Diet What do you feed your piggies everyday?

[lisanjake]

So I was wondering what everyone's daily diet is for their piggies?
Mine have been having quite soft poops recently (not sure if I'm just noticing it more because of their new fleece bedding I'm having to scoop them)
I've never seen them use their water bottle so I try and give them watery veg like lettuce to hopefully help their water intake

In the morning and evening they generally get kale, a few slices of pepper, cucumber, and green beans. They are blooming fussy though I saw someone on another thread suggesting cutting veg into small pieces and sprinkling on their pellets so I may well try that.
Wanted more variety as they just seem to pick out the kale and leave anything else for when they feel like it.

Obviously they get lots of hay too lol

 

[Nazgul]

In total, the daily menu for my two boars includes:

• Unlimited Bluegrass hay (eventually going to try a half-half mixture of Bluegrass + 2nd cut Timothy instead)
• 1/4 cup of KMS pellets
• Around 1 - 1 1/2 cup worth of lettuce (red or green leaf)
• 1/2 of a bell pepper (usually green, but occasionally yellow or orange)
• 2 baby carrots

Lately, they also get a bit of cucumber a few times per week. (one thick wheel each) Other sporadic additions to their staple diet include zuchinni (one wheel each), green beans (one each), and apple (one thin slice each).


Edit: Also, if you're wondering how often to feed certain things, this is a great thread . I can't doublecheck right now because my head is killing me, but I believe you're feeding kale and green beans way too often. The latter can be fairly gassy (in humans anyway) so I wouldn't be surprised if those two are the causes of your piggy's mooshy poop.

 

[lisanjake]

ahhh okay thank you Nazgul, I shall cut that out more, and find other things they hopefully like. ill take a look at that link too
PS hope your head feels better soon!

 

[wombats]

Mine gets:

-Unlimited orchard grass (my boyfriend's mom gives me a garbage bag's worth of orchard grass every couple months. She raises and breeds miniature donkeys and they eat low-in-calcium grass hay just like guinea pigs)
-1/8 cup of oxbow pellets
-1/8 green/yellow bell pepper
-1 1/4 inch thick zucchini wheel with rind cut into four pieces
-2 cherry tomatoes
-1 large red lettuce leaf
-A few smaller lettuce leaves (romaine or butter, mostly)

I would also give him a carrot a day, but he HATES them and completely ignores them or throws them out of the cage. I also want to try endive or raddichio, and if he likes them I'll add one to his daily veggies.

 

[Beatrix187]

Heres mine for one piggy

- Unlimited 2nd cut timothy hay
- 1/8 cup pellets 1/4 of it is oxbow cavy cuisine and 3/4 is KMS (I am trying to switch him from oxbow to 100% KMS)
- 1 leaf romaine lettuce
- 1/8 bell pepper (red or green)
-1 cherry tomato OR half a baby carrot OR 1 slice regular carrot. (I like to do tomato Monday, carrot tuesday, tomato Wednesday, etc)
- Sometimes he gets cucumber peels (like half a cucumbers worth of peels)

That's my daily piggys diet!

Here is where I get my food

Hay https://smallpetselect.com/

Pellets (broken link removed)

Fresh produce- Jewel, Target etc.....

 

[Beatrix187]

Also, it may be helpful to make several different meals, so kale at 12:00, bell pepper and green beans at 6:00.....

 

[lisanjake]

Ahh very good idea actually. I'll start doing that

 

[Cavies4EverEver]

I am thinking I may feed my piggies too much after reading all of this.

Pellets
Unlimmited timothy hay
2 leaves of lettuce per pig or Half a bunch of Cilantro/parsley between all three pigs
once a month a handfull of untreated/ uncut Fresh grass
1 stalk of celery split beween all three pigs
I switch between : Sweet Peppers (1 per pig), 3 baby carrots per pig (or one whole carrot split between them all)
twice a week: I sdd a 1 square inch piece of apple or 3 blueberries
I rarely feed them tomatoes, only if i have some..

All three hate cucumbers

 

[Beatrix187]

I am thinking I may feed my piggies too much after reading all of this.


2 leaves of lettuce per pig

2 Leaves of lettuce is a bit too much..... cut it down to one leaf per day.

 

[LilPiggies3]

My little piggies (2 male babies, 10 weeks old) love bell peppers, celery, carrots, some apples and a bit of tomato!
I have some pretty good advice, don't feed them lettuce, it's hard to determine which lettuce you are giving them. If you want to take the risk of giving them lettuce, please remember to use Romaine at all times Iceberg/Iceburg is not healthy for them.
As I said, there is videos on Youtube showing you how to make feasts for piggies, and I made one. I only used red bell peppers and chopped yellow bell peppers. It's very healthy. My little Peter was nomming on some earlier today.
I also make them a small platter of food, and then shove it all in a bowl. My piggies are okay with going in that bowl to eat their food. I also scatter hay around the woodshavings and they eat that instead of veggies, but I think it's good for them. I barely see mine drink water, so I use the pro-c powder in water and just throw it on the hay that they feed on. I use timothy feeding hay btw.

Off topic:
Also, they hide in their hidey-shadow-area, and sneak in some apples and nom on that for the night. I suggest lying apples around the floor alongside LOTS of hay for them to eat.

