Daily diet. (8 months old piggies).

Panchito & Fisgon's Dad.

Panchito & Fisgon's Dad.

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello everyone,

I've been researching a lot lately, and I've found that probably the diet I have my babies on now is probably a bit wrong. I already know the amount of veggies, hay and pellets they should have on the daily basis but, I'm a bit confused on the veggies I should give them. Currently, I give them 25g of veggies each twice a day for a total of 50g each. I would love someone could advise me on what to keep and what to remove of their veggies.

- Batavia Lettuce every single day (about 20-30g),

-Chard leaves and stem every other day (about 10-20g each) the thing with chard is that I've read that it is high in oxalate acids which can cause them stones, so I've been thinking on removing this green of their diet

-Coriander every 2 days (about 10g)

-Parsley every other day (about 15g each day) but I think I should also remove it from their diet because it is high in calcium.

- Green, Yellow and Red pepper (I usually vary them between days. About 10 - 20g daily).

In conclusion, I was thinking of removing Chard and Parsley of their diet and maybe adding zucchini or red Batavia lettuce for daily basis. I would love if you could also post your daily diets, so I can copy them.

Here is a pic of my babies, thanks beforehand to anyone who can help!
 

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Any lettuce except iceberg is fine.
High calcium veg needs to be kept limited to one small amount of one type once per week only.

The daily veg for my boys is one little gem lettuce leaf each, a few sprigs of coriander, a chunk of cucumber and a chunk of bell pepper. They will then get any other veggies in small and limited amounts depending on what I have in the fridge. I dont weigh anything - I'm not that precise with it - I just have a bowl which i just fill with the veggies and that's it! (it amounts to around a two cup bowl - one cup of veg per pig per day). I do ensure they get mostly leafy veg and herbs.
If I do give high calcium items, I tend to just give a small amount of parsley for a treat occasionally.

Unlimited hay and just one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day. Below is the diet guide which shows a sample plate of the rough amount they can have in a day along with the second guide which shows a list of all the safe and unsafe veg they can eat.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Your pigs are lovely. Every morning my two boys get lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, coriander, green beans. Basically everything else they can eat and love is either high in calcium or sugar. 🙁. So I don’t give much of anything else because I don’t want to risk bladder stones.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Any lettuce except iceberg is fine.
High calcium veg needs to be kept limited to one small amount of one type once per week only.

The daily veg for my boys is one little gem lettuce leaf each, a few sprigs of coriander, a chunk of cucumber and a chunk of bell pepper. They will then get any other veggies in small and limited amounts depending on what I have in the fridge. I dont weigh anything - I'm not that precise with it - I just have a bowl which i just fill with the veggies and that's it! (it amounts to around a two cup bowl - one cup of veg per pig per day). I do ensure they get mostly leafy veg and herbs.
If I do give high calcium items, I tend to just give a small amount of parsley for a treat occasionally.

Unlimited hay and just one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day. Below is the diet guide which shows a sample plate of the rough amount they can have in a day along with the second guide which shows a list of all the safe and unsafe veg they can eat.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
Click to expand...

So I should remove parsley and use it as a treat only? And how about chard?
 
Panchito & Fisgon's Dad. said:
So I should remove parsley and use it as a treat only? And how about chard?
Click to expand...

That's what I do anyway. Parsley is not suitable to fed any more than once per week.
I do believe chard is fairly high in calcium and oxalates so should be fed sparingly.
Dont forget you cant totally, nor should you try to, eliminate calcium from the diet but ensuring drinking water is filtered (if you have hard water) and pellets are kept limited goes a long way to keeping calcium levels managed. Then ensuring any high calcium veg is only fed sparingly in addition.
 
