Diet help please.

[obsessedwithanimals]

So I got my new guinea pigs who are just over 6 wks old 2-3 days ago from a very good pet shop that's local to me. One of the members of staff is on the rabbits united forum and may be on this one. Excellent advice. Back up advice and support offered. Pigs from small breeder up the road. They will clip your pigs nails for a small donation towards an animal charity and they even recommend gorgeous guineas products to bath your pig with every once in a while! Loads of hay and they feed the piggies pellets and so on. Don't want to be too high on pet shops but this small family run one is suberb compared to the **** pah. The piggies I got are gorgeous and the member of staff spent ages fussing over them and making sure they had enough hay and some readigrass to take home with them. I'm not 100 % sure about their names yet and am still brainstorming but I'm considering Pepper n Peach cause the two girls well Pepper is silver agouti and looks a bit like pepper and Peach has a peachy colour on her cheek. x) Anyway down to the diet thing I was supposed to type this thread on. They are on Devonshire Meadow Hay which seems really good. Smells delicious and has long pieces. They have their water of course and Harringtons guinea pig food which they were fed on in the first place. As far as veggies go the lady in the pet shop told me they had had a bit of everything tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, cabbage etc. and when I asked if they had had any herbs or pepper she said: "no but it'll be fine to give them that. have you be reading up on them alot then?". i gave thm some carrot on the first night home, then some cucumber yesterday and some today (which they took out of my hand bless them!) i wanted to give them some bell pepper today but we haven't got the car atm. i was wondering if it would be okay to give them some tomato,courgette or more cucumber tonight? because i don;t think they had enough veggies today cause they only had a couple of slices of cucumber. I wouldn't give them much courgette as they may not have had it before. How much tomato can I give if it's okay to feed them tomato? I'm stuck with how much veg I should feed them and to top it all of there urine stained white on the fleece and after doing some research and discovering why I found it I felt it and it felt smooth but when I cleaned the litter tray under the newspaer there was like these little white grains stuck to the plastic. Advice please?

ETA: Do they need alfalfa? Thanks for reading my long winded post.

 

[Shellza]

It should be fine to give them some more cucumber, just don't overdo it as it can cause diarrhoea, a couple of slices should be fine though. Tomato is fine, but can cause sores round the mouth if fed too much so maybe just give them a couple of slices (or 1-2 cherry toms) as with the courgette. I've never tried courgette with mine as I don't like it myself, so I don't know their reaction to it.

Alfalfa hay won't do them any harm. It will help with growth as it has a nice lot of calcium and protein in it, but it's not a necessity.

 

[bubble&squeak4ever]

Here's a good thread on what you can feed them: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42 When I give my 2 tomatoes I usually scrape out the seeds in the middle. I dunno whether this is really necessary but I find it causes less mess (and not so much of a red chin!). Veggies should be fed daily but fruit not too often as some fruits can cause sores round the mouth and there quite sugary... hope this helps!

 

[lynda1]

The urine staining white on the fleece is the excess calcium coming out of their system, you can feed alphalfa to them as they are growing but should only be fed a little at a time mixed with plenty of hay. Dont feed too many veggies which are high in calcium (peppers, brocholli etc) while feeding alphalfa as it can cause problems with their bladder.
Hope to see more of your piggies, Ive found that this forum is great for all the info you need.

 

[sgprescue2]

So I got my new guinea pigs who are just over 6 wks old 2-3 days ago from a very good pet shop that's local to me. One of the members of staff is on the rabbits united forum and may be on this one. Excellent advice. Back up advice and support offered. Pigs from small breeder up the road. They will clip your pigs nails for a small donation towards an animal charity and they even recommend gorgeous guineas products to bath your pig with every once in a while! Loads of hay and they feed the piggies pellets and so on. Don't want to be too high on pet shops but this small family run one is suberb compared to the **** pah. The piggies I got are gorgeous and the member of staff spent ages fussing over them and making sure they had enough hay and some readigrass to take home with them. I'm not 100 % sure about their names yet and am still brainstorming but I'm considering Pepper n Peach cause the two girls well Pepper is silver agouti and looks a bit like pepper and Peach has a peachy colour on her cheek. x) Anyway down to the diet thing I was supposed to type this thread on. They are on Devonshire Meadow Hay which seems really good. Smells delicious and has long pieces. They have their water of course and Harringtons guinea pig food which they were fed on in the first place. As far as veggies go the lady in the pet shop told me they had had a bit of everything tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, cabbage etc. and when I asked if they had had any herbs or pepper she said: "no but it'll be fine to give them that. have you be reading up on them alot then?". i gave thm some carrot on the first night home, then some cucumber yesterday and some today (which they took out of my hand bless them!) i wanted to give them some bell pepper today but we haven't got the car atm. i was wondering if it would be okay to give them some tomato,courgette or more cucumber tonight? because i don;t think they had enough veggies today cause they only had a couple of slices of cucumber. I wouldn't give them much courgette as they may not have had it before. How much tomato can I give if it's okay to feed them tomato? I'm stuck with how much veg I should feed them and to top it all of there urine stained white on the fleece and after doing some research and discovering why I found it I felt it and it felt smooth but when I cleaned the litter tray under the newspaer there was like these little white grains stuck to the plastic. Advice please?

ETA: Do they need alfalfa? Thanks for reading my long winded post.

Hello again 8. Thank you for your lovely comments. I had a feeling it was you when I was chatting to you on Tuesday. I am sooooo glad you took the little silver agouti piggy. Throughout my piggy keeping lifetime I have always had a thing for silver agoutis and my last SA passed away a few months ago while I was on my hols 8.... I recently took on another rescue alpaca making my numbers up to 4 again so no room for temptation here.
As for the veg, I tend to give a lot of dark leafy greens like spring green, kale, cabbages, herbs, chard etc aswell as a small chunk of carrot and other bits and bobs like celery, cucumber, tomatoe, peppers, and whatever else I can get hold of. I always try and vary what I give them to give them a more balanced diet and not overload them with calcium rich veggies. In the summer I often go out picking weeds and grass (Church Lane in Sprowston is great for that as cars don't drive down there) and give them that instead of veg as it is a far more natural diet for them. I never give my pigs fruit because as someone has already mentioned it can give them mouth sores.
Hope you are enjoying your new piggies 8)

 

[obsessedwithanimals]

Hello again 8. Thank you for your lovely comments. I had a feeling it was you when I was chatting to you on Tuesday. I am sooooo glad you took the little silver agouti piggy. Throughout my piggy keeping lifetime I have always had a thing for silver agoutis and my last SA passed away a few months ago while I was on my hols 8.... I recently took on another rescue alpaca making my numbers up to 4 again so no room for temptation here.
As for the veg, I tend to give a lot of dark leafy greens like spring green, kale, cabbages, herbs, chard etc aswell as a small chunk of carrot and other bits and bobs like celery, cucumber, tomatoe, peppers, and whatever else I can get hold of. I always try and vary what I give them to give them a more balanced diet and not overload them with calcium rich veggies. In the summer I often go out picking weeds and grass (Church Lane in Sprowston is great for that as cars don't drive down there) and give them that instead of veg as it is a far more natural diet for them. I never give my pigs fruit because as someone has already mentioned it can give them mouth sores.
Hope you are enjoying your new piggies 8)

Aww, hello! Was wondering if you were on the forum. Thanks for your post. Sent you a PM on RU before coming on here!