[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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