Food confusion!

[Daisypig]

Hi, when I picked up my guinea pigs at the weekend the previous owner gave me two big bags of food and told me it was the best food ever. It is a muesli type called golden guinea? Having looked on here and seen problems with muesli I want to change to nuggets but need advice on which ones and how to wean them off the muesli.
Nothing to do with food, but she also said not to clean them out more than once a week. She said it helped with their immunities and that they sometimes need to eat their poo.
Just a bit confused generally.
Any advice greatly received!

 

[mikulinek]

Hi, when I picked up my guinea pigs at the weekend the previous owner gave me two big bags of food and told me it was the best food ever. It is a muesli type called golden guinea? Having looked on here and seen problems with muesli I want to change to nuggets but need advice on which ones and how to wean them off the muesli.
Nothing to do with food, but she also said not to clean them out more than once a week. She said it helped with their immunities and that they sometimes need to eat their poo.
Just a bit confused generally.
Any advice greatly received!

I'm no expert on immune systems but I'm not sure that's the best advice. I would certainly be skeptical givne the advice on meusli - meusli is not great because it can lead to selective eating (the piggy eats their favourite bits and leaves the rest).

If you do want to use dry food, it should not be more than 10% of their diet (hay is 80%).

I don't know what you can/can't get in the US but I would certainly recommned Supreme Science Selective pellets.

http://www.supremepetfoods.com/product/science-selective-guinea-pig/

Hope this is helpful x

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! You are right not be impressed by your poor piggies' previous owner!

There are several decent pellet brands - Burgess, Wagg Optimum/now rebranded Harrisons, Science Selective. You can either shift them over gradually or go cold turkey if the the first method doesn't work.

Guinea pigs need to eat a special kind of poos that contain the vitamin C; they are often called "vitapoos" on the forums. Unlike rabbits, guinea pigs can't produce their own vitamin C and so need to be very careful about not losing any; eating pellets and at least one high vitamin C veg in their daily veg mix is important (a slice of pepper of any colour, broccoli (all parts), fresh parsley, coriander, dill, basil, mint - please vary). Please do not add anything to the water; you can't control the intake and will mainly promote the growth of algae.

A good diet consists of unlimited hay (up to 80% of the food intake), about 1 cupful/50g of mixed veg per piggy per day (in as many servings as you like). Pellets: unlimited until the weekly is growth rate is slowing down then very gradually reduced to the handful or half that mature guinea pigs over 12-15 months old need. Fresh water daily.
Here is a list of what veg and fruit they can eat. Please feed fruit only about twice weekly.http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42

Please weigh your piggies weekly; it is a good way to catch health problems early on. It would probably not be a bad idea to have your piggies given a MOT by a preferably piggy savvy (i.e. exotics) vet as they have not been living in the best of conditions.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html

 

[piggyfan]

Once a week is not enough to clean them out. I do mine every three days. They eat the poop they need once it comes out so you do not have to worry about throwing it away.

 

[mikulinek]

Agree - it's a good idea to a spot clean everyday in truth. Not much, just picking up excess hay and cleaning out the poops. I do it by hand with a good pair of rubber gloves. It only takes 5 minutes each day and helps keep the pace clean. I do a "big clean" (washing out the cage and replacing the bedding) every week but only because I spot clean everyday