How Much? How much calcium do my Guineas need?

[papuasqueakers]

I always make sure that my guinea pigs have lots of hay and pellets and every evening they get their salad time. I usually give them a few leaves of lettuce (romaine, green leaf or red leaf, I try to switch it up) about 3-4 parsley sprigs, small chunk of carrot, and then something else whether its a piece of kale or some apple, pepper, ect. My mom will also feed them a few extra goodies through out the day couple carrot tops or a basil leaf here and there.

I am worried that my guineas are getting too much calcium though, I recently got a black fleece for their cage and now I am seeing some sludge where they have peed, I have seen a spot here and there in the corners of the cage on the coroplast but i don't want anything bad to happen my squeakers has quite the appetite (ALWAYS EATING) and I'm concerned he's getting more calcium than papua as he doesn't eat as much.

Does anyone have an amount of calcium in MG they should get per day or can anyone give me some examples of what you feed your guineas daily?

thank you everyone!

 

[peachyteen]

I'm not sure exactly how much they need. But you could look up the veggies you feed and see which are high in calcium (I know kale and romaine and a lot of herbs have a lot) and stop feeding those ones. Watch for white pee for the next few days; if it's still white, stop all veg for a day or two, then slowly add veg back in. Start with lettuce, then if there's no white, add in pepper, and so on.

 

[scoottie]

Here you care all about vitamin c in piggies

https://www.guinealynx.info/scurvy.html

and all about the diet of a guinea pig

https://www.guinealynx.info/diet.html

 

[Nazgul]

There's a great sticky right here that can tell you which veggies to feed and how often:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...vy-Nutrition-Charts-amp-Poisonous-Plants-List

The "CA" section lists calcium amounts in mg, though I myself try to avoid feeding super-high calcium foods (i.e. 80+) as I prefer to be safe rather than sorry.

Another thing you can do if your pigs really like high-calcium treats, is pick out staples (daily foods) that are low in calcium. For example, I feed red leaf lettuce instead of romaine, green bell peppers, and baby carrots. These are all pretty low in calcium, so if I wanted to, I could give them a higher calcium food a few times a week (as directed by the chart above) without worrying too much about over-loading them.

Every pig is different, though - some do better with ONLY the lowest calcium foods, while others do just fine getting a fair amount of high-calcium stuff.