Eggshells and vitamin D supplements?

[creggle]

I read a few days ago in a thread somewhere on here that Eggshell fragments are easy high calcium for Degus, and that vitamin D is also very important for preventing Elodontoma. I've been crushing eggshells into rolled oat sized fragments and disguising them with some rolled oats (crunch crunch!), and then sprinkling some crushed and powdered vitamin D tablet on top and my boy has been wolfing it all down happily from my hand.

The questions I have is, how much rolled oat sized eggshell pieces should a Degu have per day? And are vitamin D supplements a good source of vitD for a goo? They are Holland and Barrett tablets, he has about 1/6 of a tablet per day as powder, sprinkled on some oats and eggshell.

Are these okay? I'm very unsure of 'portion' size for the vitD tabs and eggshell. I don't want to OD him on vitD or calcium.

OH EDIT: if the tablets aren't great, are there any easy vitD treats or food?

His diet consists of Science Selective Degu, Science Selective Timothy (so dusty -_-), Rosewood Chinchilla and Degu treats (he only seems to really eat the puffed wheat, cornflour ears and blue plant bulbs from the selection!) and Nature's Touch degu forrage.

His main treats are rolled oats and Coriander seeds. The fussy little devil won't touch the fennel or cumin seeds 

He has a brazil nut per month, crushed into 3 or 4 fragments and 1 fragment per week.

[teemu]

You probably don't need to give them all that much eggshell or other sources of calcium. The eggshells contain a whole lot of calcium (they are for a very large part just calcium), so even just giving him some once in a while would be pretty good.

Are the vitamin tablets you are giving him specifically meant for rodents, or are they meant for people? Vitamin overdose can actually be pretty dangerous, and if those tablets are something a person should take once per day, then he is actually getting a rather huge amount (if you consider the fact that a degu is much less than just one sixth of a person's weight). So likely he should be getting much more sparing amounts of the vitamin supplement. I'm not totally sure, but from what I could quickly read, it seems more like small amounts of vitamin D once or twice a week would be more along the lines of what an animal the size of a degu requires. Maybe someone else has more specific insight into this?

(Special consideration should be given to the fact that too much vitamin D can actually cause calcium buildup in the body, so it's likely that the dosage needs to be carefully monitored especially when given in conjunction with calcium supplements)

I would recommend checking a pet store for a vitamin D supplement specifically meant for rodents and the like, althought I don't think a pure vitamin D supplement meant for people will be harmful as such. You can also find calcium stones, which you can pretty easily crush into powder, but the eggshells are also likely fine if you're boiling them beforehand (to remove potential salmonella risks).

As for his diet and treats, the main thing that jumps out to me is the fact that he's getting a lot of carbohydrates from the wheat, oats and what have you. These are fine as treats every now and then, but should be avoided as a daily thing because degus have a hard time dealing with all those carbs and can easily get diabetes and other issues. So I would likely reduce the amount of rolled oats, puffed wheat and such as his treats, as much as it will likely peeve him.

I also quickly checked out the foods he gets, and his basic food (the Science Selective and the hay) is likely fine (although Science Selective does seem to contain wheat flour and other things, and I couldn't find how much...), but the Rosewood treats and Nature's Touch do contain some of the stuff I outlined above, like puffed wheat etc. So I would likely pick out those more unhealthy things from his forage and treats before giving it to him. Nuts and seeds are generally a better treat, but giving them in moderation is important as well.

Essentially, the main thing to keep in mind with your degu's diet is that their digestive systems have evolved and adapted to a very sparse environment without many rich sources of carbohydrate or sugars. They just can't process anything but very small amounts. In the nature, degus subsists mostly on dried plant roots, grass, leaves, tree bark and so on. They can live very long in the wild, amazingly long for a rodent, but it does seem like they really do need to keep in that very strict diet to get there.

