Making a Substitute for Pellets

[pigjes]

The green oats which are sold all over Europe, it's fed as an extra to horses mainly, but locals feed it as an extra for bunnies and piggies too.

It's harvested during a later stage of growth where the seed heads are still green and hard. It looks like grass, with thick seed heads, it's chopped into chunks and sold in plastic bags.

Compared to the processed rolled oats, they are higher in nutritional value. They look green, and stay green. I buy a 5 month supply for Binky, and they stay perfect.

I never understood why he doesn't like hay, we tried just about every kind to even lure him to try some. The past year, he eats a few strands per week, before: none, ever. We kept on offering, we tried without green oats, nope, he does not eat hay. We think it's because he was attacked from within hay piles, since he has many war marks on his ears when he arrived. Still, he snarfs green oats like an addict. It makes his poos a tad softer than pigs who eat hay, he can eat his vitapoos without any problem as they seem to form well enough to devour, but green oats has kept him alive an well for all these years now.

One more thing we noticed. Since we always had some green oats as a daily treat in the cage, it was clear that every very sick pig who was still able to chew ate green oats instead of hay. So, we have never been without.

[Lynx]

Your picture of green oats looks tasty! Thanks for posting it and the explanation. So what you buy, do you get stalks too (oats in early growth are quite sweet) or just the oats? The green oats still have the husks on, no? Are the husks around the oat soft? Do you by any chance know of a listing anywhere that gives an extensive nutritional breakdown with vitamins and minerals? Is the shelf life shorter than mature, hulled oats?

I don't know why we don't have something like this. Or maybe we do! I'll stop at a farm store and see what I can find out.

[pigjes]

The bags of green oats contain everything, except the root, chopped in pieces. Nothing feels soft, but the lot is a tad softer than most hay, including the husks. I know that the % of fiber is a tad less than Orchard hay, still it has enough fiber to sustain a pig if necessary. This is the only decent link that I found. It's in Dutch, so you have to throw it through Google Translate. It also shows a pic on how it looks straight out of the bag. https://purehorse.nl/product/bio-groene-haver/

I would guess that the shelf life is about 2 years. Personally, since hay is stored here in my house, with extra humidity added because of our central heating making the air too dry, I only store it for 5 months. That way, I hope, it's not older than 6 totally when the last bag is opened up. It sells well here in the EU, sellers are often low or out of stock.

[SardonicSmile]

One of my piggies does not do well with green oats… it gives her squishy poo (as does lettuce) resulting in a dirty butt and poop shoes. (She is a sensitive little bugger!)

I fed my piggies dried vegetable flakes together with pellets. I recently stopped because the new stuff I bought had bugs in them (for the second time). The online store refuses to refund me so now I am looking for a new store, but am hesitant for fear of more bugs and more money lost…

Now they get three types of pellets and finish it faster than they used to when it was two types and the flakes. I guess the flakes filled them up more? I have not changed the amount of pellets, just added a third kind instead of the flakes.

(I gave them tomato, bell pepper, carrot, pea, red beets, (broad?) beans and parsnip flakes)

[Lynx]

It does look tasty, pigjes!

[pigjes]

I too make my own mix of low calcium pellets with varied dried veggie flakes. It seems to encourage rummaging, which piggies like to do.

[Lynx]

Are particular foods uneaten?

[daj]

I'm not sure I'm reading the nutrient requirements list correctly. (GP info starts on p. 116 for me, and this list is on 117. Are those numbers for a daily requirement? For protein, it's saying 180 grams per kilo?? No way, right? Also, from the Notes section (copied below), the last sentence would apply to what I am attempting to do, correct?

NOTE: Nutrient requirements are expressed on an as-fed basis for diets containing 10% moisture; 2.8–3.5 kcal ME/g (11.7–14.6 kJ ME/g) and
should be adjusted for diets of differing moisture and energy concentrations. Unless otherwise specified, the listed nutrient concentrations represent
minimal requirements and do not include a margin of safety. Higher concentrations for many nutrients may be warranted in natural-ingredient diets.

