On a recent trip to Tractor Supply Company, I realized something that I didn't like. With the exception of monthly board, my horse is cheaper to keep than my guinea pigs. Let's look at a side by side comparison, shall we?

First, there's the thing they both eat: hay. My horse's hay costs me $7 a bale. I buy it from the barn owner who buys it directly from a farmer. During the summer, he gets 1-2 flakes of hay a day, and a single bale can last a week. (In the winter, however, he goes through much more hay.) My guinea pigs' hay costs me around $10 a bag. When given free access to as much hay as they want (which is what should be done), that bag of hay can last anywhere from 4 days to a week. For convenience in comparing costs, I will say that the horse eats one bale a week, and the pigs eat one bag a week.

Weekly total so far: Horse: $7, Pigs: $10

Then there's the feed. The feed I get my horse is a pelleted feed. It costs $16 for a 50 pound bag. It lasts 8 days. The pellets I get the pigs costs $15 for a 5 pound bag. It will last about 10-14 days. I could make this comparison in terms of price per pound (which would be $0.32/pound of horse feed and $3.00/pound of guinea pig food), but that would skew things. I'm going to go with the weekly cost. So, in feed alone, the horse costs $16 a week, and the pigs costs about $9.

Weekly total so far: Horse: $23, Pigs: $19

After that comes the bedding. This is where the guinea pigs start costing a lot. For my horse, he gets wood pellets in his stall. During the summer, he can get by with a bag of pellets per week. Each bag costs me $6. The pigs, on the other hand, get Carefresh in their cage. Because of the size of their cage, they need the big bag. A big bag of Carefresh usually costs $20. (This is what I was buying when I realized this. I bought a bag of Carefresh on sale for $17 and a bag of horse feed for $16 at the same time.) This big, $20 bag of Carefresh lasts one week.

Weekly total so far: Horse: $29, Pigs: $39

Finally, in the things I buy every week, comes the fruit and vegetables. The horse only gets fruits and vegetables as an occasional treat, so his weekly total for that is $0. The pigs, on the other hand, could easily go through a head of lettuce a day if I let them. It's a little tricky for me to calculate how much I spend on produce for the pigs each week as the produce I buy goes not only to the pigs, but also the birds and my bearded dragon. For ease, I will say that the pigs eat half a head of lettuce each day, two apples a week, four green bell peppers each week, and about 6 baby carrots each week. A head of lettuce costs around $0.80 during the summer, apples are around $0.50 each (I think...), green bell peppers are $0.50 each during the summer, and I won't include the costs of the carrots. So, that's $5.80 on just those things, which I'll round up to $6. They often get other types of veggies as well, but I also grow some vegetables myself, so I'll just say that all the additional vegetables they get come from the garden.

This brings the weekly grand total to: Horse: $29, Pigs: $45, or a DAILY cost of: Horse: $4.14, Pigs: $6.43 (yikes!).

Now, I did not include vet costs, nor did I include the cost of monthly board. I also figured everything on summer prices, so hay for the horse in the winter is significantly more, as is the price of fresh produce for the pigs. The vet is often more expensive for the pigs, not the horse. I also did not include the cost of occasional purchases such as new toys, treats, farrier, medications, or anything else that I do not buy on a weekly basis.

I want to spend less on both the pigs and the horse (I'm pretty content with how much I spend on the birds and reptiles), but still provide everything they need. This is especially important because I'm hoping to add a couple of new animals (I'm still not saying what I want to get--I don't want to jinx it). One place where I can cut a lot of money is the cost of hay. I can do this by buying my own hay, and buying a bale of hay specifically for the pigs. I also need to grow more of the vegetables my guinea pigs eat. But the thing I REALLY want to spend less on is bedding for the guinea pigs. Does anybody have any suggestions for that? I use Carefresh because I have found it best for odor control, absorbancy, and not triggering my allergies.

On the positive side and somewhat related note, I mentioned in my last post that my last day of work was going to be Friday. But after discussing things with my manager, I'm staying at that job until I go back to my other seasonal job, which makes me quite happy. Also, I changed my blog layout. Now, I'm off to go research how much my hopeful new pets will eat.