[bouncy]

Regards vitamin D, have a look at the second half of this post: deguworld.proboards.com/thread/21967/guide-degu-dental-health

Have a look at the ingredients of your food. Most prepared foods containing vitamin supplements, so additional doses should be unnecessary. I personally have a blog on here about my use of vitamin D on my goos, and the results, but I feed 100% natural diet. Egg shells shouldn't be necessary if you have a complete food, or offer seeds.

[moletteuk]

If he eats a full portion (10g) of Science Selective every day, then it's personal choice whether to give any vitamin d supplement. For degus without dental issues it is safer to provide a UV light. Since his brother had severe dental disease, it is probably worth getting Blinder's teeth checked, if possible, and may be worth a small vitamin d supplement. You would need to tell us what weight of pellets he eats and what strength the vitamin d tablets are for us to advise.

Regarding the calcium, I think you would be better off trying to improve Blinder's diet, in particular the mineral content of his diet. Even small amounts of oats and wheat can quickly throw the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet and so I don't recommend these to be fed every day. You could try adding more forage in a good selection, you can get mixed bags from Zooplus, a bag of alfalfa hay would be worth a try too. You can also try more seeds, and dandelion roots can be a good option for treats.

Our nutrition charts have some information about calcium and phosphorus content of lots of foods and also some details for supplementing calcium carbonate powder to dried vegetables to bring the calcium phosphorus ratio back into line. It would not be possible to add calcium carbonate powder sufficiently to grains to compensate. I can't give you any guidance on eggshells as I don't know thier calcium content or weight. If they have been cleaned to remove any salmonella or other pathogens first and they are fed in small amounts, you could observe the whiteness of Blinder's urine to get an idea how much excess calcium he is peeing out. deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15602/vegetable-seed-nut-nutrition-charts

Check out our feeding guide for background info deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16425/degu-feeding-guide

[teemu]

Eggshells are about 98% calcium carbonate, with a calcium content of around 400mg per gram (or a bit less). So around 40% of eggshell's weight is calcium.

[creggle]

Oct 29, 2021 23:51:01 GMT teemu said:

You probably don't need to give them all that much eggshell or other sources of calcium. The eggshells contain a whole lot of calcium (they are for a very large part just calcium), so even just giving him some once in a while would be pretty good.

Are the vitamin tablets you are giving him specifically meant for rodents, or are they meant for people? Vitamin overdose can actually be pretty dangerous, and if those tablets are something a person should take once per day, then he is actually getting a rather huge amount (if you consider the fact that a degu is much less than just one sixth of a person's weight). So likely he should be getting much more sparing amounts of the vitamin supplement. I'm not totally sure, but from what I could quickly read, it seems more like small amounts of vitamin D once or twice a week would be more along the lines of what an animal the size of a degu requires. Maybe someone else has more specific insight into this?

(Special consideration should be given to the fact that too much vitamin D can actually cause calcium buildup in the body, so it's likely that the dosage needs to be carefully monitored especially when given in conjunction with calcium supplements)

I would recommend checking a pet store for a vitamin D supplement specifically meant for rodents and the like, althought I don't think a pure vitamin D supplement meant for people will be harmful as such. You can also find calcium stones, which you can pretty easily crush into powder, but the eggshells are also likely fine if you're boiling them beforehand (to remove potential salmonella risks).

As for his diet and treats, the main thing that jumps out to me is the fact that he's getting a lot of carbohydrates from the wheat, oats and what have you. These are fine as treats every now and then, but should be avoided as a daily thing because degus have a hard time dealing with all those carbs and can easily get diabetes and other issues. So I would likely reduce the amount of rolled oats, puffed wheat and such as his treats, as much as it will likely peeve him.

I also quickly checked out the foods he gets, and his basic food (the Science Selective and the hay) is likely fine (although Science Selective does seem to contain wheat flour and other things, and I couldn't find how much...), but the Rosewood treats and Nature's Touch do contain some of the stuff I outlined above, like puffed wheat etc. So I would likely pick out those more unhealthy things from his forage and treats before giving it to him. Nuts and seeds are generally a better treat, but giving them in moderation is important as well.

