Nutrition: Is it alright to feed an adult pig the same food as her babies?

[chellelee8]

I have a 2 year old female guinea pig and two 2 1/2 month old babies (female also). I adopted them a few weeks ago. I need to know if it is alright if I feed them the same foods. I give them timothy hay and alfalfa. Their pellets are alfalfa based. Is it okay for the mother to eat this till they get old enough to eat timothy hay based pellets?

[starshine123102]

Since the babies are no longer dependent on mom's milk, I would say no, they shouldn't be on the same pellet, or severly limit mom's intake to 1/8 cup per day.

Actually, even the babies do not need to be on an alfalfa pellet or hay. If you make sure to give the babies enough calcium rich veggies (parsley is a good one) until the age of 6 months, you can put all your piggies on timothy based pellets and a grass hay (alfalfa is a legume hay).

Check out the diet and nutrition chart here to get an idea of good veggie to be giving overall, and some calcium rich for the babies. http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...arts-info.html

Also, the only acceptable pellets for piggies are Kleenmama's (online only), Oxbow (cuisine is timothy and performance is alfalfa), Sweet Meadow, and Mazuri 5664 (this is alfalfa based so mom can only have 1/8 cup per day). The two best are the first two listed.

Babies can have unlimited pellets until 6 months and then after that should be limited to 1/8-1/4 cup per day for timothy pellets.