Food Review: Supreme Science Selective

Towards the end of last year I started to do some reviews on a few of the market leaders in the extruded pellet dry feed industry.  Supreme Pet Foods were very forthcoming and keen to assist me with my reviews and so sent me some bags of their Science Selective rabbit feed and guinea pig feed to test out with my animals.

Since beginning my review the recipe for the rabbit Science Selective has now changed.  It now includes a higher percentage of fibre which is very much a good thing.  Therefore I can only comment on and review the earlier product, but it is in essence the same feed.

5kg bag

It's very important to gradually add a new food into a rabbit's diet so their digestive system doesn't become upset.  Rabbits tummies are sensitive things so a slow change over is key when switching to a new brand.

Before I started the gradual implementation I wanted to see the initial reaction to this food against its competitors:  Mr Johnsons which I reviewed earlier and the Burgess Excel which is the current feed for all my animals.

I was keen to use Lucy as primary tester as she's definitely one of the more difficult bunnies when it comes to food.  Having rescued her from a home prior ours, Lucy came to us unaccustomed to a good diet of pellets or vegetables.  We have since moved her away from a muesli food diet to a pellet feed.

Lucy, the very hairy Lionhead!

I laid out a small quantity of Supreme Science Selective to the far right, Mr Johnsons in the middle and Burgess Excel (Lucy's usual food) to the left.  This is what happened:

Lucy has literally taken to the Science Selective very well, in fact it didn't take long at all to change her dry food over completely.  To this day she is eating a full portion of Science Selective everyday and no longer eats Burgess Excel.  She's definitely decided which food she prefers to eat!


The Nitty Gritty

When I first opened the Supreme Science Selective I was surprised by how different to the competitors the food compared.  Mr Johnsons and Burgess Excel were similar nugget form where the Science Selective are more curly sausage shaped; thin biscuits around 1.5cm long.

Fibre - 19% (23% new recipe), Protein - 14%

Curly and sausage shape pellets

Initially I expected Lucy to experience problems eating these pellets as she has a history of dental problems; malocclusion.  At times it seemed she struggled to get hold of the long shapes in her mouth and would drop them after trying to reel them in.  Personally I would say the shape is the only drawback to this food and too large.  Having continued with the pellets Lucy has acquired a knack of eating them and quite happily guzzles her way though. 

I am happy that Lucy is eating this food now.  She appears more content with it, enjoys eating it and contains a higher level of fibre at 19% (or 23% by the new current recipe) compared to Mr Johnsons Everyday Advance 17%. 

Perhaps even more positively, Lucy's teeth have now established a healthy state and she's not needed dentistry for some months now.  Is this down to the Science Selective?  Could well be.

Becky x

Mr Johnsons Feed Review - coming soon!

As an ongoing effort to show nuggeted food is the healthier choice over muesli mix, I'm going to be doing some reviews on the top nugget foods out there on the market. It can be quite a daunting task to decide which food brand is best for your guinea pigs and rabbits - and your purse - so I'm hoping to break down that barrier at least a little bit, and help make the job a little easier.

A few months ago I made a little video for Rabbit Awareness Week promoting nugget food, and you can watch it here: RAW video It's not the best quality video but it was something I quickly knocked up with one of my lot, Lucy the rabbit.

The company behind the brand Mr Johnsons have very generously provided me with two large bags of their Everyday Advance, both rabbit and guinea pig formats.

(Remember, if you have both guinea pigs and rabbits that piggies can not synthesise vitamin C and require their own feed that contains this. This is why 'rabbit and guinea pig food' simply does not exist, or rather shouldn't if it does!)

My piggies and buns will be testing the food themselves to see how palatable the pellets are, if they are indeed tempting and tasty, and I will be comparing the ingredients and nutrition content against other leading pellets and nuggets. My animals currently very happily eat original flavour Burgess Excel Tasty Nuggets so this will be a nice challenge to see and compare.

Becky

Welcome to Whiskers in a Dream!

This is a new journal that I'm dedicating to the world of guinea pigs and rabbits as a spin off from a website I ran called Cavy Capers. CavyCapers.com was born in 2001 and lived online until this year, 2011, and to mark it's anniversary I unconventionally decided to close it down and move on to the next chapter in this constantly evolving digital age. Blogging has recently become a big thing in social media and is a rapidly growing area for quick and up to date information which is why I feel this is the best way to continue the education of the proper care of guinea pigs - and now including rabbits. I would also like to talk about my own clan of piggies and buns too, so Whiskers in a Dream will be a nice little social place to hang out and celebrate all that's great about these furries!

To make you aware, I also currently run a Facebook page called 'Campaign to ban guinea pig and rabbit muesli' which is a cause I personally feel strongly about. I am getting a lot of positive feedback from many rescues and guinea pig and rabbit owners who agree with my thinking, that feeding these animals the muesli mix type feeds are a poor dietary choice as opposed to the extruded pelleted or nugget food, but there are still lots of people out there who don't quite understand the meaning behind the page. It is simply to re-educate owners and provide evidence that muesli is not a healthy feed. It encourages selective feeding which means the guinea pig or rabbit will pick out what it likes and gives it the option to leave what it doesn't like. This can lead to malnutrition because all necessary nutrients in the food are not eaten. Also many of these feeds contain contain colours and are very sugary. Another reason why they are not a good feed is their low fibre content, which is important for a normally functioning gut. This is the page to be to discuss this cause and I urge you to check it out and join in if you haven't yet.

Becky