Essentially, the main thing to keep in mind with your degu's diet is that their digestive systems have evolved and adapted to a very sparse environment without many rich sources of carbohydrate or sugars. They just can't process anything but very small amounts. In the nature, degus subsists mostly on dried plant roots, grass, leaves, tree bark and so on. They can live very long in the wild, amazingly long for a rodent, but it does seem like they really do need to keep in that very strict diet to get there.

is a rolled oat sized fragment of eggshell per day fine?

the vitamin tablets are for people, but don't contain any additives that i can see, i've held off on giving him any more for the time being until i can find something for rodents. the science selective degu has Vitamin A 37500 IU, Vitamin C 500mg, Vitamin D3 2000 IU and Correctly balanced calcium: phosphorus ratio – Calcium 1%, Phosphorus 0.5%. is this enough? he loves them, even if i give him one through the bars he will snatch it and run and hide under his wheel and eat it, despite having a whole bowl full lol, so he's definitely eating them well.

hmm the problem with oats is that it's the only way to get anything into him that he otherwise wouldn't touch, like infacol. not that he needs those kind of things often but when he's a little gassy or its time for eggshell, he won't touch them without oats. he has about 4 or 5 rolled oats per time, not often. i do like to give him a single rolled oat through the bars or during playtime occasionally though cause he loves them so much.

www.amazon.co.uk/Health-Embassy-Dandelion-Taraxacum-officinale/dp/B016MXUC42/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=dandelion+root&qid=1635606092&qsid=260-4373487-4198342&rdc=1&sr=8-6&sres=B00P1FG1ZM%2CB016MXUC42%2CB00HXV781S%2CB0863LW65F%2CB00I9X0OGU%2CB08BQX4QK2%2CB000COECA8%2CB005P0K9RE%2CB00W2YP17E%2CB01N7TZPVI%2CB00I9X0LRC%2CB07FLD1YRB%2CB00JEHJKEC%2CB07CQW7MLM%2CB007CX1O5S%2CB07T178P8X%2CB00364NKJU%2CB0843DY2G1%2CB00DLILCPU%2CB07L1586RL is this ok?

all rosewood is hand fed, he doesn't get any in his forrage. his forrage consists of a hollow log stuffed with selective science hay and natures touch degu that is stuffed in with a teaspoon and some selective science degu also stuffed in. he loves his log, he's always got his snout stuffed in it and slap boxing it around his house. his cage contains large amounts of pets @ home timothy for his carpet (which he sparsely eats, he prefers the selective science timothy) and tissue for his bed on his snuggle safe. he eats corriander seeds, they are the only ones i have at the minute that he likes (he doesn't like fennel or cumin. i have celery dill and nigela seeds arriving next week. ive thrown the sunflower seeds outside for the birds, im not feeding him those anymore, they are awful)

[creggle]

Oct 29, 2021 23:59:02 GMT bouncy said:

Regards vitamin D, have a look at the second half of this post: deguworld.proboards.com/thread/21967/guide-degu-dental-health

Have a look at the ingredients of your food. Most prepared foods containing vitamin supplements, so additional doses should be unnecessary. I personally have a blog on here about my use of vitamin D on my goos, and the results, but I feed 100% natural diet. Egg shells shouldn't be necessary if you have a complete food, or offer seeds.

Vitamin A 37500 IU, Vitamin C 500mg, Vitamin D3 2000 IU in the hard feed, is this okay?

also, can u link the blog?

[creggle]

Oct 30, 2021 10:41:24 GMT moletteuk said:

If he eats a full portion (10g) of Science Selective every day, then it's personal choice whether to give any vitamin d supplement. For degus without dental issues it is safer to provide a UV light. Since his brother had severe dental disease, it is probably worth getting Blinder's teeth checked, if possible, and may be worth a small vitamin d supplement. You would need to tell us what weight of pellets he eats and what strength the vitamin d tablets are for us to advise.

