First question! Food related

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Shuvvy

Shuvvy

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Hi all. I'm getting my first ever GP's in a week or so drool I can see myself spending a lot of time on this forum!

I have a quick question about food introduction. I am getting my guineas from a local pet shop. Should I ask them what food they use, use that first and slowly introduce the food I have bought already. Or is it ok to go straight to the new stuff?
 
If you already have food on hand and it is healthy for them I wouldn't worry about what food the pet shop is feeding them. From what I have seen most pet shops tend to use the most cost-effective (for them) food they can get, not the healthiest. They don't plan on having the piggies around for long so don't seem to worry too much about what they feed the piggies.
 
Do you have a guinea pig rescue place near? I have found that rescue pigs are better than pet shop bought ones as pairs of boys are properly bonded, girls are definately not pregnant and you will get better advice and back up through their entire lives.
Please at least think about rescuing and if you have a rescue near you, try giving them a call. I'm not allowed to go to rescues anymore :( (not until I get a bigger house lol)
 
Our local pet store is very good. They're an old family run business that take really good care of their animals. They do take rescues aswell so I guess they're a sort of rescue centre :)
 
Hi, Welcome to the forum. bet you are very excited about getting piggies!

Here is a link to the Guinea Pig Shopping List http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42
Hay should be unlimited and available at all times as this makes up 80-85% of their diet, Fresh Veggies morning and evening and some pellets (Our girls have Wagg Optimum and our lone piggie has Burgess excel) Here's a link to a factsheet from the guineapighelpline ran by a Laura former member on here it details diet basics http://guineapighelpline.com/DietBasicFactsheet.pdf

Look forward to hearing more about your piggies when you get them and maybe see some pigtures of them!
 
sport_billy said:
Hi, Welcome to the forum. bet you are very excited about getting piggies!

Here is a link to the Guinea Pig Shopping List http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42
Hay should be unlimited and available at all times as this makes up 80-85% of their diet, Fresh Veggies morning and evening and some pellets (Our girls have Wagg Optimum and our lone piggie has Burgess excel) Here's a link to a factsheet from the guineapighelpline ran by a Laura former member on here it details diet basics http://guineapighelpline.com/DietBasicFactsheet.pdf

Look forward to hearing more about your piggies when you get them and maybe see some pigtures of them!
Click to expand...

Yea the quantities and everything I've got figured out. Its more whether or not its ok to switch straight to the food I have.
I'll definitely be putting pics up!
 
Shuvvy said:
Yea the quantities and everything I've got figured out. Its more whether or not its ok to switch straight to the food I have.
I'll definitely be putting pics up!
Click to expand...

I'd probably mix your new food in with their old food as a transition, thats how we've switched brands before.
 
Enquire whether your piggies have been fed veg - most pet shops won't and you will have to introduce veg slowly, one new veg at a time, or risk an upset tummy. The same goes for fresh rich grass.
 
I gradually weaned my piggies onto the diet I wanted for them. They were still very young and I didn't want to risk any tummy upsets. And I also introduced veggies slowly because they'd only ever had carrots. It worked well for my piggies.....:))
 
Personally i'd ask them what they feed as they're going to be stressed moving home so reducing the amount of sudden changes is best.
What i did was get the food i wanted to put them on and the food they were on, put the food i wanted them on in the bottom of the tub and their current food in the top of the tub so it all gradually mixed with each other and they actually changed food without having to worry about which measurements of each to feed them :)
 
Thanks everyone for your replies :D

I'm sure now that I'll wean them onto the new food
 
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