Gerty Guinea Pig Food

[amie]

Since mine have decided they prefer it to Degu Xtra Vital, I'm going to be feeding them this too (as much as I don't want to, lol). Are there any bits in this food that I should be taking out or can they eat it all? I'm sure I've read somewhere that there's some bits in Guinea Pig Food that they can't have.

[smux]

Degutopia actually has the food listed in their good food guide at www.degutopia.co.uk/degudiet.htm and the link directly to gertie guinea pig is www.degutopia.co.uk/degufeedggpig.htm

I have the same food, bought cheap in bulk (posted elsewhere in this section), and all mine like it.

[amie]

That's awesome, thanks!

[nuttz]

aggg, i just found this thread, ive only just started a thread with the exact same title and with pretty much the same question........
going to look at the links......lol

[nuttz]

hmm...........?
i thought degus wasnt aloud fruit and corn though???

[smux]

They are allowed SWEETcorn in small amounts, corn itself is slightly different. As for the fruit, degutopia touches on that subject so if you check the above link it'd explain some of what you ned to know. The fruit in this is actually fruit pulp, and contains little or no sugar...tolerable levels for degus. If you are worried about this, the fruit pulp bits are little sticks with an orangey colour, I believe...I can take a picture of those pieces to show you if you wish.

If you do buy gertie, check you're getting it cheaper (at zooplus) than you can get from ebay through the link I posted here a while back (15kg for £18 + £6 postage, and you can add 15kg more items from their shop for no added postage cost bringing weight up to 30kg)

[nuttz]

thanks for that smux, although im still confused..lol
ive been searching high and low for food that dont contain fruit etc and its almost impossible, hopefully with better understanding i may find something suitable but its mighty difficult as i dont understand spanish and not all packages are written in english...lol
the last time i went to buy food for the degus i spent almost an hour just trying to read the ingredients in the shop, im sure the staff thought i was mad and my hubby just left me to my own devices...lol

[nuttz]

right, i was thinking, if i type out the ingredients thats on the bag of food i have at present, can you please tell me if its suitable or not...
vegetable by products, cereals, fruit, seeds (20% extruded), vegetables, mineral substances, spices, thyme 0.5%, sugars, vegetable protein extracts, flavouring, nuts, fructo-oligosaccarides, with anti-oxidents and colouring agents. CE additives.

now im sure some of the above isnt good this is why im not happy using this food but its the best i could get.... im not happy about the sugars, nor the nuts, this is why i must order from the Internet to hopefully feed my babies a more healthy food.. id hate to harm my boys!!!

[smux]

My dad goes between the UK and Spain every so often, he lives over in Spain most of the time but has family over here plus he gets jobs here every so often...can't guarantee anything any time soon but perhaps I could get a batch of Gertie Guinea Pig (or, if you beg nicely, some P@H degu nuggets...it'll take a lot for me to give P@H any more money though :-P) to him and you give him the money for it. I have no idea on the rules regarding "importing" food for animals though, you or he might though :-)

I know he's over here at the moment, but he's going back early tomorrow and we couldn't sort out anything this soon anyway even if I was here when you posted (I might not even have though of it :-P), so if we decide to have a go then we'll do it when I find out he's next over here. I am not sure what part of Spain he's in, although Alicante springs to mind for some reason so that might be it.

As for the stuff you're feeding now, nuts are usually a no-no but you will see them in the mix and can pick them out I would assume...or is it an all-in-one rather than a mix? "Sugars" doesn't sound good, but percentages are what's important to find out. Colourings and flavourings aren't too good either, if they're not natural then they would be artificial meaning it's all sorts of chemicals making up the tastes and colours. Fruit is a definite no-no but only because of sugar content, and fructo-oligosaccarides are fruit sugars (simple sugars). All in all, if it's a mix you can take out the dodgy stuff and leave only the stuff they can eat but if it's not a mix I would steer clear of it.

Ask the shop staff if they speak english as well as spanish, and if they do then ask them to translate the ingredients for you. DON'T under any circumstance let them know what you're looking to avoid as it gives the shopkeeper the opportunity to deceive you if you don't speak the lingo :-P
If possible, take a picture of the ingredients and bring it home to post here or translate on google...if you find something suitable, you can always go back for it.

[nuttz]

thanks so much smux, thats a really kind offer!!! although, alicante isnt close to me unfortunately
i will keep it in mind for the future but in the meantime i shall continue to search high and low for some good food...
i remember in one shop their was guinea pig food but on the packet it had almost the same picture as the gerty guinea pig food, oranges etc so didnt even read the contents... it could be possible that its almost the same stuff...
and there is no chance of getting the shop keepers to help.. i kind of live in the sticks and its virtually impossible to find anyone who speaks english.. french maybe but no english...lol
i may do as you suggested tho regarding taking pictures of the ingredients..that may prove helpful?

thanks very much for your help tho... although i may neeed some more in the future...lol

[nuttz]

i figured maybe the best thing to do would be to post a pic of the food im using at the moment as ive looked at the food itself and cant work out what pieces i should be romoving, other than the seedy bits atleast...
so here is a couple of pics below

the packet...


and the food...

[smux]

"repas cochons d'inde" = Guinea pig food
"contient du thym" = Contains Thyme

Sunflower seeds should definitely be removed, although it's up to you if you want to leave a few in there as a treat (or not try too hard to find them and just pick out the ones you see). There's a sweetcorn near the top of the pic which should be removed if you are likely to be giving them a few with each feed. You'll be glad to know I don't see anything that looks anything like bonemeal, although that doesn't mean there isn't any in there...bonemeal is literally just that, crushed animal bones, usually used in chicken feed but seen in pet food often.

If this is the one you think has sugar in, perhaps a test on each ingredient for the presence of sugar is in order? I had a quick look online and found en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict%27s_reagent which might be of use although I have no idea how easy it is to get sodium carbonate, sodium citrate or copper(II) sulfate for the mixture...it might just be easier to get some diabetes sticks and put the bits in water for a bit and test the water :-)