Regarding the calcium, I think you would be better off trying to improve Blinder's diet, in particular the mineral content of his diet. Even small amounts of oats and wheat can quickly throw the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet and so I don't recommend these to be fed every day. You could try adding more forage in a good selection, you can get mixed bags from Zooplus, a bag of alfalfa hay would be worth a try too. You can also try more seeds, and dandelion roots can be a good option for treats.

Our nutrition charts have some information about calcium and phosphorus content of lots of foods and also some details for supplementing calcium carbonate powder to dried vegetables to bring the calcium phosphorus ratio back into line. It would not be possible to add calcium carbonate powder sufficiently to grains to compensate. I can't give you any guidance on eggshells as I don't know thier calcium content or weight. If they have been cleaned to remove any salmonella or other pathogens first and they are fed in small amounts, you could observe the whiteness of Blinder's urine to get an idea how much excess calcium he is peeing out. deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15602/vegetable-seed-nut-nutrition-charts

Check out our feeding guide for background info deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16425/degu-feeding-guide

i don't weigh the portions, he has unlimited access and he has a large food bowl which i half fill with select science, i change and clean the bowl every 3 days and he eats most of it. the tablets are 10ug (its like a greek U though whatever that means). according to the website Bulking Agents (Microcrystalline Cellulose, Dicalcium Phosphate), Anti-Caking Agents (Magnesium Stearate, Silicon Dioxide), Maltodextrin, Sucrose, Starch,Vitamin D3 (as Cholecalciferol). like i said i will stop the vitD supplements for now


www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073FCSX92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this is his bowl 11 x 11 x 3.8 centimetres

is alfalfa good for degu? i remember reading that it can be full of molass or something? he eats ALOT of select science timothy, i spotted him eating the hay for 2 hours last week! he had awful gas lol, could hear his belly gargle from the other side of the room. he is a nut.

www.amazon.co.uk/Health-Embassy-Dandelion-Taraxacum-officinale/dp/B016MXUC42/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=dandelion+root&qid=1635606092&qsid=260-4373487-4198342&rdc=1&sr=8-6&sres=B00P1FG1ZM%2CB016MXUC42%2CB00HXV781S%2CB0863LW65F%2CB00I9X0OGU%2CB08BQX4QK2%2CB000COECA8%2CB005P0K9RE%2CB00W2YP17E%2CB01N7TZPVI%2CB00I9X0LRC%2CB07FLD1YRB%2CB00JEHJKEC%2CB07CQW7MLM%2CB007CX1O5S%2CB07T178P8X%2CB00364NKJU%2CB0843DY2G1%2CB00DLILCPU%2CB07L1586RL is this okay?

regards to seeds how many per day? he has 2 or 3, tho since getting corriander seeds he has had a little more (8 over 2 days) cause it's so new and he loves them.

i have been using the charts. select science nuggets are 2:1. corriander is 1.6 (compared to sunflower at 0.2!!) and cumin/fennel are 2:1 but he won't eat them. I have the top 3 coming tomorrow from the chart, celery dill and nigella? those are 3-5:1

I took a pic of his pee: imgur.com/a/nPth8HB

i dont normally see that much white, i need to cut down on eggshell! 


you know pets @ home told me their timothy hay + 1:6 low vitD hardfeed is all they need. i bet if i had started their lives with the diet im crafting for blinder now, peaky would still be here   i feel like such a bad goo dad


(this website needs multi-quote!)

[teemu]

If you need to give him meds or other stuff like that, it's fine to use oats or whatever else (within reason of course) to get him to eat it. It's just that it's not good for him as a daily treat.

As for feed and hay, generally you can allow a degu to have free access to normal food pellets, athough he will likely hide a lot of it. Degus normally don't overeat on something like that.

