Oxbow guinea pig food for treats?

[sparkbubble]

A friend just gave me her deceased guinea pig's food. Since I can't imagine there being anything unhealthy in there (its mostly hay, right?) can I crush it into 'flour' for baked treats?

[betty]

The hay itself shouldn't be an issue - but you'd need to make sure that they weren't fed so often that they tipped over the ranges of other ingredients in their food - knowing how much tastier treats are than normal food. I feed a very small amount such food every so often as it is in my jird mix and occasionally I feed them some of that mix.

Only have caution because there was the whole Oxbow Hamster food issue with one of the mixes where the hay content was too high for hamsters and it made them all very ill when fed as a main diet (basically they weren't getting any nutrients from the hay even though they were always full). I don't know the details fully - but I am sure if the treats were only gievn infrequently and their other foods DIDN'T contain hay or other grasses, you may well be fine with it. Hopefully someone else will comment on that if they can be more specific.

You could also add, say, 10 individual kibble of this food to a shallow bowl up on a ledge and see if they even choose to eat it anyway over 10 of something else? I did a few food experiments with all the things I buy to add to their food - and found out what additions I add to their foods that they don't even eat anyway - saved me a lot of money I can tell you and focussed the diet into what they were actually eating.

[sparkbubble]

Thanks! I'm just trying to find a way to use it, that's all (its 5 lb's, so I will have it for a long while). I hoped to use the food for a flour binder for seed & vegetable treats with it (it's a great medium). I feed my gerbs treats about twice a week in 1/4 tsp portions. Now that I know that it's safe I'm going to start baking stuff with it in my spare time.