P.S: If you're going to feed them, please either wear gloves or wash your hands so no smell of food stains on it! My little Peter almost bit my finger the whole day, I think he smelt some veggies on it.

 

[Beatrix187]

My little piggies (2 male babies, 10 weeks old) love bell peppers, celery, carrots, some apples and a bit of tomato!
I have some pretty good advice, don't feed them lettuce, it's hard to determine which lettuce you are giving them. If you want to take the risk of giving them lettuce, please remember to use Romaine at all times Iceberg/Iceburg is not healthy for them.

What is the risk with lettuce? You can get a 3 pack at Jewel and it is clearly labeled romaine. And you can give green leaf, red leaf, and most other lettuces. But you are right that you should NOT feed iceburg lettuce.

 

[LilPiggies3]

What is the risk with lettuce? You can get a 3 pack at Jewel and it is clearly labeled romaine. And you can give green leaf, red leaf, and most other lettuces. But you are right that you should NOT feed iceburg lettuce.

Ahh, not very sure. I remember getting my piggies, meeting someone with the same experience who has 3 kids, warned us not to feed lettuce. You could also easily get mixed up with the lettuce if you take off the cover...

 

[Beatrix187]

Ahh, not very sure. I remember getting my piggies, meeting someone with the same experience who has 3 kids, warned us not to feed lettuce. You could also easily get mixed up with the lettuce if you take off the cover...

Well, mine came in a bag. I think you should add lettuce into thier diet. Its a staple for me. And we just never buy iceburg lettuce anymore. (even though its tastier......) because we have a lot of romaine. And it is quite easy to grow in the summer, so then it would not be confusing.

 

[Spritzysmomma]

[h=2]Re: My piggies are so weird![/h]

I would really like to rescue guinea pigs. I cleaned out my giant closet to make room for a 2x4 c&c three level cage. The last level will be 2x1. The two boys will be on the first level, and the three girls will be on the first and second level. I plan on using fleece bedding, high quality horse hay, Oxbow alfalfa pellets for the young piggies, KMS pellets for the adults. Please recommend websites, food, toys, ect. (this would be my first time getting piggies)​

 

[Beatrix187]

Re: My piggies are so weird!

I would really like to rescue guinea pigs. I cleaned out my giant closet to make room for a 2x4 c&c three level cage. The last level will be 2x1. The two boys will be on the first level, and the three girls will be on the first and second level. I plan on using fleece bedding, high quality horse hay, Oxbow alfalfa pellets for the young piggies, KMS pellets for the adults. Please recommend websites, food, toys, ect. (this would be my first time getting piggies)​

Well, here are some nice sites to get chew toys from

(broken link removed)
(broken link removed)

And here are some healthy piggy treats (because most at the petstore are bad bad bad!)

https://www.bobbysbunnyboutique.com/categories/For-Your-Bunny/Treats/

(broken link removed)

(broken link removed)

And here are some fancy places to get hideys

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PeeweesPiggyPalace?section_id=11984471&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

(broken link removed)


And my favorite place to get fleece is Jo anns https://www.joann.com/ get anti pill or blizard

And you need an absorbent layer under it and I like cheap and easy U haul pads https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Protective-stuff/Furniture-Pad?id=2670





Good luck!

 

[Spritzysmomma]

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much. I already found inexpensive fleece on Amazon (broken link removed) , but everything was so helpful! @Beatrix187

 

[Morning_shadow]

I have had bad experiences with my guinea pigs and bladder stones.

Please people limit on the fruit amounts you give your piggies as they are prone to diabetes if given too much.

My two piggies eat the following:
Breakfast/Dinner: Boston Lettuce, Green Pepper, Zucchini, Cucumber, Butternut Squash. (Always with little water on top of veggies)
I do change the Zucchini with Yellow Squash every other day. Also I do give every now and then Tomato, Banana, Apple, Sweet Potato and Red Pepper.

 

[thethreepunks]

My guinea pigs, two girls and a boy, eat:
- unlimited amount of timothy hay
- a bowl full of pellets (idk the exact amount, I just fill up the bowl)
As for fruits and vegetables, they usually get one big slice of cucumber each on a daily. They are OBSESSED with cucumbers. Depending on what's laying around the house at the time, I'd give them a handful of:
-Romaine Lettuce
-tomato
-apples (they don't really like it though)
-carrots
-watermelon rind
-corn husks...
...The list seriously goes on, so it varies from day to day. Cucumber is a staple though. Also every week when I'm cleaning the cage, I let them outside to eat the grass.

 

[toffeeandfudge]

For two small piggies:
Pets at home guinea pig nuggets.
Unlimited Timothy hay.
2 leaves each of Spinach, red leaf lettuce and rocket, red batavia or any other lettuce I have except Iceberg.
A carrot cut into the size of a baby carrot or I give two or three coin size pieces cut into quarters.
One or two coin size pieces of courgette then cut into quarters.
A wheel of cucumber cut into 4 quarters.
Two green beans or grapes, half of a tomato each, few pieces of kale, all this varies.
3 or 4 slices of red pepper or green pepper.


The portion sizing might be too stingy perhaps but I am still getting used to how much to give them as I have heard things like not to give them too much of this and only this now and again etc.

 

[terpfan99]

Other than hay and pellets, just green or red leaf lettuce and baby carrots, they won't eat anything else. So far they've rejected zucchini, cilantro, tomatoes, green peppers, and celery.