I've decided to do a series of posts about what my various pets get fed, including how often, how much, what brand foods, and other things like that. I'll also include reasons for why I feed what I feed and websites I have found helpful.

I'm doing this for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it will force me to look at my animals' diets once again. It will give me the opportunity to reevaluate everything I feed and share my knowledge. It will also make me write down their diets so that when somebody else has to take care of my animals when I am unable to (like vacation), I won't have to write everything down then and worry about forgetting things.

So, stay tuned. I'll be starting this series this week. I'll start with either the dogs or the cats because their diets are simpler than my other animals.

For the past week, I've been making and serving finely chopped up veggies (what some folks would call bird mash or chop) for the birds, guinea pigs, and the bearded dragon. At first, everybody was unsure about eating eat, including the guinea pigs who normally eat anything I put in their bowl.

Now, the guinea pigs and Maxwell will all eat it quite happily (the guinea pigs are also getting lettuce like always). The birds are still unsure about what to do with it. Lenore will eat a little bit of it, but not much. Digby will eat it if I feed it to her piece by piece. I added some seed to the birds' dishes yesterday hoping to entice them into eating the other stuff; it didn't work too well. I should also mention that Delilah and Ricky both love the stuff too. Ricky will do tricks to get some.

I'm almost out of pellets, which means I will be ordering some more. I think I'll be trying Totally Organics Pellets. I also want to order some new toys.

Yesterday I was reading ingredients on the various food my pets get. I do this every now and then to make sure the food hasn't changed and to make sure bad things haven't been added. All checked out good except the Roudybush (and the guinea pig food, but I already knew that there were things in it I don't like).

I have to admit that I hadn't really looked that closely at the ingredient list for the Roudybush pellets. I knew it was a decent food, but I also knew it wasn't the best food. I had heard it was better than Zupreem, and I still think it is. I don't like how Zupreem has added sugar. Lenore was already on Roudybush when I got him, and Digby also decided to eat the Roudybush. I was happy to get Digby eating pellets, so I didn't want to be too picky with her pellets.

But, after looking at the Roudybush ingredients, I want to put the birds on something else. Here is a list of ingredients:

Ground Corn, Ground Wheat, Soy Meal, Soy Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, DL-Methionine, L-Arginine, Niacin, Mixed Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Lecithin, Silicon Dioxide (carrier for liquid antioxidants), Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (source of Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid, Manganese Sulfate, Yucca shidigera Extract, Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate, Dried Yeast, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Zinc Oxide, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Acetate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Cyanocobalamin (source of Vitamin B12), Sodium Selenite (on Calcium Carbonate), Propionic Acid, Ammonium Hydroxide, Acetic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Tartaric Acid, and Natural Apple Flavoring.
(Taken from the Petsmart website because for some reason it's not listed on the Roudybush website...that kind of bothers me)

I don't even know what half of those things are. Sure, I could write the chemical formula for a lot of those things, but that doesn't mean I know what it's for or why the heck it's in my birds' food. I also don't like the fact that two of the first four ingredients are soy. The soy meal bothers me more than the soy oil.

Soy is pretty controversial for people to eat, and it isn't completely known what it can do to parrots. In humans, it can cause early sexual maturity, can cause prepubescent boys to have problems because of its high estrogen content, can cause or contribute to thyroid problems, and other things. It can potentially have the same or similar effects on birds.

