Am I Feeding Too Much Veg?

[Cuddles With Cavies]

I'm always worried that I'm feeding my two sows too much veg. The one weighs 1100g and the other is 1200g. They get fresh food morning and night and 30g per pig per day of pellets. But they never eat their pellets.

This is today's breakfast:

2 x leaves of Cos lettuce.
3 x 1cm slices of cucumber
Half of a carrot
Half a celery stick



They get roughly the same at night (they don't get celery every day and I swap the carrot or cucumber for either pepper or cherry tomato).

Is this too much though? Should I just feed them fresh in the morning and pellets in the evening? Would that encourage them to eat their pellets?

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Really the main thing is if they're eating lots of hay

Carrots shouldn't be too regular as they're quite high in sugar. Peppers are great and I feed those almost every day.

You could reduce it a little if they get that portion twice a day, I personally just feed once a day (in the evening) but I think that's a personal preference

 

[Cuddles With Cavies]

Really the main thing is if they're eating lots of hay

Carrots shouldn't be too regular as they're quite high in sugar. Peppers are great and I feed those almost every day.

You could reduce it a little if they get that portion twice a day, I personally just feed once a day (in the evening) but I think that's a personal preference

Thank you they do get lots of hay. I might look at just feeding them in the mornings or evening then and doing pellets at the other time

 

[Wiebke]

I'm always worried that I'm feeding my two sows too much veg. The one weighs 1100g and the other is 1200g. They get fresh food morning and night and 30g per pig per day of pellets. But they never eat their pellets.

This is today's breakfast:

2 x leaves of Cos lettuce.
3 x 1cm slices of cucumber
Half of a carrot
Half a celery stick

View attachment 63960

They get roughly the same at night (they don't get celery every day and I swap the carrot or cucumber for either pepper or cherry tomato).

Is this too much though? Should I just feed them fresh in the morning and pellets in the evening? Would that encourage them to eat their pellets?

Please feed pepper every day instead of carrot, which is fattening/high in sugars and should be used only as an occasional treat. Also supplement the diet with some fresh coriander/cilantro; both pepper and coriander are good for vitamin C and other trace
elements.

We recommend about 50g of mixed veg per day (see the list in our diet guide, which also includes a sample diet) and don't overdo pellets (about 10-20g half to one handful of pellets is enough per adult piggy per day).

Your piggies are good and normal size.

Recommendations For A Balanced General Guinea Pig Diet
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight

 

[eileen]

50 grams of fresh food aday for each piggie is the recommended amount,and 1 teaspoon of pellets aday for each piggie over a year old,what you have shown would probably be enough for 2 pigs for the day ,but there are no hard rules,unlimited hay ! and water.

 

[sport_billy]

Looks fine portions to me and similar in size to what the girls have. As wiebke says, switch carrot for pepper and its a great breakfast

 

[Cuddles With Cavies]

Thank you everyone. Then normally don't get carrot every day, I was just out of pepper today.