Getting Away From Garden Select

[Lucretia]

Which ever is easiest for you to obtain sweet, they are both more than suitable, it also depends which one Pedro prefers lol. You may be able to source samples of both by sending a cheeky email or two

I've just had a quick mooch online and Oxbow site does do free samples of timothy hay, so stands a chance they'll also do samples of food, nothing to lose by asking.
https://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/tmsample/

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

I'm so glad to hear everything is working out

 

[Chinchillaville13]

Looking back on this all, I'm still surprised I was able to buy bad chinchilla food from Oxbow. They're some of the best people for this stuff, so I wouldn't expect any of this from them.

Also, did you guys know Mazuri sells fricking rhino grain!?

 

[Amethyst]

Looking back on this all, I'm still surprised I was able to buy bad chinchilla food from Oxbow. They're some of the best people for this stuff, so I wouldn't expect any of this from them.

Also, did you guys know Mazuri sells fricking rhino grain!?

It's really not surprising at all, there is actually quite a bit of Oxbow stuff that is not safe for chins, most of the treats are not safe, most of the toys they sell are not safe, only one kind of food they sell is safe (there are currently 3).

Also yes, Mazuri sell food of all kinds of different animals and are one of the top petfood companies that sells various animal feeds to zoos around the world. Mazuri

I have easier access to Oxbow Essentials, but I feel like Mazuri might be better for me since it has timothy hay in it (if I remember correctly) and Pedro gets meadow grass hay (my dad grows it so it saves us some money on not needing to buy hay). It might be good for him to get some timothy hay in his diet.

However, you all probably know more about this stuff than I do. What are you guys thinking?

If the only reason you are thinking of going with Mazuri over Oxbow is the timothy hay, then it's not worth it. The reason timothy is the recommended hay is because it is a single kind of grass (timothy) which has the best nutrient to fiber content for loose hay and tends to have lots of long crunchy stems which are good for tooth wear. Meadow hay has about the same amount of fiber but is a mix of grasses so the nutrients vary depending on what kinds of grasses are in it (just so you know personal I see no issue with feeding meadow hay). Good quality pellets already contain all the nutrients that chins need so feeding a pellet with ground up timothy in it isn't really adding anything since you don't get the benefit of the crunchy stems, and since Mazuri is lower in fiber you are actually offering a lower fiber pellet food compared to Oxbow Essentials.