Pellets How long will Oxbow pellets last?

[SnickersD]

I thought what I had been feeding my piggies was good but I searched through the forums today and found out its not good quality. Luckily they are nearly out of their current pellets. However the only place I've been able to find Oxbow pellets at is at Petsmart (I'm well aware it's not a name that is popular on here(not really with me either), but its all I've got). They're about $13 for 5lbs, my question is how long will this size bag last for 2 boars (both just under 6months)? I'm sure lots of you have expierence with this brand and hopefully can give me an estimate. My parents aren't thrilled about the drastic price difference (we were buying an 8lb bag for $6). Which is why I'm asking (trying to show them another positive about getting this brand). Thanks guys for any help!

 

[Kimberly713]

Probably about 3 weeks. I get about 2.5wks out of 5lbs for my three girls.

 

[sdpiggylvr]

Hi! Welcome to the forum!

A 5 lb. bag of Oxbow usually lasts me a month with two pigs. Since your pigs will techinically be adults after six months, you should limit their pellet intake to about 1/8-1/4 cup daily. If you strictly limit it, you will not have to purchase pellets as often.

I don't know if Kleenmama's is a possibility for you or not, but it is significantly cheaper than Oxbow. I did a cost breakdown, which you can see below:


Pellets, 50 lbs.
KM's $62.80
Petsmart Oxbow $139.90
PetFoodDirect Oxbow $110.69

Pellets, Cost Per Lb.
KM's $1.26
Petsmart Oxbow $2.81
PetFoodDirect Oxbow $2.21

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Hay, 45 lbs.
KM's $58.64
Petsmart Oxbow $197.82
PetFoodDirect Oxbow $94.95

Hay, Cost Per Lb.
KM's $1.30
Petsmart Oxbow $4.41
PetFoodDirect Oxbow $2.11

So there you have it! As you can see, it is much cheaper to purchase hay and pellets from Kleenmama's - especially in bulk. You can freeze the excess pellets, and hay usually lasts unless it is in direct sunlight. I just last night ordered another shipment of 45 lbs. 2nd cut Timothy hay and 25 lbs. of Timothy choice pellets. My pigs cannot wait til it arrives! (I can't either!)

Hope this helps!

 

[cetd27]

I have a boy and girl piggie both under 6 months. I was using Kaytee when I first got the piggies ( I lost one piggie soon after getting her and I have a different piggie now) I did some research and I found out it was no good so I switched to Oxbow and she loved it! I didn't even care about throwing a whole bag of that other stuff away.

So I can't give you a really good answer but I can guess that it should last about 2 months along with fresh veggies. But you should tell you parents that Oxbow is so much for them and the hay too. I can tell they like it better than Kaytee. You will notice the difference. I was so happy when I did it. I hope you parents will get it for you. I'm a newbie so maybe someone else can give you a better answer. Good Luck!

 

[TwilightStar]

The positives of getting a good quality pellet is a longer life with less health issues. (Especially if you are feeding one with dried fruit, for it causes choking.) Another issues is it cause obesity, which has a slew of negative health effects. Some low qualities uses toxic chemicals, and the nutritional value is just not up to par.
Get Kms! Instead of supporting a place that promotes cruelty (Petsmart, oxbow is fine.)you will be helping someone who truly care for guinea pigs. Her quality is far superior to Oxbow, which, while an amazing brand, you pretty much get a gamble with their hay. You save a lot more with buying in bulk and the shipping is less than driving to a pet store every month.

 

[sdpiggylvr]

So I can't give you a really good answer but I can guess that it should last about 2 months along with fresh veggies.

I'm not sure if this was what you were implying or not, but fresh veggies do not replace pellets or vice versa. The diet should be balanced with a small amount of pellets daily, hay available at all times, about a cup daily of vegetables per guinea pig, small amounts of fruit once or twice a week, and fresh water at all times.

With that "formula" for diet, I'm sure that 5 lb. bag of pellets would last about a month and a half with two pigs. I go through one about every three weeks with four pigs.