Piggies&buns said:
That's what I do anyway. Parsley is not suitable to fed any more than once per week.
I do believe chard is fairly high in calcium and oxalates so should be fed sparingly.
Dont forget you cant totally, nor should you try to, eliminate calcium from the diet but ensuring drinking water is filtered (if you have hard water) and pellets are kept limited goes a long way to keeping calcium levels managed. Then ensuring any high calcium veg is only fed sparingly in addition.
Click to expand...
Yes, obviously calcium will be a must in their diet, but in not high levels. I will remove parsley and chard from their diet and fed them lettuce, pepper and cilantro every day. Also, do you think zucchini is viable to be fed daily?
 
As with humans, piggies do best with a varied but balanced diet. Instead of aiming to feed the same few veg daily, try draw up a weekly menu and meal plan aiming for a longer term balance.
My piggies for example usually do get pepper daily- very good for the vit C- and often a chunk of cucumber daily, but other veg especially leafy things vary through the week. For example, this week they will get little gem lettuce 2 days, red cos lettuce 2 days, I have some high calcium broccolli too, coriander 2 days... another week they may get parsley unstead of broccolli. Or a salad leaf mix containing a bit of spinach or kale. And if the leaf selection for the week is trending to being a bit high calcium then I cut out the pellets on high calcium veg days- even low calcium pellets contain 4x as much calcium as high calcium veg.
There is no magic formula to repeat every single day, that would be boring and a bit limiting nutritionally, just as we could not get a balanced diet eating exactly the same every day- some days you may indulge in extra calories, or things that are higher in protein, then cut back a bit the next day to mostly lettuce, etc.
 
PigglePuggle said:
As with humans, piggies do best with a varied but balanced diet. Instead of aiming to feed the same few veg daily, try draw up a weekly menu and meal plan aiming for a longer term balance.
My piggies for example usually do get pepper daily- very good for the vit C- and often a chunk of cucumber daily, but other veg especially leafy things vary through the week. For example, this week they will get little gem lettuce 2 days, red cos lettuce 2 days, I have some high calcium broccolli too, coriander 2 days... another week they may get parsley unstead of broccolli. Or a salad leaf mix containing a bit of spinach or kale. And if the leaf selection for the week is trending to being a bit high calcium then I cut out the pellets on high calcium veg days- even low calcium pellets contain 4x as much calcium as high calcium veg.
There is no magic formula to repeat every single day, that would be boring and a bit limiting nutritionally, just as we could not get a balanced diet eating exactly the same every day- some days you may indulge in extra calories, or things that are higher in protein, then cut back a bit the next day to mostly lettuce, etc.
Click to expand...

I was thinking on mixing Green and Red Batavia lettuce between days and coriander, giving them green, red, and yellow pepper, zuchini and cocumber. Does that sound right for you? I avoid veggies that could cause bloat like cabbages or broccoli because one of my peggies is pretty sensible to them.
 
Yes that sounds like a plan, always good to be cautious with the bloaty vag if you have a bloat-prone piggy. All of us have our own ways of feeding our piggies and what works best for us, with experience you will find what works best for you and your piggy family- many of us base our piggy meal plans partly around our own likes and dislikes, what veg we might buy for ourselves but share with the piggies, what is available seasonally or more affordably where we live.
So as long as they get plenty unlimited good quality hay that makes up 80-90% of the piggy diet, and as long as there are some high vit C veggies and herbs fed daily, its all quite flexible- you will work out what works best for your piggies and you over time, just avoid overloading on high calcium veg or pellets :)
 
So after researching a lot and reading guinea lynx veggies chart, I decided to give them this diet:

Piggies diet:

Vegetables:

- 25g each twice a day.
- Allowed vegetables are: Green and red curly lettuce, red, green and yellow bell pepper, cucumber, cilantro and celery (Leaf and stem).

Monday:
- Morning:
20g lettuce mix, 20g red bell pepper and 10g cilantro.

- Afternoon:
20g lettuce mix, 10g cucumber, 10g red bell pepper, 10g cilantro.

Tuesday:

- Morning:
20g lettuce mix, 10g celery, 20g yellow bell pepper.