So, I began looking at other pellets. Zupreem has soy, Harrison's has soy, Pretty Bird has soy (they got clever and labeled it as "soya oil", yeah, you're not tricking me), Hagen Tropican has soy, and Lafeber's pellets have soy. In all my searching, I found only one brand that doesn't have soy. That brand is Totally Organic Pellets.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be switching the birds to Totally Organic Pellets. Even if it weren't for the soy thing, I really like the ingredients used in the Totally Organic Pellets. The ingredients are:

Rice, hulled millet, barley, alfalfa leaf, sunflower seed hulled, sesame seeds unhulled, quinoa whole, buckwheat hulled, dandelion leaf powder, carrot powder, spinach leaf powder, purple dulse, kelp, rose hips powder, rose hips crushed, orange peel powder, lemon peel powder, rosemary whole leaf, cayenne ground, crushed red chili peppers, nettle leaf.
(Taken from the Totally Organics website)

I know what every single one of those ingredients is, except purple dulse (Google results: a flower that is used in a powdered form). It costs a bit more than Roudybush. Not a lot more, but it's about 60 cents more per pound (if buying the 10 pound bag). I will also have to buy it online. I think it will be worth the extra costs though.

The only trick will be getting Digby to eat it.

Last week I made bird bread. The birds weren't too keen on the idea of eating it when I made it, but they have since decided it is good.

When I made the bird bread, it smelled really good. My mom couldn't believe I made something that smelled so good for the birds. We managed to pick around the seeds in the bird bread in order to get a little taste and it tasted good. So I modified the recipe and made some for us. It turned out pretty good.

Digby refused to eat the bird bread until she had some of the bread I made for us humans. The recipe was exactly the same, except I left out the seeds and pellets in the people version. Both of the birds now really love the bird bread.

I'd really like to get the guinea pigs, Maxwell, and the birds on a completely organic diet, especially where their fresh food is concerned. I'm not as concerned about the pellets for the birds and the pigs. It would be nice to feed them organic pellets, but I've been lucky to get Digby to eat any pellets, and organic guinea pig pellets would cost twice as much as the pellets I already get them (and what they get now isn't the cheap stuff either).

So, I'm aiming to get all their fresh food to be organic. Once spring is here, I'll be able to plant a lot of stuff. In the meantime, though, I'm stuck buying stuff. Walmart has started carrying some organic produce, but if I want a big selection, I have to go to Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck).

I have to stop here for a minute and confess something: I love Whole Foods. Not only is the food good quality, it tastes good and you can always find some interesting stuff there. But, I have a couple problems with it. The first, most obvious problem is that it's expensive. The second problem is that it takes me half an hour to get there, so it's even more expensive to shop there. I live in the suburbs and the only Whole Foods in Louisville is on the east end of town. So, if we need to go to Whole Foods, we have usually combine it with another stop over there (like the Apple Store, World Market, or one of the two malls over there). Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

I'm currently making a shopping list of things to get next time I'm at Whole Foods. I'll be getting several different greens, some other veggies, and some fruit. So far the list is: lettuce, Swiss chard (I saw this there a couple weeks ago...so glad they have it...the pigs love it and so do I), bell peppers, maybe some hot peppers for the birds, apples, and possibly some strawberries.

This is what one day's worth of fresh food looks like here. On the menu today is a variety of lettuces, collard greens, bell peppers, and apples.

Here is all of it together:

The birds' food (Lenore's is on the top, Digby's is on the bottom):

 
Maxwell's portion:

The guinea pigs' portion.:

The birds tried lots of new foods today.

First, they tried dried hot peppers. Digby first tried the seeds and loved them. She played with the pepper a little, but didn't seem too interested in the pepper itself. I then gave Lenore one. He loved them. I gave him one while I had him out and he ate most of it. When I put him back in his cage, I decided to give him another pepper. He attacked it!

Then, while I was making some fruit salad for dinner, I had Digby out of her cage. I put her on her perch and gave her little pieces of all the fruit. Our salad had nectarines, mango, cherries, and starfruit. It was also supposed to have plums, but the plums didn't taste very good (to us humans). Lenore got some after dinner. Here's the verdicts:

Cherries: Both birds really liked the cherries. Digby liked them more than Lenore.
Mango: Digby was too interested in the other fruit to try them. Lenore tried it, but preferred the other fruits.
Nectarines: Both of them liked the nectarines, even though they didn't taste the best they could.
Starfruit: Lenore loved the starfruit. Digby ignored it.
Plums: Digby loved the plums even though us humans didn't think they were very good. Lenore didn't get any.