 

[cetd27]

I'm not sure if this was what you were implying or not, but fresh veggies do not replace pellets or vice versa. The diet should be balanced with a small amount of pellets daily, hay available at all times, about a cup daily of vegetables per guinea pig, small amounts of fruit once or twice a week, and fresh water at all times.

With that "formula" for diet, I'm sure that 5 lb. bag of pellets would last about a month and a half with two pigs. I go through one about every three weeks with four pigs.

Nope, not at all. I make sure they always have hay and pellets along with fresh veggies every morning and night it's just that I haven't been through a whole bag of pellets yet, so I don't know how long they will last. I just wanted the poster SnickersD to know about my experince. Sorry if it sounded like something else. After I switched to Oxbow, my piggie starting eating more pellets and hay and I felt bad about giving her anything else. I would love to switch to KM since I hears it's better, but the shipping is outrageous for me.

 

[Kimberly713]

How does everyone use so little hay/pellets? Are my pigs really that big of pigs? lol I end up dumping alot so might be my problem...
I need to start really limiting them on pellets I suppose. Tomorrow I shall!!

Well nix my advice unless you have some piggish piggys! haha

 

[TwilightStar]

How does everyone use so little hay/pellets? Are my pigs really that big of pigs? lol I end up dumping alot so might be my problem...
I need to start really limiting them on pellets I suppose. Tomorrow I shall!!

Well nix my advice unless you have some piggish piggys! haha

Too much pellets will cause weight issues. Hay should be offered unlimited.

 

[Kimberly713]

Too much pellets will cause weight issues. Hay should be offered unlimited.

I know. I feed them the reccomended 1/4 cup and of course unlimited hay. I am often dumping out pellets though as waste but sometimes its all gone . Im putting them on 1/8 cup each now starting tomorrow.

 

[SnickersD]

The positives of getting a good quality pellet is a longer life with less health issues. (Especially if you are feeding one with dried fruit, for it causes choking.) Another issues is it cause obesity, which has a slew of negative health effects. Some low qualities uses toxic chemicals, and the nutritional value is just not up to par.
Get Kms! Instead of supporting a place that promotes cruelty (Petsmart, oxbow is fine.)you will be helping someone who truly care for guinea pigs. Her quality is far superior to Oxbow, which, while an amazing brand, you pretty much get a gamble with their hay. You save a lot more with buying in bulk and the shipping is less than driving to a pet store every month.

For me driving to the petstore isn't very expensive (it's less than 8 miles) and my babies seem to really enjoy their Kaytee brand hay (I do check and pick the bags with the greenest hay) but I did look into KM's but her shipping is nearly double the price for just the bag of pellets. I checked into Sweet Meadow as well but their price (for just 5lb pellets) is the same as getting Oxbow at the store. I'm sort of torn on what to do. It seems though that the 5.5lb bag will last us a good while, so I'll mention that to my parents today. Thank you for the tips!

 

[TwilightStar]

For me driving to the petstore isn't very expensive (it's less than 8 miles) and my babies seem to really enjoy their Kaytee brand hay (I do check and pick the bags with the greenest hay) but I did look into KM's but her shipping is nearly double the price for just the bag of pellets. I checked into Sweet Meadow as well but their price (for just 5lb pellets) is the same as getting Oxbow at the store. I'm sort of torn on what to do. It seems though that the 5.5lb bag will last us a good while, so I'll mention that to my parents today. Thank you for the tips!

I would really stop giving them kaytee. If they seem to like that hay, then they were adore oxbow or KMS. I don't know about your supply, but the ones I have dealt with are so sharp that they impale my fingers.

 

[sdpiggylvr]

Kaytee is, in essence, absolute crap. It is a pelleted variety of junk food for guinea pigs - you will quickly have overweight pigs if you continue to feed Kaytee pellets. There are corn products, which has no technical definition - in other words, it could be any number of ingredients, healthy or not. Please stop feeding Kaytee right away - hay and pellets.

