Timothy Hay

[Jennie&Steve]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum, so let me tell you my background. I have a female guinea pig named Elsie who's about a year old. Steve has an 8 month old female named Penny. My question today is about Elsie. I've always read that Timothy Hay should be readily available to guinea pigs at all times becuase it aids their digestion. I recently bought Elsie a bin feeder that I planned to keep stocked with Timothy Hay for her. (Until now I've been giving her a handful or so a day.) Well, she doesn't leave it alone! She eats it constantly until it's gone and even tips it over and climbs inside it to get every last piece out. She won't even touch her real food as long as there is Timothy Hay there. Should I keep trying and figure eventually she'll get sick of it and go back to her regular food? Or should I go back to the handful-a-day method? What do you think???

[kennethlhm]

so she is not eating her pellet & vege anymore? My GPs will eat vege 1st, then only pellet & hay. If your GP eat hay only & not other food, then i think is not healthy & not enuf vit C for her

[Jennie&Steve]

She still eats her veggies first, but she'll sit at that Timothy hay until it's gone. If I refill, she'll keep going. I know all guinea pigs love to eat, but we didn't nickname her our "munch-monster" for nothing! She's a bottomless pit! I guess my real concern is could she get too much hay? I know she needs her fiber, but I don't want her to end up with a little tummy-ache, either. Does anyone know how much she should be getting a day?

[kennethlhm]

i think is ok for her 2 eat as much hay as she wan. but if u want to limit her, u just put a certain amount of hay that u think is enuf for her daily requirement in, or mayb only give 2-3 times a day.

[Merrill]

Guinea pigs should always have unlimited hay. I've never heard of a guinea pig having complications due to too much Timothy hay, so I would say keep refilling it, because she probably eats everything else as well, you might just not see her eat it.

[DaCourt]

I learned from my local rescue www.cavyhaven.org, is that they need the hay for good degestion. It is ok that that they don't eat the pellets as long as they have the hay and their veggies.