Lenore got to socialize with some other family members that were here. The little kids (two of my nephews and one of my nieces, all three under 5) really like the birds. I allow them pet Lenore on his back if they use one finger and are gentle. The three of them do good with Lenore and Lenore liked the extra attention. He showed off for my brother and sister-in-law that were over. He's such a cutie.

I know I've posted about her improvements before, but she really impressed me last night and today and I want to share how she's doing now. It's been exactly a month since that post (found here), and she has improved more since then.

When I got her in October, I was lucky to just be able to get Digby out of her cage. She would not step up and if you got too close, she would threaten to bite. She wanted very little to do with people. She would eat nothing but seed. And the moment you got within a couple feet of her cage if you had her out, she'd try to fly back to her cage.

Now, she will happily come out of her cage and will even let you know when she wants out. She'll sit by her cage door until you get her out. Last night, she was doing that and I decided to let her out. I opened the door and put her ladder in and asked her to step up. She did so without any hesitation and without being asked twice. Then, rather than just hold on for the ride while I took the ladder out of the cage like usual, she started to walk down the ladder to the outside of the cage.

Today, I got her out before she was acted like she wanted out. She hesitated a bit getting on the ladder, and I had to tell her to step up more than once, but once she was out, she didn't want to go back in. All I usually have to do to put her back in her cage is to have her next to the door and tell her to step up onto it. Today when I did that, she refused. Once in a while she does this and all I have to do is put her on her T-perch and lift that to the door and tell her to step up. So I did that. She refused and backed away from her cage. I asked her again. She turned around on the perch and flew back to my shoulder.

Normally, I don't let my pets get away with not doing what they're told to do, but that was just too cute and she obviously wanted to spend some time with me so I just let her be. After a little while, I tried to put her in her cage again. I had to use the T-perch, but she went, albeit reluctantly.

There are other improvements too. She still refuses to step up onto bare skin, but she no longer growls or tries to bite if you offer her your arm or hand. She will even sometimes sit on my neck (on bare skin) if she's been on my shoulder.

She's also now eating pellets on a regular basis and she'll at least taste anything I offer her. Her personality is starting to come out. I have finally figured out which toys she will play with and which she won't; she prefers shreddable toys.

She's currently singing very loudly in her cage, driving my little brother and nephew crazy.

If you've been following along, you will know that I'm trying to get Digby to eat something other than just seed. I've had her for almost three months and have tried several foods. The following is a list of what I've tried:

Pellets
Zupreem Natural: Refuses. She will taste them but will not eat them and throws them on the floor.
Harrison's: Ate half of one. She ignored the rest.
Roudybush: Eats them and likes them! (See the post from 13 January)

Fruits and Veggies
Lettuce: Likes. She prefers the purple or red lettuces, and the must be cut into little pieces.
Collard greens: Will eat. She will eat collards, but not with the same gusto as she eats the lettuce.
Apples: Likes. She requires them to be cut into tiny pieces though.
Green peppers: Eh. She nibbled on it until she discovered the better red peppers.
Red peppers: Likes. She really liked the red peppers.
Cucumber: Also eh. She started nibbling on it when I offered it while I was holding it, but she decided my finger looked yummier and bit me.
Pomegranate: Loves. She surprised me liking these so much.

Other Things
Nutri-berries: Likes. If they are left in her food dish, she will pick out all the seeds. If I give them to her out of her cage, she'll eat the entire thing.
Avi-cakes: Likes. Prefers Nutri-berries.
Sprouts: Will eat. She will eat them, but only if I am also eating and she's out of her cage.
Rice: Will eat. Not her favourite, but she will certainly eat it.
Pizza: Likes. I feel bad for putting this on the list, but this was the first food she ate for me other than seed. She likes pizza, especially the crunchy edge of the crust.
Millet: Loves. She will even take this from my hand.
Seeds: LOVES. This is the reason I'm trying all the other foods. She will happily eat nothing but seeds. Doesn't matter the brand. She'll switch between brands easily.

