Product Review: Kaytee All Natural Orchard Blends Digestive Health Hay for Small Animals

After doing research for our post on the best hay for guinea pigs, we became curious about all the different types of grass hay that are out there that we've never tried. So today, we're trying Kaytee Orchard Blends hay. It contains timothy hay, orchard grass hay, bermuda grass hay, and brome hay. Bermuda grass hay and brome grass hay are both new to us. I wonder if we'll like it?

Brome hay. That's new. Let's try it!

New hay! Yum!

Hooray, bermuda grass hay and brome grass hay!

Honestly, we don't know which piece is which type of hay, but it's all good. 5/5 stars!

The Earliest Guinea Pig Portrait

We think guinea pig history should be taught in school. If it ever becomes a college course, you can be sure this will be in the textbook. This picture from the year 1580 is thought to be the earliest portrait of a guinea pig:

Those Elizabethan children should get a second guinea pig. That one looks lonely.

That piggy kind of looks like Annie, doesn't it?

Product Review: Oxbow BeneTerra Organic Meadow Hay

Lola here. I'm writing this post to correct the distortions and falsehoods that Broccoli left in the green cabbage post. Specifically, I'm calling him out on saying "Lola might regain dominance." I never lost dominance! Just wait until you see what happens in this product review.

Today, we're reviewing Oxbow BeneTerra Organic Meadow Hay. This hay is composed of a mix of grass hays, which means you don't have to worry about adult piggies eating it like you would with a legume hay (like alfalfa hay). The fact that it's organic also means that we don't have to worry about nasty chemicals in our hay or in the environment, which we like. But will it pass the taste test?

Oxbow! We love Oxbow products!

Do you see that? Broccoli is using a pigloo to pretend he's a turtle! Does that look like the dominant piggy?

Just ask yourself this: Who looks dominant in this picture? The piggy hiding from the camera, or the piggy with a face full of hay out in the open?

Oxbow BeneTerra Organic Meadow Hay is delicious, and will make a nice occasional supplement to our regular diet of timothy hay from Small Pet Select. We'll give it 5/5 starts. I'd also like to thank this hay for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight about who is dominant around here.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Green Cabbage?

When you live in our cage, it's important to be observant. The humans don't always put food down in the same place. If you're just relaxing in your pigloo or bed and not paying attention to what's going on, you might be the last one to realize that the humans have just placed a plate of new food outside the cage for you to try. And if your cage-mates are on the ball, they'll get there first and end up getting more than their fair share of food.

Today, I came in second place when it came to trying green cabbage. Not bad, but I'll need to work on getting there first next time, or Lola might regain dominance! We can eat green cabbage 2-4 times per week, but it should be fed sparingly because it's a gassy food.

The humans cut the cabbage into mouth-sized strips! That was nice of them.

Hey, don't squeeze me out!

That's better! I'm back in the center of things where I belong!

We love the taste and crunchy texture of green cabbage, and we'll give it 5/5 stars!

Product Review: Sunseed Vita Prima Pizza Garden Veggie

Wow, this is exciting! We get to try our own version of pizza, which humans seem to love!

Piggy pizza party!

Wait... Is this safe for guinea pigs to eat? Let's take a look at the ingredients:

That doesn't look good.

Turns out we can't eat this treat. There are three main bad ingredients here:

• Dried egg product - guinea pigs are herbivores, so you shouldn't feed them eggs;
• Sugar - bad for guinea pigs; can cause diabetes
• Corn syrup - also bad for guinea pigs; it's a sweeter, which should be avoided, just like sugar

For getting our hopes up and turning out to be full of bad ingredients, we give Sunseed Vita Prima Pizza Garden Veggie 1/5 stars.

Five Reasons You Should Own a Guinea Pig

I'd imagine that most of our readers are guinea pig owners (or guinea pigs like us), but there might be some humans out there who are still asking themselves, "Should I own a guinea pig?" Assuming you can afford a guinea pig, here are some great reasons to bring some home:

1. Since we eat fruit and vegetables, you'll start stocking up more of these in your refrigerator, encouraging you to eat healthier.
2. Because we chew up papers, wires, etc. that we find laying around on the floor, we'll encourage you to keep your house cleaner.
3. Pets can be beneficial to your health by reducing stress.
4. We're an entertaining alternative to television and video games, especially if you get two of us. Guinea pigs are social animals, and should be adopted in pairs.
5. We can function like an alarm clock and make sure you wake up on time by wheeking loudly in the morning for our breakfast of pellets. Okay, maybe sometimes this can be a negative, but the humans are always on time for work!

I'm great company.

Product Review: CritterWARE Groom-N-Kit for Small Animals

Today we're going to review CritterWARE Groom-N-Kit for Small Animals, which actually contains four products in one. The kit contains: a shedding brush, a soft bristle brush, nail clippers, and a "tasty chew treat."

What does the chew treat have to do with grooming?

The humans didn't feel comfortable using the nail clippers. Even though a nail trim at the vet costs $18, so the humans would be saving money by doing it themselves, they were concerned about cutting too far and drawing blood. You can trim your guinea pigs nails at home, but you have to be careful and know what you're doing. Even experienced guinea pig owners can find it difficult. One time, Lola made a sudden movement while the vet was clipping her nails, and the vet cut too far. If even the vet can make this mistake, we'd prefer our humans skip using this particular product on us.

First, we tried the pin brush, also known at the "shedding brush" on the box:

This is kind of nice.

This was pleasant enough, but the human had to be very careful not to let the pins scrape against my skin. I imagine that this could have hurt if they weren't careful. I also think that the pin brush wouldn't have worked well on Buffy. It probably would have gotten caught on her curly full and pulled on it. Pretty sure she would have hated that.

Buffy seems confused by brushing. 

Buffy didn't hate being brushed, but she didn't seem to care much for it, either. She just seemed confused and a bit concerned by the entire experience. At one point towards the end, the brush seems to have pulled on her fur, which the human apologized for. (Keep in mind this is only the soft brush. The pin brush would have hurt more, I'm sure.) As we mentioned in our texels post, texels may have sensitive backs, and brushing can stretch out their fur ringlets, so keep this in mind.

Lola also seems confused/concerned by being brushed.

Lola didn't seem to hate being brushed, but it did make her a little jumpy.

We had no interest in the "tasty treat," by the way. The box said it was the "perfect diversion to entertain chewing pets during grooming sessions." It wasn't.

Our verdict: the soft bristle brush is the best part of this grooming kit. The pin brush and the nail clippers could hurt your piggy if you're not careful, and the chew treat is of no interest to us. It costs about $9.49, so you're paying for one decent product and several not-so-good ones. We'll give it 2/5 stars.