Burgess Excel Forage and Feast Hay Bar, Cornflower – 60g

Burgess Excel Forage & Feast Hay Bar – Cornflower, 60g

A 60g bar of compressed meadow hay — 73.3% of it — with cornflower petals at 5.5% and a scattering of oat, wheat and pea flakes, carrot, parsley and herbs through the remainder. It holds together well enough to hand-feed or wedge into a rack, and comes apart as the animal works at it rather than disappearing in one mouthful.

Crude fibre is 30%, higher than most bagged small animal treats manage, with protein at 10.9% and fat at 2.4%. It is still a treat rather than a forage ration, and Burgess are explicit that it is fed in moderation alongside the hay that should make up the bulk of the diet.

Performance & Benefits

• Meadow hay at 73.3%, so most of the bar is genuine forage rather than cereal.
• Cornflower petals at 5.5% — the ingredient that separates this bar from the marigold version.
• Crude fibre at 30%, the higher of the two Forage & Feast bars.
• Compressed into a bar that has to be pulled apart, which spreads the eating out.
• Herbs through the mix include lemon balm, peppermint, echinacea, ribwort and red clover.
• Firm enough to hand-feed, which makes it useful for a nervous animal.

Suitable For

• Rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas — Burgess name all three.
• Hand-feeding, to build confidence with an animal that is still settling in.
• Hay racks and foraging toys, broken up and mixed through ordinary feeding hay.
• Animals that need persuading to take more long fibre.
• It is a treat, not a hay substitute — Burgess Excel Dried Fresh Grass Timothy Feeding Hay is what the bulk of the diet should be.

Feeding

• Feed in moderation, as Burgess advise for any treat.
• Break the bar up and mix it through Excel Feeding Hay to encourage foraging.
• Offer by hand, or push it into a rack or tunnel rather than leaving it loose in a bowl.
• Keep unlimited ordinary hay and fresh water available at the same time.

Composition & Analysis

• Composition: meadow hay (73.3%), cornflower petals (5.5%), oat flakes, wheat flakes, pea flakes, carrot, parsley, alfalfa, wheat, puffed wheat, maize flakes, puffed maize, lemon balm, peppermint, beetroot, ribwort, echinacea, oats, red clover, marigold blossoms, dandelion.
• Analytical constituents: crude protein 10.9%, crude fat 2.4%, crude fibre 30%, crude ash 5.9%.
• Supplied as a single 60g bar.
• Burgess publish no calorie figure and no daily quantity for the hay bars, so none is stated here.