Food,forage & fun (for geeks)

[randomname]

I've decided to keep a detailed diary of the food we use so I can identify waste, plan better & balance nutrition better.

Each day I'll detail what was given & what was left from the day before, so I can work out what's popular & what's not.  I literally work on sight & instinct on when to top up hay, add more nuggets etc so I actually have no overall idea what is being fed. I have started today by weighing everything (except hay which is measured in the scientific measurements of "handful" & "carrier bag". Carrier bag is one standard supermarket bag packed full, not a bag for life, not that posh)

All hay racks & food bowls were emptied this morning to start with an clean slate. I'll measure how many grams the cups I use for the dogs are tomorrow & update to be more accurate.
All small animal pellets are Supreme Science selective brand. 

DAY ONE

Dogs

Stan - 1/2 cup Markus Muller dry food (mixed with water)
Minnie - 3/4 cup Markus Muller dry food (mixed with water)
1/2 stick of celery each
1/2 medium size carrot each


Cat

70g Applaws cat food (wet)
20g Tesco cat food (wet)
20g Applaws dry food

Chinchillas (Sir Ian Mckellen & Sir Patrick Stewart)

1 large handful Ings hay
1 handful redigrass
20g nuggets
10g Exquisit degu forage mix
2g alfalfa
1g nettle
5g flower blossom mix
2 x 3cm bits dandelion root.

Dame Maggie Smith

1 large handful of Ings hay
1 handful of redigrass
12g nuggets
7g Exquisit degu forage mix
5g Alfalfa
1g nettle
5g flower blossom mix
1 x 5cm bit of dandelion root.


Guinea Pigs (4)

1 carrier bag of Ings hay
1 large handful of redigrass 
32g nuggets
15g Exquisit degu forage mix
10g Alfalfa
5g nettle
5g flower blossom mix
50g carrots
10g fresh celery leaves
37g kiwi fruit
76g celery
100g orange pepper


Degus (3)

1 large handful of redigrass
1 large handful Ings hay
18g degu nuggets
3 pinches of seed mix (ratrations)
20g Exquisit degu forage mix
3g alfalfa
2g nettle
8g flower blossom mix
3 x 3cm bits of dandelion root


Rabbits (3)

3 carrier bags of Ings hay
3 large handfuls of redigrass
150g nuggets
13g alfalfa
15g degu forage mix
10g nettle
5g flower mix
3 x 5cm chunks of dandelion root
71g celery
42g carrots
11g celery leaf


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Overall today we've used approximately  : 4 & 1/2 packed carrier bag fulls of Ings hay,
                                                              a carrier bag full of redigrass,
                                                              230g nuggets,  
                                                              65g forage mix 
                                                              33g Alfalfa
                                                              19g Nettle
                                                              26g Blossom mix
                                                              2 carrots
                                                              1 orange pepper
                                                              3 sticks celery
                                                              1 small kiwi fruit
                                                              100g wet cat food
                                                              1 & 1/4 cup dry dog food
                                                              8 pieces of dandelion root
                                                              2 teaspoons degus seed mix
                                                              


Okaaay. I get the feeling I'm going to be freaked out when I work out how much it's costing me over a month. 

[deguconvert]

OH MY! I have a feeling you might be as well! That's a lot of food. Just typing it out must have been time consuming, not to mention all the measuring and weighing.

[randomname]

yeah, feeding took twice as long today, good job I have nothing else to do with my life!
I'll appreciate it tomorrow when I do the forage & I have a record of what they had, am always forgetting. Am sure they get dandelion too much due to this. I really need to get more organised & budget better.
I might keep a record of what I buy, when & what cost too (needn't be on here) so I can combine the two sets of information for a more accurate picture.
I think tomorrow the hay amount will be down as some will still have viable hay in the racks. The rabbits & guinea pigs will have pooped & slept on their overnight, so will have to replace. Hopefully will be some forage left.

Weight wise : the degus & chins are fine, Eddie the cat is fine now he's lost some weight (vet said), both dogs are on slightly reduced rations so they get their waists back, they are a tiny bit overweight. The rabbits are fine, but are on slightly more pellets to fatten up a little for winter (Zak especially as he's old) & the guinea pigs are pretty fat. I do need to make adjustments to their diet. I think I need to cut pellets & sugary veg a little first, see what happens. If they're hungry there's always more hay!

