Anyone using this already?

[titchycatnipsandwich]

ratrations.co.uk/degu-mixtures/exquisit-degu-daily-mixture---pre-packed

Oops, hit post too soon! 

A natural and healthy mix of quality herbs and plants.



Specifically selected for Degu, this mixture is perfectly suitable for all other rodent pets.



Main composition includes



Parsley stalks

Jerusalem artichoke pellets

birch leaves,

carrot cubes

dill stalks

hay meadow grass pellets

plantain

marigold (calendula) flowers

peppermint stalks

echinacea

beetroot pillows

chamomile flowers

various roots,

rowan berries

I'm a bit unsure about rowan berries and jerusalem artichoke, although I think JA might be in the Hansemann's SAB bags. It's on par pricewise for Hansemann's, slightly less variety of stuff in the bag, but if anyone's already using it can you weigh in on palatability? I've just placed a Hansemann's order (well, requested an invoice at any rate), but when I next get some seeds from RatRations I might get a bag or two of this. Postage has to be cheaper than shipping 10kg from Germany... (right?!)

[deguconvert]

Hmmm!! I hope there is someone that has familiarity with this! It would be great to have a review from one of our own on it!

[savvy]

I've used it in the past before I switched to hansemanns.

I don't recall any complaints from my gang about it.

[randomname]

I've used it off & on for years with no problems, the whole gang love it. I've actually been waiting for it to come back in stock at RR so don't buy it all lol

[moletteuk]

Jerusalem artichoke is fine. My girls tried the Hansemanns J. arthichoke dried pieces but weren't keen. It contains inulin so is supposed to be good for diabetes, although it also contains sugars.

Rowan berries potentially have some toxicity to humans from parasorbic acid when fresh, but it seems like this has been exagerrated and possibly doesn't apply to degus. It seems that cooking destroys the toxic compound and drying may also destroy it. The leaves also contain the same toxin and my degus tried them and I think rather like them, deer and sheep also eat them. So, there seems to be a bit of a question mark about rowan, but since Hugro is a respected forage supplier, I would think they are safe in the small quantities present in the mix.

[degumummy137]

Anyone who uses this and can hazard a guess as to the calcium:phosphorous quantities?

[deguconvert]

We have a list of seeds and their cal/phos content, but nothing for any of these ingredients. I wonder if google could provide individual amounts?

[deguconvert]

Well!! Having looked a few of these up . . . it seems kind of hit and miss . . . but I can't say I have invested a lot of time looking through multiple sites and reports. Some are higher in calcium and some are higher in phosphorus, but I didn't look for them all, not can I say that I found anything definitive for some that I did briefly look at. However, if you are also including other foods in the diet you provide for you degus, you can help to balance everything that way. This should not be your only source of forage or of nutrition. A combination of several products, or even going foraging yourself, as well as the oil seeds that have an excellent cal/phos balance will be excellent.

Look at this link, which also has a number of different greens and vegetables listed with nutrient values listed. deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15602/vegetable-seed-nut-nutrition-charts

[degumummy137]

Would a combination of this mix, the degu seed mix from the same site, rotated vegetables and hay with dandelion work as a general diet? I might remove some of the richer components of the mix such as carrot and beetroot though ...

[moletteuk]

I wouldn't recommend that, DM137. The Ca:P is wrong for vegetables, so adding more of those is going to make the diet as a whole worse for mineral content. The only things naturally with the correct Ca:P are a mix of forage and the high calcium oil seeds, and these work out at the correct ratio of 2:1 There is nothing that is well liked that has more calcium so it is virtually impossible to correct for other foods with a lower ratio without adding calcium artificially. So if you don't want to add calcium you have to stick quite strictly to the forage and the seeds. Of course, pellets normally have calcium added artificially but at least they add it accurately, we hope. Our nutrition charts show the amounts of calcium carbonate to add to dried vegetables if that is something you wanted to consider, but it hasn't been widely done, I did it because my girls loved dried veg so I went ahead and corrected it for calcium and carried on feeding it. Basically, you need to be looking at buying (or collecting yourself) forage in bulk to be able to feed a natural diet, so you will need to order in from Hansemanns.