Pellets! Off or Name Brands?

[TheLittlestNinjaChin]

I was giving my chin Kaytee brand food (never again! Not after what I've read on this forum...), but Petsmart stopped selling it. So, I had to switch pellets. I compared all the brands available and picked Great Choice Chinchilla Food. The nutritional values between Oxbow (which was several dollars more) and this generic are almost identical, so I'm wondering if that's okay? I'd hate to have to switch foods on her so soon AGAIN but her health comes first, no matter what. Suggestions?

 

[AZChins]

The Oxbow or Mazuri would be a much better choice. The nutritional values given on the bag can be deceiving especially if you are just comparing a few things. Quality of ingredients and freshness are something that they don't talk about - the Mazuri or Oxbow are both going to have much better stuff in them.

Probably the best thing to do is to order your pellets from a seller from here. Buy 10 lbs of pellets and even with the shipping it will be cheaper than what you are buying from Petsmart.

Still, it's better to buy the Oxbow instead of the other stuff if you must purchase from a petstore.

Around here I offer to trade people the pellets I have for their petstore pellets. The chins need to eat good food, not the petstore garbage.

 

[Essentia]

To give people a better idea of the ingredients/analysis, here's the info:

Ingredients

Sun-cured Alfafa Meal, Dehulled Soybean Mill, Ground Oats, Ground Wheat, Ground Corn, Wheat Middlings, Dried Beat Pulp, Lignin Sulfonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Soy Oil, Dried Cane Molasses, Wheat Germ Meal, Salt, DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, Magnesium Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Choline Chloride, L-Lysine, Anise Oil, Yucca Shidigera Extract, Riboflavin Supplement, Mixed Tocopherols (a preservative), Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin E. Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex (source of Vitamin K activity) Rosemary Extract, Citric Acid, Cholecalciferol (source of Vitamin D3), Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Sodium Selenite.

Fortified with protein to help support muscle
Fat is added to support your pet's healthy skin and coat

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein (not less than) 18.0%
Crude Fat (not less than) 3.0%
Crude Fiber (not more than) 17.0%
Moisture (not more than) 12.0%



As for if I think you should feed it, there are definitely worse foods for sale at the pet store, but this isn't near the best. I don't like how high up the oats are in the ingredients, and corn is pretty high up as well. Corn is just a filler and has no nutritional value at all. I would recommend switching to Oxbow, but instead of buying from the pet store, I would buy it from Sandi here. http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26964 It's MUCH fresher and MUCH cheaper. Even with shipping, it ends up cheaper per pound then what you are feeding now.

 

[Terbear24]

I agree you pay for the quality of the ingredients as well. A known company has a better reputation to uphold!

 

[AznTiger]

agreed with the above. Before the forum, i only bought mazuri are recommended by the breeder I got it from. but its harder to find sometimes so I used to buy it from ChinWorld. Now I changed to Oxbow and able to find that. But based on research and forum help, I would keep between those 2 feeds. =)

 

[ChinnieShop]

I only buy Mazzuri and that is what my chins are raised on. I keep hearing about Manna Pro and Oxbow, anyone know of any wholesalers for these by chance? I have a sales tax license so I can buy them tax free from a wholesaler. Thanks.