SAB diet - any actual experience?

[ivanpomidorov]

Hello, fellow degu owners!

Looking for different approaches to Degu diets, I've discovered the so called Species-Appropriate and Balanced (SAB) Diet. It looks very solid and scientific-based,  but what alerts me is that I couldn't find any proper reports from people who tried it outside its original forum (maybe ist's just me being bad googler  ).

So I wonder - are there people who actually tried SAB? Was it actually good for your degus? Is it a worthy diet? If you did, please share your experience.

[ntg]

There are a few people on here that feed a natural diet without pellets, but it's still in it's early infancy so it's hard to say what the longterm impact of it is.

What I do know is the Royal ("inappropriate word") School of Veterinary Science in Edinburgh are still advocating a good pellet and unlimited forage approach and were wary about the addition of an oil seed mix due to selective eating issues but I don't know if they've come across the SAB diet yet.

The big thing is that you have to make sure that they are getting all the vitamins and minerals in enough quantity that it is neither too high or too low or you're going to have issues. What these proper values are, we can't know for sure as nobody has really done a study on it. Instead we look at what has been fed in papers mineral-wise and what goes into the pellet feeds we buy to effectively guess what the correct range should be.

[moletteuk]

That forum does not take kindly to criticism or open discussion of any of their ideas, on their forum or anywhere else, so that's why you won't find much about it.

Full natural diets can be great but it's a lot of responsibility to be providing everything a degu needs and can be difficult when there is so little scientific information out there. That's why we tend to have a hedging your bets approach of a few well chosen pellets and lots of forage on this forum with attention to mineral content, trying to get the best of both worlds with the minimum risks. We do have members who feed all different kinds of diets though, that's the other thing, for a diet to be sustainable it has to suit the degus and the owner long term.

A couple of things for you to think about would be getting enough of the right vitamins in winter or all year if your degu does not like fresh forage, and another might be the bioavailability of the calcium in lots of the high calcium oil seeds, can degus extract the minerals from oxalates?

Some of our members have gravitated towards a full natural diet because as you introduce a good variety of plenty of forage and some oil seeds, most degus will mostly lose interest in pellets. I feed my degus lots of forage and some oil seeds but I wrestle with them to try to keep them eating some pellets.

We have some background info on degu diets here: deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16425/degu-feeding-guide
And the best other forum where they discuss natural feeding for small animals is this one www.degupedia.de/forum/ but unfortunately it is in German because that's where many of the ideas for improving small animal husbandry come from.

[moletteuk]

I'm going to tag a couple of natural diet people for you too: bouncy @emdalliance

[Deleted]

Hi ivanpomidorov and welcome!

I started off here feeding rubbish Pets at Home nuggets and just hay from the wonderful advice of the pet shop 😑.

Fast forward a year or maybe nearly two now? I’ve taken the wonderful advice and guidelines from this forum and I feed my degus a variety of food!

What I do to get variety is I buy everything that’s safe for degus to eat daily (most forage) from both Zooplus & Ratrations and I mix it into a Monday - Sunday list of tubs and mix say 3-5 different types of forage per tub, so throughout the week they’re getting tonnes of variety!

I don’t limit them in any way. They get two big handfuls per pair of degus every day. If it looks low by the morning or midday (I feed at night) then I give them some more to tide them over. There’s lots of threads on here to find what’s suitable and things that are easy to ID and buy.

I also buy several different brands and types of hay! They get a big handful of hay too. They eat some / use it to nest.

They get a teaspoon each of the degu daily seed mix every day as well.

I still give them a small amount of nuggets each too. I feel that it’s sort of a safety net. They don’t get many as they don’t eat them all anyway. Some degus are still a big fan of the nuggets, some ignore them largely and maybe will pick up 2 or 3. I use 2-3 different decent brands and mix them into a tub.

I don’t worry with them not eating loads of pellets as they’re overall super healthy, except for the one who came to me with dental issues. He’s had two teeth out. Since that however he’s visually having no problems! Super shiny coat, nice front teeth, eating and drinking nicely and no signs of further dental disease - I feel his new diet with me is helping with that. Before he was on P@H nuggets and Hay as he was left at P@H in their adoption centre for months. Old breeding stock I think.

They all seem very happy, lots of energy, shiny coats, nice teeth and eyes. Good appetite. They aren’t fussy with their forage and will eat pretty much everything!

(I have been giving them too many nuts though now it’s winter and I can’t resist their faces, so they’re a little on the larger side of the spectrum lol, so no nuts for a while now!)

I feel overall they’re happier in themselves as a spicy diet spices up their lives and makes them display natural behaviours of actually foraging for food.

I put their nuggets and seed at the bottom, then all the forage, then cover that pile with hay, then rustle my hand in it a little to spread it out further. It makes them work for their food a bit more

[claire]

I'm the same i like to feed naturally and there's a lot of info on here but it's so confusing as no one knows yet really so I feed science select nuggets so I know they are getting a good base of vitamins minerals and they are a good calcium phosphorus ratio and through research ( stealing another person's list herhum) I feed them a mix of dried safe forage and a degu seed mix from rat rations. I've found over time they are eating more forage less nuggets. Plus I'm weak too... nuts oops and fresh kitchen herbs if they will eat it. Mine have unlimited hay but I'm not sure they eat much. Always been fussy though.
Recently had my boys checked and all in good condition, eyes and teeth were fine apart from 1 but wasn't to do with food

[bouncy]

Mine are on 100% natural diet. The older ones have been on it for nearly two years, and the pups since 12 weeks.

They get the Hansemann SAB or Exquisite mix, my own high calcium seed mix, dandelion roots, hay, and occasional nuts in shells. They also get occasional fresh birch, bamboo leaves, herbs, and are about to get fresh grass and flowers too.

I supplement the missing vitamin D in their water.

The only goo who has any health issues is Scaredy, who has elodontoma, but he's still perky.