Alfalfa hay should be more of an occasional thing, something you can mix into his other stuff every now and then. Timothy hay, which tends to be the normal hay given to degus, is fine to have all the time. Hay-like plants make up a large part of their diet in nature, and since they are not energy-rich relative to many other things, degus need to spend a lot of time grazing on that dry hay. So it's entirely normal if he spends a lot of time on it, no need to be alarmed

Although on a sidenote, you mention hearing his belly gurgle a lot. That is likely not something that was caused by the hay. If you hear something like that often, it's likely that something else is giving him gas. Fresh veggies can do that pretty easily. It's generally good to be pretty careful when introducing new foods to degus, in case it upsets their stomach.

And yeah, it does look like he's had a lot of extra calcium, looking at his pee. Like others have said, it's likely that he's getting most of his necessary nutrients from the enriched feed already, so if you want to test the eggshell more, I would probably give him a while without it, then give him a small bit and see how that affects it.

[moletteuk]

A few oats now and then are fine, it's just when the amount creeps up and they are fed every day and the only other extras are also high in phosphorus that things get out of shape. If he is good at eating his pellets then his calcium and vitamin d shouldn't be too far off. Perhaps you could add in oat sized piece of eggshell now and then when he gets a few oats. I couldn't say more accurately than that about adding egg shell, Teemu's info tells me it would be comparable to the calcium carbonate powder I used and give info for in the nutrition charts.

Regarding vitamin d supplementation, your 10ug tablets are equivalent to 400IU, and a degu should get somewhere around 10 to 25IU per day for their whole diet. Bearing in mind your degu should be already getting a decent amount of vit d; if he eats 10g of science selective a day, he already gets 20IU per day. It depends on whether Blinder has dental issues as to whether it is worth topping him up further, 1/6 of a 400IU tablet is 67IU, so you would only want that 1/6 of a tablet something like once every two or three weeks. (You can estimate how many nuggets he eats by weighing what you normally put in the bowl and adjusting for the 3 days and what percentage he eats, I think this would be well worth doing if you can).

Any plain dandelion roots are fine, you may find them cheaper at Zooplus or Ratrations, or ebay.

You may or may not find that he likes the very high calcium seeds, they tend to be less well liked the higher the calcium is, just giving you a heads up, hopefully he will like some of them. Generally you can give around half a teaspoon a day of a high calcium seed mix. You can feed more if you feed less pellets and more forage.

The best thing you can do for his diet would be to experiment with adding more forage. I mentioned alfalfa hay becuase it is easy to obtain and has decent calcium content, it is a little high in protein. A variety of forage is always preferable. Zooplus don't seem to sell much any more, so Ratrations is probably the best source, always buy whole leaves, nothing chopped or crushed.

Don't worry about what you didn't know before, most of us arrive on the forum having previously obtained quite poor information.

[bouncy]

Here you go.

deguworld.proboards.com/thread/21679/degu-dental-issues-results-experiment

[creggle]

Oct 30, 2021 17:57:51 GMT teemu said:

If you need to give him meds or other stuff like that, it's fine to use oats or whatever else (within reason of course) to get him to eat it. It's just that it's not good for him as a daily treat.

As for feed and hay, generally you can allow a degu to have free access to normal food pellets, athough he will likely hide a lot of it. Degus normally don't overeat on something like that.

Alfalfa hay should be more of an occasional thing, something you can mix into his other stuff every now and then. Timothy hay, which tends to be the normal hay given to degus, is fine to have all the time. Hay-like plants make up a large part of their diet in nature, and since they are not energy-rich relative to many other things, degus need to spend a lot of time grazing on that dry hay. So it's entirely normal if he spends a lot of time on it, no need to be alarmed

Although on a sidenote, you mention hearing his belly gurgle a lot. That is likely not something that was caused by the hay. If you hear something like that often, it's likely that something else is giving him gas. Fresh veggies can do that pretty easily. It's generally good to be pretty careful when introducing new foods to degus, in case it upsets their stomach.

