Hay Guinea Pig doesn't eat hay

[Rain Shadow]

Logan has been with me a little over two weeks now and he still isn't eating hay. All he will even sniff at is the Timothy and he only eats the seed heads and ignores the rest.

Tried so far:

• Timothy/Orchard mix from feed store.
• 2nd cut Timothy from feed store
• 3rd cut Timothy from KMS
• Kayteen Timothy hay
• Bluegrass from KMS
• Oxbow Timothy

I offer it to him in a hay bag, a rack, and in several piles around the floor but he ignores them except the timothy which he sniffs through to find the seed heads and then ignores.

Other Food:

1/8th of a cup of Oxbow Timothy Pellets

Daily Veggies:

1 baby carrot

1/8th bell pepper

1 Cherry tomato OR Strawberry (I switch these up every other day for some variety)

One spring of Cilantro

I dice these all up super small (still working on tricking him into eating his bell pepper) and then fill my 1 cup measure up the rest of the way with green lettuce.

He also gets 1 Oxbow Vitamin C pill a day.



He gets his vegetables in the morning and his pellets at night and he vacuums them up in about 15 minutes and then goes back to sleep in his pigloo.


I've talked with his previous owner and she said Logan will refuse hay if he's given vegetables more then twice a week or so. He gets picky and only wants his vegetables. He pulled the same thing with her and she finally took him off vegetables and he began to eating hay no problem.

Any suggestions? I'm worried about his teeth and digestive track. He goes to the vet's next week for a checkup but I don't think its health related. I think he's just picky.

Sorry for it being so long but I know in diet cases details are important

 

[Artista]

You may have to do that because hay is the most important thing to them. You are feeding quality pellets in Oxbow, which is a great brand as long as you don't have a problem with excess calcium. I don't see why it's not ok to skip the veggies if there is no choice as long as he eats those vitamin C tabs. Maybe keep him off awhile and then reintroduce green pepper and lettuce down the road(the two that are most important of all veggies) and see if he still will ban hay.

HOw old is he? If he's less than 6 months you can keep the bowl full with pellets. 6 mo and over, 1/8 c a day. With no veggies, I'd put the bowl out 24/7 but give him 1/8 c a day if he's 6 mo or over.

Hay is the only thing that will keep his teeth ground down and keep his digestive tract moving. Does he show signs of liking Orchard vs Timothy vs Blue Grass hay? Is there one he loves if no veggies are there? My girl will down Small Pet Selects 3rd cut timothy hay like there's no tomorrow out of all the ones I've tried. She's very picky about her hay. If you ever need SPS 3rd cut sorted out from other kinds, she'll do it for you! Even 2nd cut doesn't fly!

 

[Amalee]

I personally wouldn't be giving him carrot, a cherry tomato (or a strawberry) per day. Based on what I've read, that is too much for any pig; That's a lot of sugar and too acidic, which may cause health issues like diabetes and mouth sores over a period of time. Guinea pigs should typically only be given 1 piece of fruit a week, unless otherwise specified by an experienced Exotics Veterinarian, and a lot of owners don't even give their Guinea Pigs carrots at all. Hay is the most important part of their diet and I can imagine why he may ignore it when he's being fed a lot of unnecessary foods. I would not give him any treats at all besides his pellets, hay, and Vitamin C until he touches his hay. If there is excess calcium in his urine, I suggest continuing the feeding of cilantro, which may be beneficial.

 

[bpatters]

I'd take him off veggies until he learns to eat the hay, and then start feeding them back in very small amounts. This may take a month or so. Just be sure to supplement him with vitamin C in the meantime.

However, @Amalee, my two eat carrots and tomatoes every day with no problems, and have for years. Neither carrots nor tomatoes are fruit, thus unlikely to contribute significantly to their sugar intake.

 

[Amalee]

@bpatters I was referring to baby carrots and my suggestions to remove the excess food (baby carrot and strawberry) was to only encourage the Guinea Pig to eat hay, not necessarily focused on the tomato. I apologize for not being clearer.

 

[Artista]

@bpatters I was referring to baby carrots and my suggestions to remove the excess food (baby carrot and strawberry) was to only encourage the Guinea Pig to eat hay, not necessarily focused on the tomato. I apologize for not being clearer.

Check out the chart in nutrition: 1 baby carrot per pig a day is fine as is a cherry tomato. I had to take my pig off all veggies to get her turned back on to more hay. She eats KMS pellets so I'm fine with it. She loves all veggies I give her so picking out what I think are her favs won't work. It needs to be all for it's urgent for the pig to eat hay pronto or problems can occur quick.

Also if there is excess calcium excreted in the urine, cilantro is like romaine lettuce in that it could cause excess calcium to be excreted so no cilantro for Moosh who has excess calcium issues.

 

[Amalee]

The only thing I've read about cilantro is the reduction of calcium, not the increase. On a scientific basis, there is no real connection between dietary calcium and calcium deposits in the urine. Also, @Rain Shadow never mentioned calcium being an issue in their post about Logan, it was only a suggestion in case it became an issue, and they were already feeding him cilantro prior to my suggestion. Also, tomato is a fruit! Anyway, if I'm wrong, feel free to link me to articles that I can read.

