Diet Plan 1.0

[Featheryfriend]

Hiya. This is my first attempt at a diet plan for Miss Penny & Future Friend. I hope it’s at least close to what she ought to be eating long-term! If anyone’s got the time to give it a look, I would be grateful.

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Unlimited Hay:

50% 2nd Cut Timothy

50% Bluegrass/Orchardgrass

I’ve been trying to get a rough estimate of monthly hay consumption for 2 guinea pigs so I can pick the right delivery interval for the KMS subscribe & save, but the numbers I’ve seen are all over the place. I’m guessing at least 10 pounds a month. If that’s not enough let me know.

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Bottled R/O Water

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Pellets: Oxbow Essentials Adults Guinea Pig Food – 1 tablespoon per pig per day?

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This is a list of some vegetables that I can get fresh at a good price pretty much year-round from the Sprouts grocery around the corner. They always have a wide variety of produce so if there is something I should add or substitute (or if I’m totally off-base) please let me know. If you’ll think this looks like a good mix for a staple weekly diet I’ll get to figuring out the portions of each item. We typically have these things in the fridge anyway. Except for the green beans, I’ve never cared for those. I wonder if they’d just sell me like, 14 green beans… lol.


Red & Green Leaf Lettuce (daily?)

Yellow, Green, Red, & Orange Bell Peppers (daily?)

Cilantro (daily?)

Cucumber (4 times a week?)

Zucchini (3 times a week?)

Kale (3 times a week?)

Green Beans (daily?)

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Treats: I was thinking a small amount of berry, carrot, or tomato once a week, and maybe once or twice a week a sprig of some kind of herb like basil, parsley, anise, dill, etc. for interest, whatever I have on hand at the time.

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Oh, and one other thought. I usually have a choice between “adult” greens and “baby” greens for most leafy things like lettuce and kale. Baby greens are usually a bit more expensive but I’m not sure which of these is the superior/inferior choice guinea pig-nutrition-wise. We often have them for the human salads. Do kindly let me know if they're safe for piggies!

 

[Siikibam]

Cucumber can be fed daily, along with the other daily ones you’ve mentioned. I wouldn’t give kale 3 times a day though, high in vitamin k. So maybe not more than twice and a very small portion.

Green beans can be fed daily as well. If you forget to give them a treat that’s ok. My piggies probably get carrot, tomato or fruit once a month. Twice if they’re lucky, or if my husband sneaks them some!

Here’s the link to the feeding guide. You can have a read through and see what else you could substitute weekly.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

PS you may find they don’t like zucchini, most piggies don’t seem to

 

[Featheryfriend]

I was thinking just a little kale but I wasn't totally sure. Thank you.

I started with the plate on that feeding guide as inspiration, but I'm not sure I've ever seen "spring greens" and the celery around here tends to be very chemical-y and bleh, I only ever put it in soup. I'll look around for the spring greens and use them instead of kale if I find them. Maybe organic celery could work.

Penny screams when she smells the zucchini, gperhaps that sentiment isn't universal, ha.

 

[Siikibam]

I feed lettuce (one leaf a day) instead of spring greens. When they have the spring greens, they prefer a big piece of leaf rather than the chopped one

You can feed other things, if you can’t find the spring greens. I think they’re also called collard greens but I’m not entirely sure.

 

[Betsy]

Mine will only eat zucchini or courgette as we call it in the UK if it's peeled and only eat cucumber if it's unpeeled! Fussy lot.

 

[Featheryfriend]

According to wikipedia, kale and collard and spring greens are all closely related plants in the same cultivar group (basically cabbagey plants that don't head, I think) but are different things. Huh. Learn something new every day I guess.

Ha, they've got you peeling their vegetables, that's adorable. So far Penny seems willing to eat literally anything. Just now I made the mistake of trying to pet her right after I'd been eating a pear. I must have smelled like pear juice because she wheeked, jumped at my hand and tried to eat my finger. Ouchie.

 

[Betsy]

Mine love a bit of pear or apple as a rare treat. Occasionally they have a cherry tomato between two of them. My Dennis is very keen on martoes.