Finding dried forage suppliers in USA

[randomname]

Can you guys give me  clue about American forage suppliers, trying to help someone off site find places to get forage. She's in Colorado specifically, but any where that ships is ok.

[winic1]

Suggest she DOESN'T use Monterey Bay Spice Co. Most of their stuff is cut tiny, despite what they say.

I have been finding stuff just on Amazon.com lately. You have to know what you want, and then check the size of the cut--how small the pieces are. But they are carrying more and more, and the prices are getting better.

That's where I got my latest round of seeds from.  Chose most of them from the brand "Food To Live", they evidently also have a website, Foodtolive.com .  But since I have Amazon Prime, I get free shipping on so many things, I went with that.

[moletteuk]

there's the odd thing mentioned in the american thread deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16569/links-herb-supplies-american-threads?page=1

Only definite forage as we know it is from Nature's Pantry in Canada, they do ship to USA but I think it's quite expensive, but it is the Hansemanns degu SAB mix, so it's good quality.

[zenaida]

Is the person looking for a complete forage?

Winic, have you had any luck with getting a complete forage from anywhere? My forage is just a few piecemeal-ed things like some marigold and dandelion. I can't even find some basic apple leaves or anything. I think degu's pantry is the only one that has a the tree based forage and all that.

But yes, winic is correct. It is very hard to find anything. Pet suppliers don't seem to have this stuff at all. We can get seeds in bulk from spice stores, but the true forage options are extremely limited.

[winic1]

No luck with a complete forage. I buy individual items, when I find something that looks suitable, and mix them myself. Which means I have a huge storage tub full of opened bags of stuff, as you usually have to buy a large bags, a pound or so at a time, of each item. It's not so hard to find whole dried flowers, much harder to find leaves that aren't cut or crushed to cooking herb size. Got dandelion roots and burdock roots off Amazon, they're chopped but in decent sized pieces, like the size of a small pea, so the guys easily pick up and eat them.

If this person is in the state you mentioned, they are aware that degus are illegal there, and if discovered they will be confiscated and destroyed? Is that why they aren't joining us here?

[randomname]

No she's a chinchilla owner winic, she's looking to feed a more natural diet.

I checked petsmart/petco but there's nothing, I sent her a link to zooplus & Galen's gardens to show her what kind of stuff I meant & she was impressed we get stuff like that.

Where do you get you marigold & dandelion from zenaida?

[winic1]

If she is in Colorado, the shipping from Nature's Pantry should be significantly less, as NP is in western Canada, and Zenaida and I are on the east coast of the US. Colorado is roughly 2,000 miles (3,200km) west of us, so that much closer to NP. Might be worth her contacting them and getting some estimates.

[winic1]

She should start looking on Amazon.com. You just have to be careful to judge the size of the pieces to avoid stuff that is very tiny; but more and more items are showing up that can be useful. They probably won't be whole pieces, but as long as they are big enough for the chinchilla to pick up, it works okay.

One example: www.amazon.com/Organic-Dandelion-Leaf-Certified-Nature/dp/B00N585D10/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1520807150&sr=8-3&keywords=dried%2Bdandelion&th=1

[zenaida]

I got my stuff from monteray bay spice company. The dandelion was too small, but the marigold wasn't too bad. Whole flower heads, but lots of fallen petals too. Shipping was expensive with them, but again, it should be cheaper for your friend because monteray bay is in Oregon or something, clear across the country. Colorado is way closer to them than it is for us.

Amazon is probably her best bet. We just don't have an industry for forage here. The closest we get is people who want the dried ingredients to make tea, that's why everything is chopped up fine.

We really don't have an equivalent to your zoolopolus or ratrations when it comes to forage. For the most part I never shop petsmart/petco because they don't have what I need at all. I'll only shop them if I'm running really low on dust or carefresh and think that an amazon order will take too long. I've never met an employee there that has heard of a degu, I've given up on even telling them and just smile and nod when they ask about my chinchilla.

[winic1]

I had ordered a whole load of stuff from Monterey Bay Spice Co. The dried flowers weren't too bad. Most of the leaf stuff was chopped much smaller than they told me (I had actually called to ask), and some of it was as fine as you'd get in a little jar of spice from the grocery store. I called them up to complain, was told to send pictures, which I did including a ruler across each bag so you could see how finely chopped it was. Message I got back was to the effect of "my manager says so what, tough luck, don't buy it next time." Sent back a message saying, "Okay, got it. 1. your website misrepresents your products. 2. your customer service misrepresents your products. 3. Don't buy from you again. Ever. Got it."

So I'd be really leery of recommending leaf products from them to anyone. You get stuff cut more for cooking than anything else, and they don't give a d**n that they told you it would be bigger (1/4-3/8" cuts). I put the fine stuff in my mix, and then every few days I end up dumping all the little bits out of the bowl, as it is about half full of "dust" by then. So, the cage smells great, but as a food, it's a total waste. That's why I say don't recommend MBS Co to her. Or else warn her dried whole flowers are okay, but the leaf stuff isn't.

[randomname]

Thanks guys, I'll pass all this on. Such a shame you can't access decent forage in the USA, am guessing it's down to the German's leading the way for Europe? No wonder all the FB chinchilla groups have no idea about forage or a more natural diet, explains heck of a lot seeing as they're mostly American.

[zenaida]

I'm sure there is a chicken and egg effect happening here with forage. Forage suppliers don't have a market, so they don't sell the stuff. People assume that since it isn't sold, it isn't safe. So the people don't buy it and it doesn't have a market...

However if you want a super small hampster cage or an unsafe wheel, they have plenty of those in stock for you...