Boys Are Really Not Bothered By Their Pellets

[crazygal330]

Hiya. So I give my three boys a generous handful of pellets in the mornings but lately they don't seem at all bothered. They eat a little of them but quite often there is still half left in the evening. They are brilliant hay eaters and get a variety of veg everyday in evenings. We have tried a couple of different pellets changing over gradually from one to another but they just generally aren't bothered! Is there likely to be anything they are missing out on in their diet that I should be aware of?
veg we rotate between include peppers, rocket, watercress, celery,broccoli, various lettuces (not iceberg) various herbs, kale, carrot greens, cauliflower leaves, and occasionally hard veg like swede, parsnips and carrots. Recently they have also been getting dandelion, plantian and a few other safe foraged weeds. They dont often get any cabbages as they don't seem to like them! If I give them spring greens they literally don't eat them!

 

[twiams]

What pellets are you feeding at the moment?

I use Burgess and my pigs didn't used to be fussed until i started giving them small portions so that they only lasted the morning. Otherwise they just picked through the day until they got bored, some pigs just prefer other things, pellets aren't really the highlight of a guineas diet, and they'll most likely always prefer veg because thats a big treat for them and tastes much better! As long as they're eating good quality veg and hay, i wouldn't be too worried about the nuggets

 

[Katherine]

Don't worry too much about it if they don't eat many pellets. It's the least important part of the diet, and some people don't feed any at all. One of my piggies doesn't like pellets very much. It's fantastic that yours eat so much hay - that's the most important thing for them, and as long as they carry on munching the hay, I don't think there's any cause for concern. Sounds as though they get a good varied diet on the veg front too.

 

[crazygal330]

Currently they are on the normal excel pellets. We have previously had them on science selective, blackcurrant excel and we tried oxbow once.

 

[Julesie]

Don't worry about it. Pellets aren't important at all and can actually be quite bad for guinea pigs. I feed mine a no pellet diet.

 

[Stewybus]

Pellets are only about 5% of a piggies diet so if they didn't get and got a little more veg they'd probably be OK. I've tried mine with all types of pellet but they've never taken to anything other than muesli which is not as good because usually piggies are very selective & only eat the bits they like. Mine get Wagg Crunch & virtually eat the lot so the argument about being selective doesn't really apply. All that's left is dusty grainy stuff in the bottom of the bowl. They also get some Burgess blackcurrant flavoured pellets which they'll maybe eat in 2 or 3 days. The most important part of their diet is unlimited fresh hay which should account for 80% of their diet. They'll eat this till the cows come home.

 

[Cookie&Cream]

Mine are the same, some days they'll eat loads of nuggets other days hardly any!

 

[nicky]

Since we got cousin Amelia she almost ignores her muesli and pellets and only eats her hay and veg and she is fine so don't worry .