[Lynx]

Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals is the only diet source I have.

It is hard to apply because it basically gives a proportion - tells you how much should be in (I think) a kilo of food. From that information, you have to guess how much food a guinea pig would eat in a day. It will vary depending on age, sex, weight, etc. of the guinea pig.

Guinea pig nutrition is far down on the list of scientific nutrition studies. From memory, I think they pull bits and pieces from various studies (and also use a rat model) to project what they feel should be nutritional guidelines for guinea pigs.

I can say that a varied natural diet will also include trace minerals and natural sources for vitamins and minerals and should be a better diet.

I am sorry I can't be more specific. When I was putting together the nutrition page, I did not want to misrepresent what the MDR (minimum daily requirement) is for various vitamins and minerals for our guinea pigs. That's where I provided a link to the data and left the reader to determine how to use it.

[daj]

I suppose another approach I can take is to gather the nutrient info from as many pellet brands as I can and come up with an average for each nutrient. So far, the main problem I am encountering is soft poops. I'm not sure if this is something that will adjust itself, or whether I need to feed it in a drier state. One pig also still wants his pellets, so I am giving a bit of both to him. In looking at ingredients lists I see plenty of things I'd rather not feed my pigs. For instance, in Oxbow Essentials they have a chemical that's used to mitigate odor, selenite and lignin sulfonate. I'm no chemist, but if I look those things up, they don't strike as food ingredients.

[pigjes]

As for parts of the mix I make are left uneaten: all I can say, since I use this mix for many years now, that each pig has a favorite, yet eats most of what is offered, and has something they don't eat. When I had more pigs, we knew who preferred what, but in the end, they ate the lot as a group.

I am a fan of making my own mix, not my own pellets. All the pigs we had seemed to love going through it several times a day, and the entire rummaging process offered them a great way to keep them busy. I had a pig once who clearly had an attention span disorder and was bored fast, despite the large cage and the weekly changing settings, and you know we had enough settings to rotate a 6 months' cycle back then, it sure helped her to stay busy and not nip her sister's butt too often, lol.

[Lynx]

I found some information that may be helpful for you, daj. Keep in mind that all of this is laboratory focused and I continue to believe some products are best not used.

Here is another link to the page cited above:
https://www.nap.edu/read/4758/chapter/6

This is from the National Academies Press.

The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently-researched information on important matters in science and health policy.

Here is a pdf from Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University in Adhartal, Jabalpur that uses the info above. Hopefully their analysis is an accurate representation of the guidelines from the Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals,: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995. I was pretty surprised to see a note in the standard mixture list that said, "^The mineral miture [sic] recommended for poultry may be used". Excess calcium is important to poultry and problematic for guinea pigs! And Sef has done a lot of research on what forms of added calcium are best for our guinea pigs. Here is the pdf I found:
http://www.ndvsu.org/images/StudyMateri ... nimals.pdf

Please note that the formulation of calcium may not be the best and there are questions about soy products. Look at the natural diet only. Note they suggest amounts of the mix for growing, adult, and pregnant/lactating guinea pigs. Don't take this as the last word as it is very old info but it may help you.

In addition, I found some detailed info from a producer of laboratory feed in Australia. I do not know where they got their info from. Take it also with a grain of salt but it may help you.
https://www.specialtyfeeds.com/products/standard-diet/

Guinea pig and rabbit feed:
https://www.specialtyfeeds.com/new/wp-c ... 06/gpr.pdf

This hybrid diet has been used successfully in a number of breeding and maintenance
facilities for many years however the diet is designed to be fed in conjunction with fresh green
feedstuffs. If feeding alone a high energy Guinea Pig diet and a high fibre Rabbit Pellet are
available.

I believe they note a higher incidence of pregnancy toxemia if fresh greens are not fed. So greens are important!

High energy guinea pig feed:
https://www.specialtyfeeds.com/new/wp-c ... ig_new.pdf

For animal breeding facilities with relatively small, open Guinea Pig breeding colonies we
would recommend a mixed feeding regime of GPR and fresh fruit / vegetables.