Hi there

Hi and welcome to the site! I'm by no means an expert, but thanks to this site, I have come across GREAT information. As must have for any guinea pig owner is https://www.guinealynx.info/healthycavy.html. Guinea Lynx has the best information for what your guinea pig needs. Read up and have fun!!!

Hi & Welcome!

There are a few guinea pig diet staples you should know of. One of those would be unlimited timothy hay, oxbow and kleenmama's (ordered online) are the best. Another part would be pellets. You pig should be getting 1/8th a cup of quality pellets. For pigs over 6 months Cavy Cuisine is recommented, or again Kleenmama's. Do not give your piggy anything with colored bits or seeds, they can choke on them. Another thing would be veggies. Your piggie should get about a cup of veggies a day. Since they cannot produce their own vitamin C it's a good idea to give 1/8th of a bell pepper a day, & cilantro. Another staple veggie is romaine, but you can find more information about that in the feeding section.

Do you have a way to weigh your pig? Some pigs are bigger than others, but if you have a weight and a picture it might be easier to tell wether or not he's overweight. As far as exercise goes, never use a ball! I'm not sure if you know this or not, but they can break or very badly damage their backs, feets, and/or legs. So, don't do that... A good thing for exercize would be out of the cage/floor time. Pick an area of space, block it off so your guinea pig cannot escape, and fill it with hides, homemade toys, or whatever you have laying around. The first couple of times your guinea pig may be a little scared to explore, so once it's used to veggies you could place veggies around to encourage him to move around.

Can I ask what kind of cage he has?

Also, please post a picture of your boy!
Welcome again, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thank you Guinea Pony,I'll look on the link you gave me!!

Thanks for the diet information! I did know that balls or no good for Guinea Pigs,and thats why I dont use them. I just started yersterday actually giving him floor time. We're in the middle of moving out of state so its been hard to give him more floor time. He was scared last night,but today he is walking all over which is great! I dont have any way to weigh him right now,I dont have a scale. But I do know you can tell he is alittle over weight because I can barely see his feet and his belly drags a little bit. I'm not sure what brand his cage is,but I believe its one we got from Petsmart. I will post a picture of him right now! Thank you for making me feel welcome here!

Just one correction to trexgorawrrrr's post... If you live in an area with a lot of horses, or where a lot of hay is grown, you can probably find very good hay much cheaper than ordering it online. The stuff they feed cows won't do -- it needs to be a good quality grass hay. If you can find it near you, it should be less than $10 a bale.

But if you're like those of us stuck along the gulf coast, then ordering online may be your best bet. Anybody who has horses here pretty much has to truck hay in from somewhere else. However, if you are in an area without local hay, it's still cheaper, even with shipping, to order it online than to buy it in small bags at a pet shop. Not to mention that the quality is amazingly better.

The best sources are (broken link removed), (broken link removed), and (broken link removed). Just pick the one closest to you so that the shipping charges will be less.

Also to add. I cannot get Oxbow or Kleenmomas pellets here in Arizona. They are the best if you can get them but an alternative is Mazuri, a GP pellet made by Purina. They make 2, one with seeds and one without. You would use the pellets without seeds.
Timothy hay is very expensive here. up to $30.00 dollars a bale. I use burmuda grass hay. I will treat the pigs to timothy if they have a very good cutting.

When you get settled in your new home, you can get a kitchen scale at Wal Mart or Target for under $10.00.
Looking forward to sharing with you and looking forward to pictures.

Welcome! Can't wait to see pictures of Tiny Max! I have 2 piggies, Roger weighs 2 pounds 15oz and Huey weighs in at 2 pounds 12oz. I was worried about them being overweight because I was seeing so many smaller piggies on here and their just turning 1. The vet explained that my boys were a healthy weight for their frames. Roger has a lot of junk in his trunk because he's wide hipped. The best thing to do is follow the food chart and ensure he gets enough floor time. Check out the pictures of cages on here to get ideas about how to expand your own.