And yeah, it does look like he's had a lot of extra calcium, looking at his pee. Like others have said, it's likely that he's getting most of his necessary nutrients from the enriched feed already, so if you want to test the eggshell more, I would probably give him a while without it, then give him a small bit and see how that affects it.

He is going crazy not having oats lol! Just 1 flake a day with his eggshell in the morning. He doesn't hide his pellets though, neither of them ever did, but Blinder sure loves flipping food bowls over, thankfully this new one is too broad and heavy, ha! 

In terms of Dandelion roots, how often should he have it? He's not too crazy over the stuff but he will eat it occasionally, he's had 2 pieces in the last 2 days, the other piece I saw him hide and it was still there when I cleaned his cage today, which is not like him!

His belly doesn't gurgle a lot, it only happened once after he spend hours eating hay non stop. I'm not sure what was up with him that day but I don't think it was a coincidence, he ate too much for sure.

Since only 1 eggshell piece a day his pee has been clear, is that a good sign, does it mean he's capped out on safe calcium intake? I just need to figure out vitamin D now.

[creggle]

Oct 30, 2021 18:53:02 GMT moletteuk said:

A few oats now and then are fine, it's just when the amount creeps up and they are fed every day and the only other extras are also high in phosphorus that things get out of shape. If he is good at eating his pellets then his calcium and vitamin d shouldn't be too far off. Perhaps you could add in oat sized piece of eggshell now and then when he gets a few oats. I couldn't say more accurately than that about adding egg shell, Teemu's info tells me it would be comparable to the calcium carbonate powder I used and give info for in the nutrition charts.

Regarding vitamin d supplementation, your 10ug tablets are equivalent to 400IU, and a degu should get somewhere around 10 to 25IU per day for their whole diet. Bearing in mind your degu should be already getting a decent amount of vit d; if he eats 10g of science selective a day, he already gets 20IU per day. It depends on whether Blinder has dental issues as to whether it is worth topping him up further, 1/6 of a 400IU tablet is 67IU, so you would only want that 1/6 of a tablet something like once every two or three weeks. (You can estimate how many nuggets he eats by weighing what you normally put in the bowl and adjusting for the 3 days and what percentage he eats, I think this would be well worth doing if you can).

Any plain dandelion roots are fine, you may find them cheaper at Zooplus or Ratrations, or ebay.

You may or may not find that he likes the very high calcium seeds, they tend to be less well liked the higher the calcium is, just giving you a heads up, hopefully he will like some of them. Generally you can give around half a teaspoon a day of a high calcium seed mix. You can feed more if you feed less pellets and more forage.

The best thing you can do for his diet would be to experiment with adding more forage. I mentioned alfalfa hay becuase it is easy to obtain and has decent calcium content, it is a little high in protein. A variety of forage is always preferable. Zooplus don't seem to sell much any more, so Ratrations is probably the best source, always buy whole leaves, nothing chopped or crushed.

Don't worry about what you didn't know before, most of us arrive on the forum having previously obtained quite poor information.

www.amazon.co.uk/Vitabiotics-Wellbaby-Vit-Drops-30/dp/B00TA7V0M6/ how much of this should be added to his bottle? I figured this is a safer way to up his vitamin D intake than feeding him disguised tablets.
He has stopped enjoying the new seeds   won't eat them anymore, this sucks. I hope the new seeds coming tomorrow are liked.

He has a lot of food variety now, it's just finding out what he'll eat, so fussy!

[creggle]

One more thing, does anyone know what these individual things here are? I'm assuming it's all safe as the treats are labelled for Degu but it doesn't say what the things are, and is generally very vague.

imgur.com/a/3lDlA18

The product: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07SWT3KKZ/

[bouncy]

They look like some sort of hay pellets?

[deguconvert]

I found this description further down the page.