Today for breakfast I had one of my favourite cereals, Kashi Strawberry Fields. Nothing unusual.

But Digby had...drum roll, please...pellets!

She ate Roudybush pellets. And not just a couple, but a bunch. I was so excited when I saw her doing it, I took a video (with my iPhone because that's what was closest, so the quality isn't great). And then she started acting happy and being cute. <3

And, to make me even happier, she's in her cage eating some right now. :)

Today Digby ate pellets! She only ate a few, but she ate them. I've been getting her out whenever I eat lunch so I can try to get her to eat some new foods. Today I gave her three Roudybush pellets, which she ate. Then, I gave her about four more, which she picked up, tasted, and tossed down.

I think she just doesn't like pellets for some reason.

I also noticed that Lenore isn't eating his pellets. I'm still giving him the mix the breeder gave us, which has seed, Roudybush pellets in the smallest size, and Higgins egg food. Lenore is picking out all the yummy stuff, but leaving the pellets. I gave him just pellets last night and he refused to eat them.

Oh, and I discovered that Digby eats really good when she's out, but not as good when she's in her cage. If I give her lettuce while I have her out, she'll eat quite a bit. If I give her Nutri-berries while she's out, she will eat all of it. But if I give her lettuce in her cage, she ignores it. If I give her Nutri-berries in her cage, she picks out the seeds and grinds up the rest, leaving behind crumbs and some chunks of other stuff.

These birds are making me crazy!

I'm not afraid to admit something: My pets eat better than I do.

I am pretty picky about what my animals eat. Not crazily picky, but picky enough. I make sure they get the proper nutrition, and research any new food I give them.

The big dogs, Bella and Jax, eat Taste of the Wild. I know this isn't the best food, but I've been pretty happy with it. When we first started feeding it, I very quickly saw a huge improvement in Bella. Her coat was shinier and she had more energy. Taste of the Wild is a grain free diet with plenty of meat. It has no corn or soy. If I had things my way completely, I'd have Bella on a raw diet.

The little dogs, Maggie, Ellie, and Ricky, eat a brand called Country Naturals. This food is not grain free, but it has a higher meat content than most brands. Ellie has a very sensitive stomach and gets sick (mostly diarrhea) if she eats most dog foods. Anything with corn, wheat, or most other gains, makes her sick. We tried her on Taste of the Wild, and for a while, she was better, but she started getting sick again. When we got Ricky, he was already eating this food. We decided to try it for Ellie too, and she has done very good on it, so we keep the little dogs on this food.

Shadow and Delilah are on completely grain free diets. They get Taste of the Wild dry food, and Delilah gets Wellness canned and Taste of the Wild canned. Shadow gets canned food if she asks for it, and she eats whatever she catches. Tin Tin would be on a grain free diet if he quit going to the neighbors and eating their food. Like Bella, if it was totally up to me, the cats would be on a raw diet.

The birds, if they would just cooperate, would be getting a good diet too. I'm working on this (see other posts). My last bird got pellets, vegetables, and a small amount of seed. She had a decent diet, but I've learned more about bird nutrition since her, so the lovebirds will have an even better diet (if they would eat it).

Even the smaller animals get a high quality food. The guinea pigs get fed Oxbow pellets and timothy hay. They also get dark, leafy greens everyday, and usually another vegetable and a bit of fruit. Maxwell gets whatever greens and veggies the pigs are having and gut-loaded crickets.

Meanwhile, us humans don't eat as healthy. We eat things like McDonalds and other restaurants. I've read the book Fast Food Nation, and I've also read the book Food Pets Die For. The pet food book bothered me way more than the one about fast food. If only I made myself eat as well as I make my pets eat...

I started some sprouts yesterday. I hadn't planned on trying to get Digby to eat any until tomorrow. But, while I was rinsing them this morning, Digby was in his cage chirping his let-me-out-of-my-cage-chirp. So I got him out and put him on the perch while I was in the kitchen.