Please check out THIS page on pellets and how to find a good pellet. You've probably heard, but Kleenmama's and Oxbow are the absolute best for hay and pellets - nothing else tops them.

 

[SnickersD]

Oh no! I'd never feed them hay that tough. There are some straw like pieces but not enough for me to worry over whether they are getting enough 'good' hay. Most of it is darkish to light green that is a bit brittle but I honestly have only been around horse hay (and thats a thousand times tougher and sharper than what my babies eat), so I'm not sure if hay does come in a soft variety (unless you count alfalfa hay, which my boys get since they are still young). I really wanted to feed them Oxbow but I haven't found a store yet that has it. I'm going to try to remember to call our local pet supply store and see if they carry their hay. I do know that some kaytee hay is pretty bad(I read that on here awhile back) which is why after their first bag was finished I started paying attention to the hay and always snag the greenest filled bag.

 

[SnickersD]

Kaytee is, in essence, absolute crap. It is a pelleted variety of junk food for guinea pigs - you will quickly have overweight pigs if you continue to feed Kaytee pellets. There are corn products, which has no technical definition - in other words, it could be any number of ingredients, healthy or not. Please stop feeding Kaytee right away - hay and pellets.

Please check out THIS page on pellets and how to find a good pellet. You've probably heard, but Kleenmama's and Oxbow are the absolute best for hay and pellets - nothing else tops them.

I know that Kaytee's pellets are dangerous and bad, I've never fed them to my piggies. I only buy their hay, which isn't all that bad. I know it's not the number 1 in quality but they go crazy when I whip it out and will start popcorning, which to me means they like it, plus I can buy in bulk for a decent price. I was feeding them some crappy wal-mart brand pellets (that didn't contain ethoxquin or however that is spelt) so I assumed it was safe (plus it said extra Vit C on the bag), but I learned about three days ago that they are a no-no. I bought the Oxbow pellets today and mixed it with the old crappy stuff (as directed on the Oxbow bag) and since there is only a few days worth of their old stuff I'll just do that so they can get use to the good stuff. They turned their noses to it for about an hour but they just started eating it so I guess that means Oxbow gets the green light. haha

 

[PrincessAngel]

We used to buy OXbow pellets from Petsmart. With 3 girls a 5lb bag would last us about 2 months. We switched to sweet meadow as it is 50lb for a total of 56 dollars including shipping. Per pound the price is about half as much as we were paying for oxbow and obviously lasts much longer. You can keep the pellets frozen or in air tight containers for up to a year. The key to saving money on hay and pellets is bulk. We buy bales of hay for 5 dollars and one 40lb-50lb bale lasts almost a year for us.

 

[Onetwo]

PrincessAngel thats just what I was thinking of purchasing. I will have 4 adult guinea pigs (2 are coming this weekend) and I am sick of driving 45 miles one way to get pellets from a place. I know hay can last a long time if properly stored. I've heard its about a year. But I also heard that pellets should not be stored for longer than 6 months in the freezer (or other cold dark place). So if I only feed 1/2 a cup per day for 4 piggies (1/8th a cup each pig) how much would we go through in 6 months? It sucks that shipping for most of these things costs more than the actual products! Think of how great life would be if every feed store, pet food outlet and shelter had huge cheap bags of Sweet meadow, KM and Oxbow pellets. That would be a dream haw? Not to mention bales of hay from each as well! But alas pet stores dont care what you feed the pig. The sooner it dies the sooner you will have to buy a new one.

 

[kathlaaron]

Hello SnickersD !
I bought Oxbow cavy performance 1 1/2 months ago and have a little bit less than half a 5lb bag left. Both my girls are still under 6 months old, and they love this pellet brand !

 

[RubyRain]

There is a sale on Oxbow pellets and hay until March 7 here:
Sale Center

Shipping is free over $49 or 5.99 for less which is good.

I posted this on another thread and I know it's cheaper to buy 50lbs from KM or SW but if you don't have room to store that much, this is a good alternative.