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Amount Of Veggies For Babies?

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Pigaroo

Pigaroo

Junior Guinea Pig
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I have my 3 new girls, and I'm not quite sure how many veggies per day to give them? I've read about a cup per adult piggie per day, but what might you recommend for little ones?

Two are approximately 6 weeks old, and one is approximately 8 weeks old.
 
When we had Widget from 3 weeks old we were feeding her tiny amounts of veg. Tagging in @Wiebke for a guideline

Unlimited pellets and hay (obviously) for baby piggies.
 
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Oo, that I'm not sure of. Could I weigh them on a food scale?

Sorry I'm terribly new to this all!
 
Yes, you can. Weight them in a bowl minus the weight of the bowl to get the piggy weight in grams
 
Have they got unlimited pellets and hay? Seen them eating yet?
 
Okay, it might take a while to remember where the heck the scale is ... but I'll get back to you at some point! :)
 
Oh, they definitely have unlimited hay and pellets and have no appetite problems :)
 
Have a reply from a rescue owner @Stewybus 'I give them roughly a 1/4 to 1/3 of what adults have building up to full adult portions by 6 to 8 weeks old'

But if they haven't had veg you will need to build up slowy at first so a chunk of bell pepper (deseeded) one meal and say half a leaf of gem lettuce the next. Bell pepper is a great veg to get them into as it is high vit C @Wiebke will be able to advise more when she pops on.
 
Great! They've had both lettuce and green pepper before, so I'll keep doing small amounts of those and slowly introduce others.

So it sounds like once they've been properly introduced to veggies, they should get a full adult portion now that they're all 6+ weeks old?

(Sorry it took a while to reply, I've been cage cleaning! :) )
 
Pigaroo said:
p.s. Should I still weigh them?
Click to expand...
I would - it's good to do regularly to check health and wellbeing, so getting them used to it early is a good move. Plus it will help you track their growth rates. I use a bowl for my adults though as it keeps hem better in place for the scales to settle for an accurate reading, and put them in bum first as so:
photo.php
 
Oops too slow to fix the photo issue. Here's Ruan's bum demonstrating!
IMG_2916.webp

No need to do any maths as previously advised, simply zero the scales after you've put the bowl on rather than before.
 
At 6 weeks old they will be something in the region of 300g to 450g & will gain weight at about 40g to 80g a week for the next few months x
 
Thanks so much everyone!

@acapae I went ahead and weighed them. They were awfully wiggly, but I think I managed to get each one to hold still long enough to perhaps get a good ballpark weight. (Oh my gosh, and your piggy is sooo cute! And much better behaved on the scale than my nervous babies ;) )
:bronco:

Flor - 430g
Clover - 395g
Thistle - 318g

So it seems like they're in the appropriate weight range! Thank you @Stewybus for providing that information.
 
sport_billy said:
Have a reply from a rescue owner @Stewybus 'I give them roughly a 1/4 to 1/3 of what adults have building up to full adult portions by 6 to 8 weeks old'

[you]But if they haven't had veg[/you] you will need to build up slowy at first so a chunk of bell pepper (deseeded) one meal and say half a leaf of gem lettuce the next. Bell pepper is a great veg to get them into as it is high vit C @Wiebke will be able to advise more when she pops on.
Click to expand...

Hi! If you are not sure whether your Guinea pigs have had veg before, you start slowly and introduce only one new veg per meal in a small quantity to allow the guts to get used to them. Normally, Baby guts adjust to veg through their mum's milk and they then learn what is safe to eat by sniffing and snatching Food from their elders' mouths once they shift to eating solids. If you are not sure whether that has happened, then you start with a slow, gradual intro of any new veg.

Here is our detailed Food guide, which also has a sample diet. Once babies are weaned, they eat as much as an adult. However, I would recommend to always rather feed veg and pellets in 2-3 portions per day in a bowl each per piggy, which you remove as soon as the Food is eaten, so you minimise Food hogging and Messing up.
Recommendations For A Balanced General Guinea Pig Diet

Up to 80% of the Food intake should be unlimited hay for good gut and Long term health, so your piggies are not going hungry in the meantime. Veg and herbs make about 10-15% and pellets only about 5-10% of the daily Food intake.
 
@Wiebke Do you separate the piggies when you feed them pellets/veggies, or do they each tend to pick a bowl and stick with it? Sorry if this is a silly question! Thank you again :)
 
I put a bowl out each for my two but they always end up sharing a bowl.
 
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