 4% grape & apple in the pellets I'll have to leave those off the menu, or at least give a slice of fresh apple 1-2x week only. The girls are both very healthy, have a good diet (fresh grass, red & green lettuces & peppers daily., carrot & cherry tomato every 2nd day. Dandelion, puha, carrot, cucumber, celery, parsley every other day, silverbeet 1x week).
Thanks anyway

 

[oldnewie]

Sorry, I meant to add that it is packed with the necessary vitamins & minerals too, & it has grass . I notice quite a lot of posters on theguineapigforum give their piggies Harringtons. If I could I would order Oxbow from Auckland but I just don't have that option. I just wish our pet stores would stock more & better stuff.

 

[PiggieWigglies]

A few months ago one of our local supermarkets started stocking Harringtons Optimum Guinea Pig Food. My girls just love it! It seems to be better quality than any the pet stores stock. Previously, rather than the mixed pellets, I would buy plain rabbit pellets. Now I buy Harringtons only. They are small plain pellets with stabilised vitamin C, & the ingredients are better than the other stuff. The calcium content is calcium iodate pentahydrate instead of calcium carbonate & is 0.8%. I don't know if that's a good ratio but is certainly less than other pellets on offer.Fibre content 17%, again higher than the others. It's by far the best we can get up here rather than having to order Oxbow (which I think is limited) from Auckland. Anyone else tried it?

Did you feed your guinea, rabbit food?

 

[bpatters]

@PiggieWigglies, @oldnewie, rabbit food is acceptable for guinea pigs if you supplement with vitamin C. It's not added to rabbit food because rabbits can synthesize their own.

 

[PiggieWigglies]

I never knew guineas could eat rabbit food! Wow.

 

[Aertyn]

I'm using the Rabbit Oxbow food currently with my pigs, was not ideal but my choices were Rabbit food or the Young Cavy Cuisine. Just have to make sure they get extra veggies that are high in Vit C until this bag runs out.

 

[KiwiCavyAdorer]

OldNewie I hear you and really empathize with you, I've been trying to get the NZ manufacturers to produce a plain timothy grass pellet. I hounded the vets in Auckland and else where to bring in at least Oxbow, which one eventually did - only to find that both my boys pee white powder on Oxbow!!
I am feeding Tui Guinea pig - the boys eat Only the orange pellets they are always the first to go (the grain, dried peas and the banana chip sometimes - the lucerne pellets hardly never and none of the round seed or sunflower seed etc) but in the main I through out 7/8ths of the packet. I offer them Harringtons also and sometimes they do eat it, and I offer them oxbow which they eat from time to time, it took them 7 months of offering before they started to eat it and the very next morning there were powdery white pee patches which I'd never seen before. They don't powder on Tui or Harringtons. Until we have a better option I'm blending the 3 feeds so that they can choose what they take. I'm vigilant about their fresh daily grass loads and their veggies and fruit, we do the best we can and we know it could be better, and when it is better we'll take the better choice. The main thing is that your piggies are and stay healthy - that is ultimately all that counts in my opinion.

 

[Skylarnz]

Hi
I have been wondering about the harringtons too! I am feeding Tui Premium Plus food and they are doing great on this. KiwiCavyAdorer I see that your guys eat the orange pellets first but mine seem to leave them for last! I haven't tried the Oxbow yet, just because they have been so happy with the Tui food but was wondering how much are they? Does the vet in Auckland stock it still? I may try the Harringtons or do you think that I should just stay on the Tui food?

 

[RodentCuddles]

Lynfield vets stock it - you can pick up or order online;
(broken link removed)

I'll have a look but think there might also be a vet down in Wellington that stocks some Oxbow..

I personally don't feed pellets - with so many pigs it's just costs too much. The pregnant or nursing girls get the Young Guinea Pigs oxbow pellets and so do the babies..otherwise it's a once weekly treat for the rest.

 

[Skylarnz]

Thanks RodentCuddles I remember we tried to get them to stock it and glad to see they are now. I still have the 3 girls and only give them 1 bowl of pellets a day. They don't always finish it so don't think they need more and so a 2kg Tui bag lasts me about a month. Where do you get your hay from RodentCuddles?

 

[RodentCuddles]

I get hay bales from Southern Traders (great south road, auckland) - $10 a bale.

 

[Skylarnz]

Ah thanks! I was getting mine from Animates but they don't have the nice stuff so have gone back to the lady that sells them out west. Its a bit to far for us so I have to buy a couple of bags at a time. Its great nice fresh hay. I take it the hay from Southern Traders are good too. Is it something they always sell? Looks like a furniture shop lol!

 

[RodentCuddles]

I know the lady out west sells really good hay - but after seeing her rows and rows of hutches with rabbits stuffed in them - I couldn't support her, I brought that one bag and went somewhere else.

He's got his own land/farm area; am pretty sure the hay is sold all year round. Very nice and helpful people.

 

[Skylarnz]

Yeah I know she is a rabbit breeder but the hay is the best I have found so far. This place in great south rd is closer to me so I will check it out when my 3 bags run out!