Product Review: Brown's Tropical Carnival Sweet Potato Baked Crisp Chips

Sometimes, our humans get us a new product with the best of intentions, but then realize it's not a good idea to actually give it to us. Readers may remember that we've reviewed sweet potatoes before, and they can be fed to us very occasionally. We did our homework, and determined that dried sweet potatoes are fine, too, as long as there's no added sugar or preservatives. Therefore, these treats seemed like they'd be okay to feed us at first glance:

Uh-oh. Lots of non-guinea pig animals up at the top. Not a good sign!

We took a closer look at the ingredients, however, and didn't like what we saw:

Huh? What is "annatto"?

There are two ingredients we have concerns about here. First, there's rice flour. Guinea Lynx warns that rice flour should be avoided in pellets because it's a byproduct with no nutrient value. Second, there is annatto, which Wikipedia says "is derived from the seeds of the achiote trees of tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The seeds are sourced to produce a carotenoid-based yellow to orange food coloring and flavor."  Guinea Links also warns that seeds should be avoided because they're too high in fat and protein, and that food coloring should also be avoided.

Much as it pains us to turn down a treat, we're going to have to err on the side of caution and insist that our humans not tempt us with this treat due to these questionable ingredients. We'll have to give Brown's Tropical Carnival Sweet Potato Baked Crisp Chips 1 out of 5 stars.