 

[pinky]

I'd limit the carrots. They're high in oxlalic acid which can bind with calcium to form stones. Oxalates can form oxalate crystals which can irritate their bladder.

 

[Artista]

The only thing I've read about cilantro is the reduction of calcium, not the increase. On a scientific basis, there is no real connection between dietary calcium and calcium deposits in the urine. Also, @Rain Shadow never mentioned calcium being an issue in their post about Logan, it was only a suggestion in case it became an issue, and they were already feeding him cilantro prior to my suggestion. Also, tomato is a fruit! Anyway, if I'm wrong, feel free to link me to articles that I can read.

That's not what @bpatters said. Romaine doesn't have more calcium than other lettuces. There's just something about it that causes excess calcium to be secreted. Same with cilantro. I would love it to be true that I can give cilantro every day to Mooshy but that's what happens in her.

 

[Amalee]

That's not what @bpatters said. Romaine doesn't have more calcium than other lettuces. There's just something about it that causes excess calcium to be secreted. Same with cilantro. I would love it to be true that I can give cilantro every day to Mooshy but that's what happens in her.

If there is no scientific connection between dietary calcium and excess calcium compounds in the urine, why is the forum convinced that calcium compounds in the urine = too much calcium? If you are aware that your Guinea Pig is not being given too much calcium to begin with, and they are not being fed any excess calcium outside of hay and bell pepper, perhaps it's deserving of a vet visit instead of a forum visit? As calcium wasn't even discussed in the original post. If it has been established that calcium compounds found in the urine are in fact connected to stones, and not in fact excess dietary calcium, I would like to read about that. I am still under the impression that cilantro reduces dietary calcium yet increases calcium compounds found in the urine. Is that not true and where can I find information on that?

 

[Rain Shadow]

*peeks in* Okay....this has turned out interesting.

Logan does not have calcium deposits unless feed romaine lettuce. I had him on Romaine lettuce our first week with him and noticed calcium but I took him off of romaine and switched to green leaf and he's had normal pee.

He hasn't had anything but 1/8th of a bell pepper since yesterday since I needed something a little wet to crush his Vitamin C into. He doesn't like the Oxbow for some reason and will only eat it crushed in his veggis. And since he isn't a big bell pepper fan I decided it was the best to use for this.

He has resorted to sniffing at his Timothy and has eaten all the seed heads from it and is currently dozing. Other then that he hasn't touched his hay.

How long should I try this before becoming concerned if he doesn't eat the hay?

 

[bpatters]

Actually, @Amalee, there is a connection between dietary and urinary calcium. If the calcium in the urine doesn't come from what the pig eats, it would have to come from the skeleton and teeth -- it doesn't just appear by magic.

Calcium metabolism in pigs is not well understood. Guinea pigs are of interest as research animals mainly as vehicles for human drugs. But several factors have been identified, and you can google them up at your leisure. Genetics is one -- some pigs are prone to stones and will form them even when eating as low a calcium diet as possible. Some will form many stones on an almost continuous basis -- one poster on another forum I read just had to have her pig put down because she'd formed nearly a dozen new stones about three weeks after she'd had several large ones removed.

Diet is another. I have one pig that formed stones on a relatively low calcium diet. After her surgery, I reduced the calcium even further, to the point that I seldom see any white dried urine spots in the cage. I took her off pellets. About 14 months later, I had them both in to the vet and asked for x-rays to see if either had any stones. Neither one did.

For about three years, I kept an informal tally of stone pigs and whether or not they had left white dried urine spots. Of more than 150 pigs, ONE had shown no signs of urinary calcium when she starting showing signs of a stone. But the owner had only had her about three weeks, and all her pigs were on a VERY low calcium diet, so it's possible that pig's stone developed before this owner ever got her.

Neither cilantro nor romaine is particularly high in calcium compared to other lettuces. But it is undoubtedly true that some pigs will excrete excess urinary calcium when fed those two things. Since urinary calcium is definitely a factor in the formation of urinary tract stones, it seems reasonable to me that less calcium means less likelihood of stone formation.

If you're interested in this topic, I'd certainly encourage you to research it. There are many other additional factors, like the amount of salt and magnesium in the diet, the acidity/alkalinity of the urine, etc. You have to beware of extrapolating the results of human research to guinea pig, because human urine is normally acidic, and herbivore urine is normally alkaline. That makes a HUGE difference in what stays dissolved in the urine and what precipitates out.

As far as supplying you with articles to read, Google is your friend.

 

[prettynyguen]

do you have more than one guinea pig? sometimes one of my guineas won't eat something until they see the other one, and then they want it, too. maybe he needs a buddy if he doesn't have one. hope it all works out.

 

[Rain Shadow]

Logan is currently alone. He is getting a buddy this weekend. I had to wait for this cutie pie to be weaned. But Logan will soon have Jake to hopefully encourage him to eat and be less skiddish.

 

[PiggleLove2013]

I would try getting a piece of "leafy" veggie that would be okay in his diet, lay it out, put hay in it, roll it up, and poke a piece of hay through it, to make a veggie-hay wrap.

 

[elfje]

Do you know if his teeth are ok? Eating hay wears them down, but if he doesn't eat any hay he might have a problem to chew it or his teeth might have grown too much.