Diet Guinea Pigs in a Classroom

[MercyMom]

Hi all! I used to have two little piggies awhile ago and fed them by the recommendations here and had them a big cage with fleece. Fast forward a few years... I just started as an intern in a 5th-grade classroom that has two guinea pigs. This means that I don't have much of any say in what goes on. They only get pellets I believe. However, whoever took them home over Christmas break bought them hamster food so that is what they have had the past two weeks. They will get back to regular pellets, probably the cheapest. They don't get hay or veggies. They also get treat sticks which I know are not good.

So I want to bring them in some veggie treats as I know this is considered acceptable in the classroom. Is it ok to give them veggies sporadically? Say a few times a week? If they are not getting hay are there some veggies that are more helpful than others? Please no lectures, I know this is not ideal but just trying to do what I can to help. Right now I set aside a little cilantro and carrot each for tomorrow.

I used to feed mine veggies in a hanging ball, is it ok to just put in their pellet dish?

One more thing of note is that one pig hogs all the food or maybe the other is just really timid because he is usually hiding.

Thank you!
Erica

 

[Soecara]

I understand you really don't have any control over the situation, but hay is really the most important thing in their diet. If hay is a no-go is there any way you could get them some fresh grass? Just keep in mind to make sure to pick untreated grass. You would need to start off with small amounts and work your way up to feeding bigger amounts but it will do the same job hay would.

Vegetables are best fed daily, but even sporadically fed vegetables are better than no vegetables. The most important vegetable would be bell pepper, this will get them some vitamin C while also being low in calcium which is the vitamin they are most likely to be deficient in. If they are fed cheap pellets they are likely getting a lot of calcium already so do your best to avoid giving them any more calcium in the vegetables you give.

Another good option is corn husks, it will also help them in absence of hay. They can have as many corn husks as they are willing to eat in this situation. If your local supermarket has one of those bins where people can remove the husks of the corn in store you can get some free corn husks that way. The darker most outer husks however may contain pesticides if the corn was treated with it, so if you can try to avoid those most outer husks as much as possible.

I have always just put my guinea pigs vegetables either straight in their bowls or directly onto the floor of the cage. However I have always had my guinea pigs on fleece never loose bedding, so directly into their dish for wet vegetables is probably best so the bedding doesn't stick to them. Grass and corn husks, and other drier vegetables like lettuce leaves, would be fine put directly on the bedding as the bedding won't stick to them. Just make sure to remove any uneaten wet vegetables before you leave for the day, if they started decaying in the bowl they could fowl the pellets which sounds like their only food source. Leaving corn husks or some grass would be fine, corn husks usually dry out when left to sit as long as their isn't for example a water bottle dripping on them, grass will decay if left in a large pile but in a small pile in a dry environment will dry out like corn husks will.

 

[MercyMom]

Thank you for the tips! I live on some land and plenty of untreated grass, so I will def bring them some of that and some bell peppers. Hopefully, they like them! Corn is not in season right now so not a lot of corn husks around but I will keep my eye out for those.
Thank you!