Pet Habitat South Africa

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27 May 2016

Muesli Can Kill Pet Rabbits, Guinea Pigs & Chinchillas

Posted By : Guest

There is a major problem in South Africa where so many pet stores, breeders and pet owners don’t realize that feeding muesli foods can kill pet rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas, according to latest scientific research.

Their attitude is that they have been feeding these foods for many years and their pets seem to be okay. They seem to turn a blind eye to any new scientific studies or recent changes in feeding guidelines announced by animal welfare organizations or FEDIAF.

The two year scientific study on the 200 rabbits by Professor Anne Meredith from University of Edinburgh made headline news all over the world in June 2013. The results from this study proved to the pet industry that feeding any type of muesli food (dry mixes) including pellets can have fatal consequences. This research is supported by every animal welfare organization thoughout the world including the RSPCA, PDSA, Blue Cross, Wood Green, RWAF and FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry Federation).

FEDIAF represents the national pet food industry associations in the EU and from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Russia, and is the spokesman for approximately 650 companies across Europe. FEDIAF strives to ensure high standards for all pet food products manufactured and sold in Europe, through consideration of safety, nutrition and palatability.

In 2014, the organization teamed up with the UK-PFMA (Pet Food Manufacturing Association) and a panel of renowned experts, including Professor Anna Meredith , to produce new guidelines for responsible rabbit, guinea pig and chinchilla ownership and feeding. They provide pet food manufacturers with nutritional recommendations to ensure the production of well balanced and nutritionally sound diets. These guidelines are aimed at helping manufacturers to develop and produce balanced rabbit, guinea pig, chinchilla, cat and dog nutrition for a long and healthy life of the animals. All the latest scientific research and findings can be downloaded from their website.

In 2014 hundreds of pet stores across the UK removed muesli foods from their shelves. In the beginning, as the studies were performed on rabbits, Pets at Home, the largest pet store chain in UK, were advising the change for rabbits only. But because guinea pigs and chinchillas have similar digestive system as rabbits, they also removed muesli type diets for guinea pigs and chinchillas as well. Why are pet stores in South Africa not doing the same? Why are there only a handful of reputable pet stores offering pet owners alternative diets and educating them about importance of a high fibre diet?

The RSPCA urge owners to feed their rabbits and guinea pigs a diet of mainly hay and/or fresh grass, with some leafy greens. Only a very small, measured ration of good quality, high fibre pellets/nuggets must be fed each day.

Despite the popularity of rabbits and guinea pigs as companion animals, feeding trials to determine basic dietary requirements of pet rabbits have not been performed, resulting in varied diets. Nutritional guidelines currently available for rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas have remained unchanged since the 1970s and are based on research conducted on short-lived commercially farmed rabbits for meat and fur trade. Diets formulated to these guidelines, in particular muesli-type diets, have been implicated for many years by vets and welfare organizations as playing an important role in many diseases. For some reason, pet stores are still selling it today even though these diets were not originally intended for pets.

The biggest problem of muesli food is that they contain a mixture of highly concentrated form of nutrition (it packs a lot of nutrients into a small volume of food), the exact opposite of a rabbit or guinea pig's natural diet (a high volume of low nutrient food). Muesli food may contain ingredients labelled "balanced diet", but it lacks the most important component which is "high fibre". Remember crude fibre is not the same thing as benefical fibre.

Rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas and degus have very similar digestive systems where they have to consume incredible amounts of fibre in their diet. This is why they are now called Fibrevores to highlight the importance of fibre in their diet. In the wild they will eat grass, shrubs, bark from trees, vegetation that is quite fibrous and dry, not lush and juicy.

Grass in reality is not very nutritious because it’s low in protein and vitamins, but these small animals have evolved to extract nutrients from it, through their unique digestive system.

They have to keep their digestive systems busy by eating a mixture of two kinds of fibre – digestible and indigestible –moving through the gut at all times.

Fibrevores can’t get enough nutrition from fibre as it first passes through the gut. So they pass it through the gut again. Indigestible fibre is moved through their digestive system and excreted as separate, round, hard droppings. This acts to keep the digestive system moving and to stimulate appetite.

Digestible fibre is moved up into an organ called the caecum – this is like a giant appendix. Good bacteria in the caecum ferment the fibre (making it easy to digest) which then emerges in the form of clumps of sticky droppings – called caecotrophs. Rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas then re-eat the caecotrophs and their systems extract essential nutrition as the digestible fibre passes through for the second time.

Failing to provide adequate portions of the right kind of fibre can rapidly lead to illness or death. At Burgess Excel, they call the correct ratio of these two types of fibre ‘Beneficial Fibre’.

To simulate their diet in the wild, we have to provide them a diet of 80% fresh grass and/or hay. 10% leafy green vegetables and 10% dry food/pellets/nuggets.

But because grass/hay does not appeal to us, we have decided to feed dry food mixtures (muesli) which is more exciting and tasty for our small pets. Some foods are even labeled as complete or balanced diets which makes it very confusing for pet owners.

A small amount of dry food will meet your rabbit, guinea pig or chinchilla's nutritional requirements but not provide a high enough volume of indigestible fibre to keep food moving correctly through the digestive system. Feeding too much commercial food to increase the fibre volume will provide too many nutrients making your pet overweight. Also many of these muesli foods are loaded with sugar (molasses) and some form of artificial or natural preservatives (corn).

On the outside we see our pets put on weight and their fur looks healthy, but on the inside their digestive systems begins to slow down, the acidity in their gut changes, they develop poor immune systems, develop dental disease and all sorts of digestive problems. The more dry food mixtures you feed, the less hay your rabbit, guinea pig or chinchilla will consume, the less bacteria is available in their digestive system. This in turn causes them to consume less water which makes them vulnerable to urinary tract problems. This is why you rarely find rabbits older than 7 years in South Africa, whilst pet rabbits in UK easily live to 13-17 years.

Rabbits naturally spend over two-thirds of each day moving around their territory grazing. When pet rabbits are fed too much concentrated food, which is quick to eat, they often become bored and develop behaviour problems because they do not have any activities to fill the hours that would usually be spent feeding.

Vets have been fighting this for decades and now that scientific research proved that were right, there are still too many stubborn pet owners. I don’t know if its ignorance or simply they don’t care because muesli foods are cheaper to buy. In essence, all muesli foods are junk food and we know what happens when you eat junk food every single day of your life. You die of some form of illness at an early age.

Commercial food should only constitute 10% of the diet, a supplement to fresh foods and definately not a replacement for hay and grass. This is why all animal rescue services such as RSPCA recommend you feed a small measured quantity each day, no more, no less. For example a rabbit should only be fed about an egg cup full of nuggets each day. A guinea pig is only fed a heaped tablespoon of nuggets daily, an amount that can be consumed in 5 minutes, not a bowl full of nuggets. If your pet is still hungry he must eat more hay.

Never feed your rabbit the stock standard rabbit pellets you find in most pet stores. It has no nutritional value and is low in fibre. The Burgess Excel Tasty Nuggets is a high fibre pellet that contains nutritional additives such as vitamins, minerals and prebiotics which also stimulates their apetite. This will provide your pet with essential digestible fibre. The large amount of hay/grass you feed will provide essential indigestible fibre. If you can manage to do this, then your small furry will live a healthy long life.

If you consider yourself to be dedicated to responsible pet ownership, then why are you not supporting the latest thinking in pet welfare standards? The results of the rabbit muesli research, clearly demonstrates what has always been felt amongst the veterinary community and is’nt about time you decide to follow that lead.