Diet Question about overall Guinea Pig Diet

[stephable]

Hi!

I'm wondering about ratio of different foods for my piggies. I've read that they need about 1 cup of veg per piggy per day, plus I'm feeding small amounts of burgess guinea pig pellets. They have constant access to oat hay and 3 bowls of fresh water.

I'm just wondering if the hay changes the need for veg or pellets at all? I'm not sure on the ratios of the different parts of their diet. I feel like I'm feeding a lot of food and I don't want to over feed. Probably doesn't help that I'm an experienced rabbit owner so I'm used to feeding mostly hay and going light on everything else!

I also have 2 pregnant females (they were adopted from another person and arrived already pregnant) so I'm feeding increased fruit to keep the vitamins and calories up for them. They're housed with 2 other females so the whole group are getting the fruit rn.

I'm doing a grocery shop today and getting the greens and veg and fruit for the animals so I'll be ready to put any advice into action

Thanks for any insight! Just want to make sure I'm doing right by my girls~

 

[ItsaZoo]

They should have unlimited grass hay, usually timothy and/or orchard grass. I'm not familiar with Burgess brand pellets, but check the ingredients to see that there is no calcium carbonate on the list.

Veggies should be mainly leaf lettuce, green peppers, small amounts of carrots and cucumbers. I have a small pig, and my veg warned that I should feed less than 1 cup. Too many veggies can cause bloat, and some pigs hold out for veggies and don't eat enough hay, causing dental and digestion issues.

Weigh them weekly at the same time of day and be alert to weight changes. Many times that's the first sign of illness.

The pregnant females should have more calcium. Add sprigs of parsley or cilantro to their diet until the you ones are weaned. The young ones will need extra calcium as well until they are 6 months old.

 

[stephable]

Oat hay is the closest grass hay I can get here thats reasonably priced. Timothy is wildly expensive but my dad is planning to start growing it so I'm hopefully going to be able to get my hands on some for less!

The burgess pellets don't have calcium carbonate, they're a really highly praised brand for their rabbit pellets (which I feed my rabbits) and their guinea pig pellets have good ingredients/percentages. I think it's a british brand.

I'm planning to get some lettuce today (I avoided it in the past because I know iceberg isn't suitable and wasn't sure what was ok) and some capsicum (bell pepper) and carrot and cucumber. Also planning to get some cauliflower leaves as my local supermarket gived them to me free for my animals. Some zucchini and rocket (arugula) and wombok (chinese cabbage) are on my list as maybes.

 

[ItsaZoo]

I would be careful with cauliflower or cabbage leaves. Anything in the cabbage family can produce gas and cause digestive issues and bloat. Rocket is high in calcium, so a leaf once in a while for a treat would be okay but not every day.

If you ever have sweet corn in your area, the husks are good forage. I get them from supermarkets where they have bins for customers to clean the husks off the cobs. I remove the outside husks to reduce pesticide residue and just use the inner husks. I wash them, tear in strips, and freeze them to use in the winter.