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Post by chandra on Nov 30, 2010 10:35:11 GMT
I recently adopted two degus off of craigslist. The lady I got them from was feeding them rat food. Every site I go to says something different and I'm so confused! I put a mixture of chin/guinea food and they wont touch it. I put a little rat food in it and they eat all the seeds. They wont touch tim hay or alfalfa hay. what could/should I do to get them to eat healthier and is a chin/guinea mix what they're suppose to have? Please Help!
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Post by clairejason on Nov 30, 2010 11:31:55 GMT
i feed mine on degu nuggets and i also get some from zooplus which is a mix for degus and they love it i would try to get some even if its just nuggets for the moment as its better for them. I get hay from my local farmer and i put it in a toilet roll tube and put some treats in it too and they love to est their way through. Tehy can have treats as long as they dont have any sugar in them you can get them in p@h or other pet stores but u have to read the ingredients. sorry if im not being helpful but i hope it helps a bit
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Post by w8152 on Nov 30, 2010 13:33:58 GMT
try mixing half and half to start with, you'll have to slowly wean them off the rat food. just dont give them any more until they start of the degu nuggets (best way i have heard). they may just not like the guinea/chin food... they are fussy little sods at the best of times.
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Post by smux on Nov 30, 2010 18:35:52 GMT
Also, many chinchilla foods are not for degus, surprisingly. Guinea pig food is generally fine, although many contain nuts/sweetcorn and all sorts of things that degus should have in moderation.
Your best bet is either giving them guinea pig food solely (eventually) or buying degu nuggets either to mix with the guinea pig food or to replace it. Also, as w8152 says, you would have to wean them over from the rat food to the proper food so their stomachs can get used to it. Don't stand for any fussiness, if they don't eat it they go hungry, they WILL eventually eat the degu food. If you give the guinea pig food to them, it might be an idea to take a picture of a sample of what's in the bowl and posting it here and I'll let you know what bits need removing. Degutopia also has a list of foods complete with whether they're good or bad for degus, and if the guinea pig food is gertie guinea pig (buyable cheap on ebay) then you'll be fine with it as-is.
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 30, 2010 19:35:09 GMT
If you are in America, you should be able to get Gerty Guinea pig food made by Supreme, but it might have a different name, eg Supreme sell Harry Hamster food in UK but they call it Hazel Hamster in USA.
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Post by smux on Nov 30, 2010 19:41:25 GMT
It's known in the USA as Gertie Guinea Pig as far as I am aware, it's mentioned on Degutopia.
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Post by chandra on Nov 30, 2010 22:20:43 GMT
Thank you for all the suggestions, I have Guinea Pigs and I get them Nutriphase. It does't have anything but pellets and a high vit c content. I have chins too and get them Mazuri pellets. I heard this is the best for them because it is also straight pellets. so I've been combining the two and the degus are not touching it. They'd rather eat their own poop or my chins poop when I let them out to run. I will keep on trying though and I live in Washington State so there's only one type of degu food available to me at Petco and its expensive for very little. I have rabbits too should I try some of their food?
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Post by smux on Nov 30, 2010 22:59:53 GMT
Guinea pig pellets aren't the same as guinea pig mixture, and probably won't be as good for degus as the mix would be. Rabbit food should be avoided at all costs as it usually contains added medicines to help the rabbit with illnesses specific to them and this medicine won't be good for degus either. Hopefully someone else from the US will be able to confirm if nutriphase and mazuri are good or bad although I would hazard a guess that both are bad according to the little bit of information provided on Degutopia. Pellets for the chin is obviously fine for the chin and it can be better for fussy eaters who pick at their foods. High vitamin C content is fine, but I am betting it also has a high sugar content (the packet should say in nutritional information).
I'd say try them on fresh vegetables daily (bare minimum of carrots or tomatoes though) and hay for the most part, with guinea pig mix on a regular basis to supplement their diet. You could also try the degu-specific food but give them small amounts of it mixed in with guinea pig mix.
