Oxbow Garden Select???

I feed Oxbow pellets since I read in this forum about which feeds and nutrient percentages were good for chinchillas and found that was the best one sold in my area.

Today I took a trip to my local Petsmart and there were no Oxbow pellets anywhere, despite all the other normal Oxbow products being in stock. Talking to a store rep, he said that there was a shortage from their distributor, would not be getting more for several weeks (I don't have that much food left), and the only store somewhat close to my area that had any had only 3 bags in stock.

Instead of driving farther away, I dropped by a nearby Petco and noticed that there was a new bag design (again?) and decided to compare ingredients when I got home. Well, apparently Oxbow Garden Select is completely different from Oxbow Essentials, to the point that I would feel extremely uneasy cold-switching it (I'm not quite out of pellets, but I don't have many left).

Has anyone heard of this feed before? Is it being sold in addition to Essentials or going to replace it? I didn't think to ask the Petsmart guy for a specific type of Oxbow... just Oxbow chinchilla pellets.

The Oxbow website says:

Quote:

"**COMING SOON!** Hand-picked and wholesome – just like your chinchilla. Garden Select Chinchilla is a complete and balanced chinchilla food, with a flavor profile hand-picked from Mother Nature’s kitchen. Select garden ingredients such as whole yellow pea, tomato, rosemary, and thyme give Garden Select its delectable, garden fresh flavor while a blend of three varieties of hand-selected hay provides essential fiber."

The three hays, according to the bag I got, being Timothy, orchard grass, and oat hay. Besides the fact that the ingredients are obviously completely different, so are the nutritional values. Any I didn't list are the same as essentials.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 16.00% vs 18% essentials
Calcium (min) 0.80% vs .06%
Calcium (max) 1.30% vs vs. 1.1%
Phosphorus (min) 0.50% vs .25%

Obviously first thing to note is its a timothy pellet vs. an alfalfa pellet. The oat hay also surprised me, considering you guys always advise to give oats/oat hay in moderation if at all. I don't give my guy any oat products since he had a calcium deficiency with his old owner, and I don't want to have to counteract any extra phosphorus. I'm not sure about the ideal protein amount, but the increase in calcium and phosphorus worries me. Haven't people said before that Oxbow essentials was on the high end of acceptable amount of calcium in feed? I guess the increase in phosphorus would possibly even it out, but I'm not sure what the correct Ca:P ratio even is.

And also... peas and tomatoes?! The ingredients also list sunflower meal, canola meal (no soybean meal), oat hulls, barley, oatmeal, and flax seed.

Am I paranoid to think that ingredient list sounds like total junk food? I've always felt like I was able to trust oxbow brand, and I think it would be great if they came out with a viable timothy based pellet for people who's chins have issues with stones etc. but I'm not sure that this is it.

Smaller petstores in my area don't carry any chinchilla pellets period. I could order online of course, but does anyone know if Petsmart is still carrying the essentials feed? If Oxbow is phasing out essentials (why though?!) what would be the closest replacement for my very picky chin? I know I've read somewhere about a feed that was extremely similar, but I can't remember which one it was and can't find the post again.

Please correct me if I got anything wrong with chinchilla nutrition, I try to learn as much as I can to be a good owner. ;w;



tl;dr Am I right in thinking this new oxbow food is not as high quality? Sorry if this post is kinda long, I tend to ramble.