Oxbow Garden Select???

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flowerlea

New member
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
2
Location
Texas, USA
I feed Oxbow pellets since I read in this forum about which feeds and nutrient percentages were good for chinchillas and found that was the best one sold in my area.

Today I took a trip to my local Petsmart and there were no Oxbow pellets anywhere, despite all the other normal Oxbow products being in stock. Talking to a store rep, he said that there was a shortage from their distributor, would not be getting more for several weeks (I don't have that much food left), and the only store somewhat close to my area that had any had only 3 bags in stock.

Instead of driving farther away, I dropped by a nearby Petco and noticed that there was a new bag design (again?) and decided to compare ingredients when I got home. Well, apparently Oxbow Garden Select is completely different from Oxbow Essentials, to the point that I would feel extremely uneasy cold-switching it (I'm not quite out of pellets, but I don't have many left).

Has anyone heard of this feed before? Is it being sold in addition to Essentials or going to replace it? I didn't think to ask the Petsmart guy for a specific type of Oxbow... just Oxbow chinchilla pellets.

The Oxbow website says:
"**COMING SOON!** Hand-picked and wholesome – just like your chinchilla. Garden Select Chinchilla is a complete and balanced chinchilla food, with a flavor profile hand-picked from Mother Nature’s kitchen. Select garden ingredients such as whole yellow pea, tomato, rosemary, and thyme give Garden Select its delectable, garden fresh flavor while a blend of three varieties of hand-selected hay provides essential fiber."

The three hays, according to the bag I got, being Timothy, orchard grass, and oat hay. Besides the fact that the ingredients are obviously completely different, so are the nutritional values. Any I didn't list are the same as essentials.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 16.00% vs 18% essentials
Calcium (min) 0.80% vs .06%
Calcium (max) 1.30% vs vs. 1.1%
Phosphorus (min) 0.50% vs .25%

Obviously first thing to note is its a timothy pellet vs. an alfalfa pellet. The oat hay also surprised me, considering you guys always advise to give oats/oat hay in moderation if at all. I don't give my guy any oat products since he had a calcium deficiency with his old owner, and I don't want to have to counteract any extra phosphorus. I'm not sure about the ideal protein amount, but the increase in calcium and phosphorus worries me. Haven't people said before that Oxbow essentials was on the high end of acceptable amount of calcium in feed? I guess the increase in phosphorus would possibly even it out, but I'm not sure what the correct Ca:p ratio even is.

And also... peas and tomatoes?! The ingredients also list sunflower meal, canola meal (no soybean meal), oat hulls, barley, oatmeal, and flax seed.

Am I paranoid to think that ingredient list sounds like total junk food? I've always felt like I was able to trust oxbow brand, and I think it would be great if they came out with a viable timothy based pellet for people who's chins have issues with stones etc. but I'm not sure that this is it.

Smaller petstores in my area don't carry any chinchilla pellets period. I could order online of course, but does anyone know if Petsmart is still carrying the essentials feed? If Oxbow is phasing out essentials (why though?!) what would be the closest replacement for my very picky chin? I know I've read somewhere about a feed that was extremely similar, but I can't remember which one it was and can't find the post again.

Please correct me if I got anything wrong with chinchilla nutrition, I try to learn as much as I can to be a good owner. ;w;



tl;dr Am I right in thinking this new oxbow food is not as high quality? Sorry if this post is kinda long, I tend to ramble.
 
You might be able to find a chin safe pellet that is sold as rabbit feed a little easier.Suggested approved rabbit pellets Purina Rabbit Chow Show ,Manna Pro Sho, blue seal show hutch deluxe etc(search rabbit food this site). Dang just thought of it but if you order from Chewy.com they have oxbox pellets and hays for sale at good prices and delivery is amazing quick two days! check them out!!!
 
Okay thanks, I will look. So there isn't some kind of new research that says peas are good for chinchillas that I missed? lol
 
Oxbow is coming out with a second chinchilla food. However this new food contains lots of bad ingredients for chins and is not a healthy food. They are supposed to be keeping both pellets on the market, but only the original one is safe. Oxbow also did change there packaging design and bag sizes a little while back.

If you need something quick until more is in stock i would suggest looking at ManaPro: Select Series line of rabbit food. It is a safe food for chins and fairly close to oxbow. In fact many years back when supply of SS Pro was out in my area, i had to use oxbow for a temp solution. - Or you can look for online vendors for oxbow. Might be able to find something cheaper.
 
you are right Oxbow 'Garden Select' is NOT recommended to use for chinchillas. Shame on Oxbow - the 'Essential' is still a good food if you can get it
 
I can't advise whether garden select is bad or good, but what I can tell you from the information I got when I got in touch with Oxbow is that the difference between "Garden Select" and "Essentials" line is that garden select is a non-GMO (the ingredients are certified) formula and like you said it's Timothy hay based and utilizes Sunflower and Canola Meal. According to Oxbow, it's a unique profile of garden fresh ingredients to mimic those found in your pet's natural foraging environment. I can't say which is best, however, everyone seems to agree that Essentials is (I think so too).

What I do know is that a chin's nutritional intake of fiber accordingly is 30%, Protein is 14-16%, 35% Carbohydrates, 3.5% fat & Oil, 4% sugar, 6% minerals, 10% moisture/trace elements, 32.400 vit D, 14.00 vit A, 80 vit E. I'm not so sure about Calcium and Phosphate (I did read about them in an article I can't seem to remember it though..sorry). I hope this has been somewhat helpful, sorry if it wasn't I'm kinda new at this. I got some of the information when I was going through articles on how to care for the little cuties :)
 
I was also wondering about this new mix. My chinchilla recently got a bladder stone removed and needs to have less calcium/alfalfa in his diet. I like that this mix is timothy-based instead of alfalfa-based, but the calcium percentage is even higher than Essentials for some reason, so I'm not sure which would be better. After the bladder stone surgery, I switched from Oxbow Essentials to Kaytee Timothy Hay Complete to stay away from the alfalfa-based mix that probably caused the stone in the first place.
 
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