Feeding Questions x 6386373!

[MrsFB]

Hi All,

Picking up little piggies next week hopefully

Can I have some advice

Young guinea pigs...Need more calcium? Specific pellets? I’ve ordered Selective Naturals Grain Free but now wondering if I should have ordered something else. Can I add something high calcium to their diet until 6 months old?

Haybox Timothy Hay? How much will 2 piggies get through each week?

Glass or plastic water bottles?

Hay rack/bag for nicer hay to eat and then cheaper hay for bedding?

I feel like there should be some sort of antenatal/NCT type group for soon to be Guinea Pig Mums

Thanks everyone

 

[Piggies&buns]

If you feed according it the guides on this site, feed one tablespoon of pellets (they don’t need specific young piggy pellets), and a mostly hay based diet, then they be getting what they need. You don’t need to worry about adding high calcium foods (in fact you shouldn’t). Which pellets is such an interesting subject - I feed the ss grain free but am moving to haybox own pellets with my next hay delivery. I did feed burgess when I first got the boys home.

For hay, I use haybox and I order 5kg of Timothy and 10-15kg of meadow per month (this is between my two piggies and rabbit, but the piggies definitely get through more than the bunny does!). Mine use meadow as bedding and eating and the Timothy just as eating. The meadow from haybox is so nice at the moment that they are favouring eating the meadow over the Timothy!
I don’t use hayracks. I just put piles of hay on the floor. They love running through it, sleeping in it etc.

Glass or plastic bottles - well, the choice is yours really. I use plastic but I hear people say the glass are better for stopping algae, longer spouts etc. I don’t have any problems with the plastic though, piggies manage find and they fe cleaned daily with soapy water with some rice added and shaken inside it (keeps it clean in there!)

 

[PigglePuggle]

Hi and welcome!

Young piggies with be fine on the selective grain free pellets, these may be lower calcium than some other pellets but they still contain a LOT of calcium- 4x as much as high calcium veggies like spinach! So your piggies will be fine with them, pellets make up such a small part of the diet.

Timothy hay is great for eating and very good for the teeth, but it is too short and spiky to sleep in or play in, so most of us use meadow hay in large amounts as general all purpose hay to put everywhere. I dont use any hayracks, we have a big hay floor area, then also some smaller hay trays (we use rosewood brand corner rabbit litter trays) in the fleecy cage area too.

I have the Classic brand of plastic water bottles, never had any problem with them, I wash them out thoroughly with very hot soapy water twice a week and clean the spout with a cotton bud when needed- though some people swear by glass bottles too!

Its great you are researching and preparing so well, but there are many different ways of getting things right for your piggies, once you get them home you will soon find out what works best for you and for them

 

[Flutterby]