- Afternoon:
20g lettuce mix, 10g celery, 10g green bell pepper.

Wednesday:

- Morning:
30g lettuce mix, 10g yellow bell pepper, 10g red bell pepper.

- Afternoon:
20g lettuce mix, 20g cucumber and 10g red bell pepper.

Thursday:

- Morning.
30g lettuce mix, 10g celery and 10g yellow bell pepper.

-Evening:
20g lettuce mix, 15g celery and 15g yellow bell pepper.

Friday:

- Morning:
20g lettuce mix, 20g cucumber, 10g green bell pepper.

- Afternoon:
20g lettuce mix, 10g celery, 10g green bell pepper, 10g red bell pepper.

Saturday:

- Morning:
20g lettuce mix, 10g cilantro, 20g red bell pepper.

- Afternoon:

20g lettuce mix, 10g cilantro, 10g green bell pepper, 10g yellow bell pepper.

Sunday:

- Morning:
20g lettuce mix, 10g cucumber, 10g green bell pepper and 10g yellow bell pepper.

- Afternoon:
20g lettuce mix, 20g cucumber and 10g red bell pepper.


Pellets:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday (1 tablespoon each) due to high calcium content.



Alfalfa nuggets (Treats):

1 each on Wednesdays and Sundays when their ears and paws get checked.


I would love if you could tell me if it's right or not to give them this diet.
 
I was giving my two celery everyday but was told it’s not good to give often! So they don’t get that now.

Also you will find that if you buy something they can only have once a week it will go off. 🙁. Which is why I give them the same veg everyday so I don’t throw away a lot. 😃
 
It’s best to not overthink it! Give them roughly one cup/50g each per day of a good variety and that will be fine.

Personally, and I appreciate it is onoy down as being a treat, but I would not give the alfalfa nuggets at all - alfalfa Is not something you want in their diet given it’s not a grass hay and is high in calcium and calories.
 
weepweeps said:
I was giving my two celery everyday but was told it’s not good to give often! So they don’t get that now.

Also you will find that if you buy something they can only have once a week it will go off. 🙁. Which is why I give them the same veg everyday so I don’t throw away a lot. 😃
Click to expand...
That was happening to us, I tend to give them a lot of variety but had to throw it away because we don't eat that much of salad at home, so I will buy for them what I usually eat at home (bell peppers, lettuce and cucumber). I will stick to this diet for now and will ask my vet if it's ok. As for celery, I also read that you should give them a maximum of 3 times per week because of the high content of oxalate acids which can cause stones (it's a bit less frequent than the stones caused by calcium, but can happen) so I will stick to 2 - 3 times per week.
 
My two love their Timothy hay. What types can you get in Columbia?
 
weepweeps said:
My two love their Timothy hay. What types can you get in Columbia?
Click to expand...
I can get oat hay (but has way too many calories) I buy a small amount of it because they love it, Kikuyu (It's a tropical type of grass) but they don't really like it, Alfalfa hay (they love it, but it's only used for pregnant piggies or babies under 6 months), and pangola hay (it's and African type of grass) which is the one I usually buy.
 
Mine don’t like oat hay! It seems you are giving them the best that’s available 👍🏻😃.
 
Panchito & Fisgon's Dad. said:
I can get oat hay (but has way too many calories) I buy a small amount of it because they love it, Kikuyu (It's a tropical type of grass) but they don't really like it, Alfalfa hay (they love it, but it's only used for pregnant piggies or babies under 6 months), and pangola hay (it's and African type of grass) which is the one I usually buy.
Click to expand...

As long as they they are given a grass hay, then it’s fine. Oat hay is fine for them to have

Alfalfa is not suitable for guinea pigs at all As it isn’t a grass hay.
A very small amount can be given when piggies are pregnant or for babies below 3 weeks of age (not 6 months as you mention) but even then it should never be their main hay. After they are 3 weeks old, it should not be given to otherwise healthy piggies.

A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)
 
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