For anyone trying to help work out if nutriphase is safe, here's the list of ingredients: "Sun-cured alfalfa meal, dehulled soybean meal, ground oats, ground wheat, wheat middlings, dried beet pulp, lignin sulfonate, dicalcium phosphate, soy oil, oat groats, ground barley, sunflower seed, wheat, raisins, dried beet pulp, dried bananas, soy oil, dried cane molasses, wheat germ meal, salt, dl-methionine, magnesium oxide, calcium carbonate, dextrose, choline chloride, l-lysine, sodium selenite, anise oil, riboflavin supplement, manganous oxide, zinc oxide, vitamin b12 supplement, ferrous sulfate, yucca schidigera extract, biotin, mixed tocopherols (a preservative), citric acid, rosemary extract, copper sulfate, niacin, menadione sodium bisulfate complex (source of vitamin k activity), vitamin e supplement, vitamin a supplement, calcium pantothenate, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin d3), thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, folic acid."
Quite a few of those ingredients ring alarm bells for me, specifically the many fruits, sunflower seeds, raisins and such.
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Post by chandra on Dec 1, 2010 0:40:13 GMT
My husband is going to the pet store to buy the expensive little can of degu food to see if they will eat it. I think if I mix it in with guinea and chin food maybe that will work? I don't mind switching guinea food but all the research I've done says this is best for the piggies for the money. So should the guinea food have seeds in it? because that is all the degus eat out of the rat food.
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Post by chandra on Dec 1, 2010 0:50:36 GMT
Here's what is in Mazuri chin food Ingredients: Dehydrated alfalfa meal, dehulled soybean meal, wheat middlings, ground oats, wheat germ, ground soybean hulls, dried beet pulp, cane molasses, soybean oil, dicalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, dried whey, salt, DL-methionine, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate, Vitamin A acetate, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, choline chloride, magnesium oxide, cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), d-alpha tocopheryl acetate (natural source vitamin E), calcium pantothenate, zinc oxide, nicotinic acid, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12), riboflavin, dried streptococcus faecium fermentation product, dried lactobacillus acidophilus ferment product, yeast culture, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried trichoderma virdie fermentation extract, manganous oxide, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, dried saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, sodium selenite.
Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein (min.) 20.0%, Crude Fat (min.) 3.0%, Crude Fiber (max.) 18.0%, Ash (max.) 9.0%.
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Post by malteser60 on Dec 1, 2010 12:00:49 GMT
Hi chandra, So, this is going based on the ingredient list of nutriphase and mazuri food. Nutriphase - has high amounts of sugar. The following ingredients to be avoided are as follows: - Raisins
- Dried bananas
- Dried cane molasses (raw sugar)
- Dextrose (a form of sugar)
That's for the sugars. Now for the rest: - Sunflower seed (best given as treats, especially during training)
- Salt (generally not good overall as degus require very low concentrations of salt in their diet so added salt not good)
- dl-methionine (type of amino acid - i.e. protein. Degus require a diet that is very low in protein)
- choline chloride (a form of salt - also used in chicken feed as a growth accelerant)
- l-lysine (amino acid - i.e. protein)
The Mazuri food looks pretty similar. In my opinion I wouldn't feed the degus either of this food. Degutopia rates the Gerty Guinea Pig food very highly for degus. And I believe you can get it in the states. Here's a link that I found from petsmart: www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754943What smux was trying to say is that Gerty Guinea Pig food is a mixture of products, which there will surely be something there to tempt your degus. As for your degus only eating the seeds out of the rat food that doesn't surprise me the greedy little things. Degu's love seeds, however it's not a good, balanced diet if that's all they eat. For my degu's I feed them our Pets at Home degu nuggets and use seeds as a training aid. Another thing, degu's will eat anything, including things that are bad for them. Mine have taken a likeing to eating the paint off my skirting boards! So make sure they have a good diet and perservere, like any child they will want to eat the nice yummy stuff, not the boring, yucky stuff (like trying to tell a child that a carrot is nicer to eat than a sweetie!). Just FYI, reason I know about the food is that I'm primarily marine ecologist, but also work as a terrestrial ecologist, and therefore have to know all about various feeds (both for fish and for bats, newts, etc), so it is easy to adapt my knowledge to degu food.
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Post by chandra on Dec 2, 2010 4:30:07 GMT
Problem solved! My husband bought Sunseed Degu food last night and I just gave it to them without anything mixed with it and they ate it! Thank you everybody for your advice it was much appreciated. @ Malteser60 My chins chew my base boards, I have to spray bitter yuck on everything. My degus aren't destructive at all except for an occasional dig in my plants!
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