[randomname]

DAY TWO

Dogs

Stan - 1/2 cup Markus Muller dry food
Minnie - 3/4 cup Markus Muller dry food


Cat

200g Tesco cat food (wet)


Chinchillas (Sir Ian McKellen & Sir Patrick Stewart)
observations from yesterday : All nuggets & forage gone, redigrass 50% gone, lots of Ings left (taken out)

1 Handful soft meadow hay
25g nuggets
5g Plantain
3g Burn's Meadow mix
1g Shepherd's purse
0.5g Yarrow
pinch of parsley stalks


Dame Maggie Smith
observations from yesterday : All nuggets gone, most forage gone (left cactus blooms & dandelion root), redigrass 80% gone, lots of Ings left (taken out)

1 handful soft meadow hay
15g nuggets
5g plantain
3g Burn's meadow mix
1g Shepherd's purse
0.5g Yarrow
pinch of parsley stalk
1 tiny "ball" of millet


Guinea Pigs (4)
Observations from yesterday : All food & forage gone, redigrass gone, Ings left (use as bedding)

1 large carrier bag of soft meadow hay
28g nuggets
7g Plantain
13g Burns' meadow mix
4g Yarrow


Degus (3)
Observations from yesterday : All redigrass, nuggets & forage gone, lots of Ings left (left for bedding)

1 large handful of soft meadow hay
20g nuggets
10g plantain
3g Shepherd's purse
2g Yarrow
2 pinches of parsley stalks
6g Burn's meadow mix
8 tiny balls of millet - one each, & 5 in the forage mix.

Rabbits (3)







                                                                                                                                                                  



Will come back & update the rest later when the veg has been fed. 

Maybe I'll even feed myself while I'm at it!

[Deleted]

Is Applaws good cat food? Keep seeing the name of it pop up around and I've never heard of it.

Delilah and Ellie are on Whiskas wet and dry.

[randomname]

It varies across the range Em.
Good/bad is pretty subjective, depends what you want out of a food.
As far as protein content goes there's 3 kinds of wet cat food - the supermarket/whiskers/felix ones that are around 2-10% protein, the mid range posher ones that have 8-15% protein (lots of Applaws is in this category) & the super good ones have 16-20% protein (a couple of Applaws in this category too)
Then there's the fact that cheaper food are often around 4% meat & animal derivatives - could be beaks, bones etc. The better foods have at least a 70% proper meat content, no filler. If you look at supermarket food & better food ingredient lists you can see the difference. If you look at a decent food, you usually only have to feed 2 x 70g pouches a day, with the others it's a 400g can - most of which is filler - so guess what? TONS more (& smellier poop)
Then you need to consider if you want to eliminate grains or not (I keep it low, but am not fussy) or fish (which I have as Eddie's immune system wouldn't be able to cope with the toxins fish carry) & lastly, if the food is not a complete food (a lot of the decent ones aren't, so you have to feed a variety)
PHEW! So, my conclusion was that I wanted 17-20% protein, 70-75% meat content with zero derivatives, low grain, fish free. Apparently that's optimum. However it caused Eddie to go without pooping for days on end, which panicked me (he seemed fine) so I reintroduced cheap food - massive smelly poops appeared back overnight! What I do now is feed him half a tin crappy supermarket/whiskers/felix, then a pouch decent food etc. Hopefully that's some good nutrition along with the rubbish. He'll literally eat anything, so swapping foods around isn't a problem at all. Might be for other cats, so go easy if you do swap.

Because I am a geek, I have a list of all the cat food zooplus sells that is 15-20% protein, 70-75% meat content & fish free if you want? Brands on the list are the zoolove own brand, Greenwoods, Cosma, Almo, Applaws & Thrive but it's only certain ones in the ranges. I really did spend an entire weekend reading all the ingredients of every wet cat food on zooplus - each flavour/variety as well.

I need a life.


Edit : should also say my baby girl Cat was raised on Aldi cat food & upgraded to felix - both terrible foods, but she lived to nearly 23. Food isn't everything in longevity/health. However after Eddie came, I really wanted to make sure his nutrition was as good as possible due to the FIV. He will not live to 23, but I doubt rubbish food will be the cause in the end. Either way, i'm not a zealot about it, people make their own choices for many reasons. I'm not an advocate of dry food simply because it's carb heavy (20-30%) & a cat only needs 1-2% in their diet, but I feed Eddie around a handful over the week as he has it in his treat ball. I use it as a treat, not a food. Cat treats, like all the other pet treats out there, are the devil's work imho. I literally never buy treats. Total scam. 
hahaha rant much?

[Deleted]

Please can I have a Zooplus list!

My dogs at home are fed raw diets/foods that are grain free and 75% pure meat minimum content dry foods.

I'm not so fussed for Ellie as she's been on Poundland food all of her life, so whiskas is an improvement lol.. but I've read that cheap cat foods really stunt bengal growth.

[zenaida]

This is awesome! Can't wait to see where all this goes!

I just want to suggest: have you considered putting this information in a spreadsheet? It might be easier than typing out the names of everything every day. I'm thinking the name of the food in the first column, then the date across the top. Maybe the second column have the "units" measurement. That way you can just put a number under the date. Bonus points for being able to analyze changes in the data over time!
(Sorry I'm a super geek... I love data...)