Product Description
A scrumptious blend of 14 different 100% natural ingredients, including edible flowers and herbs, so it's as good as it looks. Sprinkle a spoonful on their pellets or scatter around their home to brighten their day. Rich in fibre and antioxidants; it's enjoyed by most small animals just as much as chinchillas and degus!.

Ingredients
Meadow grasses (51%), rosehips (12.5%), carrot (8.2%), marigold blossoms (5%), cornflower petals (5%), rose blossoms (5%), puffed wheat (4.1%), milk thistle (4%), nettle (1%), parsley (1%), oat herb (1%), apple (1%), peppers (0.7%), hazelnut (0.5%) (all as dried ingredients). Protein 9.7%, crude fat 3.2%, crude fibre 19.9%, crude ash 11.2%, sodium 0.17%.

Box Contains
Naturals Small Animal Treats Chinchilla & Degu Delight 150g

[creggle]

Nov 2, 2021 0:39:50 GMT bouncy said:

They look like some sort of hay pellets?

Yeah I thought so, his least favorite of the bunch! He'll chase me around the room for the puffed wheat though, the one thing in there he can't have, typical goo 

[creggle]

Nov 2, 2021 5:04:03 GMT deguconvert said:

I found this description further down the page.

Product Description
A scrumptious blend of 14 different 100% natural ingredients, including edible flowers and herbs, so it's as good as it looks. Sprinkle a spoonful on their pellets or scatter around their home to brighten their day. Rich in fibre and antioxidants; it's enjoyed by most small animals just as much as chinchillas and degus!.

Ingredients
Meadow grasses (51%), rosehips (12.5%), carrot (8.2%), marigold blossoms (5%), cornflower petals (5%), rose blossoms (5%), puffed wheat (4.1%), milk thistle (4%), nettle (1%), parsley (1%), oat herb (1%), apple (1%), peppers (0.7%), hazelnut (0.5%) (all as dried ingredients). Protein 9.7%, crude fat 3.2%, crude fibre 19.9%, crude ash 11.2%, sodium 0.17%.

Box Contains
Naturals Small Animal Treats Chinchilla & Degu Delight 150g

I know about that, it's on the packet too, but when I google each thing they don't look like anything in the packet. He really really loves the blue flower bulbs.

[moletteuk]

My girls used to love dandelion root so I used to cut it up small, maybe 5mm cubes or slightly bigger depending on the root thickness, so I could give several very small pieces every day.

I think calcium should be fine if his pee is clear, it's actually fairly normal for it show some whiteness sometimes.

The Vitabiotics vitamin d in the link says it is 400IU per 0.5ml, please do check that your packet says the same. If so then 0.1ml is 80IU so you could do as I suggest above and give 0.1ml every two or three weeks, or some equivalent amount like half as much twice as often, whatever is convenient. I would apply this direct to a treat, rather than dilute in his water bottle, then you know exactly how much he has had. Again, as I said above this is your choice and I do recommend you trying to work out what he currently gets from his nuggets. And, as I mention in the other thread, I think a dental checkup is worth doing.

The Rosewood Delight looks OK, obviously not ideal if he doesn't eat the pellets and you are trying to pick out the wheat. Your pic looks sufficiently similar to the Rosewood pic to me. If you mean the blue flowers on the far left middle of your picture, they are cornflowers, if you wanted to look for more of those. Do Galen's Garden still do a nice meadow mix? bouncy

[Xellie]

Nov 1, 2021 21:26:36 GMT creggle said:

One more thing, does anyone know what these individual things here are? I'm assuming it's all safe as the treats are labelled for Degu but it doesn't say what the things are, and is generally very vague.

imgur.com/a/3lDlA18

The product: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07SWT3KKZ/

Mine used to love this! I haven't gotten it for them in a while, but they go berserk over cornflowers, I started growing my own for them! 

If he's being fussy, leave him with the new food stuff for a couple of days. It really does seem like they do a 24hour safety test before they decide something is safe enough to feast on.