Baby guinea pig in outside run

[savvy77]

Hi everyone, I recently rescued a 12 week old guinea pig and bonded her with my older guinea pig (3 years old).
I want to start putting my pigs in their outside run for a few hours everyday so they can explore on the grass etc, I just wondered if it would be safe for my 12 week old as I’m unsure if she’s had grass before or not?
Do you guys think it would be okay for them to play in the grass or should I wait till she is a bit older? Thank you for any help

 

[Lorcan]

I wouldn't, not if you can't be 100% sure the baby has had grass before.

 

[savvy77]

I wouldn't, not if you can't be 100% sure the baby has had grass before.

thank you! i’ll wait till she’s older and start trying to put some fresh grass in her diet in small amounts

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

You don’t need to wait until she is older - she can go in the run now, you just cannot put her out for hours at a time and any grass time needs to be built up slowly.
She can have 5-10 minutes a day for a week. Then add in additional 10 minutes a day for the next week. Then add in an additional 20 minutes for a few days, then add another 30 foe another few days etc and so forth until after a few more weeks she can be out for a couple of hours.

This goes for any piggy who has been off grass in winter - so it’s the same for your 3 year old even if she had grass last year, it still needs to be built up slowly for her every single spring time

 

[savvy77]

thank you so much! this is so helpful

 

[Piggies&buns]

I meant to add in this guide for you

Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time

I start around February by handpicking and feeding grass to my piggies each day (and in hopefully increasing amounts of growth allows). By the time the weather is warmer around April they are used to grass in their diet again and can go out without me having to worry too much. I do still build their time up gradually though but I can go 15-30 mins at a time more quickly. Usually by early summer they are out for up to 14 hours a day but the weather so far really hasn’t co-operated so they’ve not been out much.