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Treats my guinea pigs dont like apple wood chew sticks

guineaapigg

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Hi, i recently ordered some apple wood chew sticks from ebay; (broken link removed)

i thought my guinea pigs would love it! but they dont :(
is there any way of making the chew sticks more pleasing towards the guinea pigs?
i've tried dipping them in the powder of my treats, but they still don't chew it on it!
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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Some pigs will chew them, and some won't. There really isn't anything you can do to "make" them like it more.

My boys have always loved toilet paper tubes. If you try them, make sure all the paper and glue is scraped off of them. You can even stuff them with hay, and push treats in the middle of the hay.
 

Kelsie

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I tried the apple wood sticks and not one of my pigs would even touch them. I've had good luck with the Oxbow Timothy Twists. They do make a mess in the cage because they chew the hay pieces and spread them all around. They really seem to like them though. I keep checking the twists and when they are almost chewed up I take them out and throw them away.
 

namida

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Mine did not touch the sticks at all when they were 2-3 months old. Now they are around 4-5 months old and they love chewing them.

You can leave it for now and try again from time to time - maybe one day they will change their mind.
 

SSLee

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My piggies also did not care for the apple sticks and have always ignored them.

Their favorite treats are the Exotic Nutrition (EN) brand's apple & oat puff sticks. If you decide to try those, go to Chewy.com instead of Exotic Nutrition's own site as their customer service is terrible. The piggies also periodically chew the Timothy Hay twists that [MENTION=17564]Kelsie[/MENTION] mentioned.
 

LittleSqueakers

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I've never had a pig who would chew on a stick. However, Casper loves to chew the bark off the pine wood blocks that I put in from time to time.
 

bpatters

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@LittleSqueakers, I wouldn't given them anything with pine bark on it. It contains a lot of the phenols that are dangerous for pigs.

They can, however, have pine cones if you bake them first. I always clipped the points off before I gave them to the pigs.
 

LittleSqueakers

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@bpatters Thanks for letting me know! I had kinda wondered about that, but the wood blocks are small and the boys already chewed them bald a long time ago. I won't give them any more.
 

ItsaZoo

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I cut apple sticks from our apple tree for my guinea pig. She takes the bark off but leaves the rest. However, it is fun to make kabobs from the sticks. I spear cucumber slices, green pepper, and pieces of lettuce leaf on the sticks, and then use corn husk strips to tie pieces of carrot.
 
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