[Gpdd] [CARE] Guinea Pig Health Questionnaire
DebJonSara at aol.com
DebJonSara at aol.com
Sat Feb 25 07:23:53 EST 2006
I got a reply from Supreme Petfoods, informing me that Gertie Guinea Pig
Food, along with all their other products, complies with all relevant
legislation regarding petfood. It says the recipe is secret, but a list of ingredients
appears on the packet. However, he neither confirms or denies that Sunset
Yellow is one of the ingredients, and I am sure I read somewhere that petfood
manufacturers are not required, by law, to include EVERYTHING on their list of
ingredients.
The writer of the reply refers several times to "roomers" (I kid you not, it
is spelt like that and put in inverted commas like that) he has heard about
Gertie Guinea Pig Food being bad for guinea pigs, and is keen to find out,
from me, which "reputable association" (as I called it) has been fuelling these.
I would never cite the CCT, because I feel they have far better things to do
with their time and money than enter into legal wrangles with a huge
multi-national petfood company, and to be honest, I suspect they don't have any hard
and fast scientific evidence - but I don't just want to drop this.
So, I have devised a pretty general questionnaire about guinea pig health,
and would sincerely appreciate the co-operation of my fellow gpdd-ers in
completing it. It just asks about your piggies (past and present) and their
medical/care history, including diet but not exclusively that. I did a little work
on questionnaires and surveys long ago for my degree, and I know one has to
be really careful not to bias the questionnaire towards confirming ones
hypothesis as it will skew the results and render them useless.
I am hoping that, if enough people complete and return the questionnaire,
certain trends will appear, which will indicate, hopefully, if there is a
connection between any care/feeding method(s) and life expectancy. If it doesn't
show any link between particular propriety guinea pig foods and
gastro-intestinal/bladder problems, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief. But if it
does - have no doubt, my correspondent at Supreme Petfoods will be one of the
first to know!
I think the questionnaire will take a while for slaves to complete, and all
I can offer in return for your time is the promise that I will post any trends
that become apparent as soon as I am aware of them. I feel I will need at
least 100 completed questionnaires for the survey to bear any weight, so
although I don't usually cross-post, in this instance I am doing so - I need hard
and fast evidence, and sooner rather than later.
Please email me offlist if you would be willing to participate in this
survey, and I will email you the questionnaire as an .rtf attachment. If anyone
knows of a similar survey having already been carried out, I would be extremely
grateful for full details, as it would be pointless to replicate, and they
may already have\the information I seek.
I look forward to an overflowing inbox!!
Debbie
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