Just for fun, I decided to go ahead and try to get him to eat them. I put Digby on my shoulder and took a bite of the sprouts, then put a few pieces beside him. He ignored them. So, I put him back on his perch and got some cereal for myself. I started eating my cereal and put a few sprouts on his perch. While I was eating, he ate the sprouts! He didn't care much for the lentils (mostly because he kept dropping them) or the mung beans (too big), but he ate all of the quinoa and millet I gave him.

I have totally found the secret to getting Digby to eat other stuff. :)

I win, Digby loses. Well, really, Digby's health wins too.

I got the silly bird to eat lettuce. Since he ate the pizza the other night when I was eating it, I decided to try that with other foods. It took him a few minutes of watching me eat the lettuce. I would take a bite and offer it to him. Finally, he started nibbling on a piece. I realised it would be easier for him to eat smaller pieces, so I tore a few leafs up and he happily ate them.

Hey, this stuff is actually pretty good!

Since I now know how to get him to eat things he refuses, I'm hoping I'll be able to introduce him to a lot of other foods, and maybe even pellets.

I have a seed junkie. I cannot get him to convert to pellets.

With my last bird, a sweet, sweet cockatiel, I had no trouble. She'd eat anything I offered her. She'd even eat things I didn't offer her, and would try to steal food from my plate. When I first learned an all seed diet was bad, I found a brand of pellets available locally, Zupreem. She was a little reluctant at first and would eat all her seeds and then wait for more. But, the first time I gave her all pellets, she ate them willingly. I was able to add a small amount of seeds back in, and she would eat the seeds, the pellets, and whatever greens the guinea pigs were having that day.

But Digby, my lovebird, will not eat anything but seeds. He will eat his seed mix and he will eat millet. He will ignore anything else I give him. I've tried different methods to try to get him to eat pellets. I first tried just mixing the seeds and the pellets together. He picks out the seeds and then wants more. I've taken away all his food at night, then in the morning, give him only pellets. He won't eat them, and by afternoon, I've given up for the day and put some seed in with the pellets.

And it's not just pellets. I've tried to get him to eat greens, I've tried to get him to eat sprouts, I've tried to get him to eat Nutri-berries. I even offered him some cooked macaroni the other day. He bit it, and I thought he was going to eat it, but no, he would not eat it.

Today, I thought I'd try taking a familiar food and changing it just a little. I took a millet spray and boiled it. He started to take it from me, but as soon as he realised it was different, he refused it. I also boiled some quinoa and some lentils. I tricked him into getting a piece of quinoa, but he spat it out as soon as he realised it wasn't millet. He wouldn't even touch the lentils.

I'm getting quite frustrated by this. I found a method on the Roudybush website that I haven't used. It seems a little harsh, but I'm getting tempted to try it. This is from the Roudybush website:

2) Controlled. This method may be used with a very finicky, difficult to switch bird that is starting out at a good weight. It is generally the quickest, easiest method for switching most birds. Do not use this method on a thin bird, sick bird, or a bird you cannot monitor. Remove the old food and replace it with Roudybush. Clean the cage at the time of the switch and line it with paper. Do not use corncob or other litter because you won't be able to monitor the droppings well. Watch your bird's droppings or weigh your bird daily. When a bird isn't eating, the droppings will be very small and the green part will be very dark green, almost black. Or you may see a lot of urine (liquid) but almost no green part, which means your bird is filling up on water and not eating much. Give nothing but Roudybush for two full days for small species or three days for larger species. If at the end of this period your bird's droppings indicate it isn't eating, put your bird back on its old diet for 7 days, and then repeat the switching process. Most birds will convert the first time, and those that won't switch the first time usually switch the second time. If you can weigh your bird, keep your bird on Roudybush unless it loses more than 3% of its body weight. At that point, put your bird back on its old diet for one week then repeat the switch process, weighing your bird at the start of the switch. Disappearance of food from the dish is not a realiable way of determining if your bird is eating. Most birds will spill the new food out of the dish, looking for familiar foods.
(http://www.roudybush.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=birdbrain.foodswitch)

I don't know if I should try this. I'm tempted to, but I just don't like the idea of him not eating.