Food for beginners.

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Piggo

I'm looking to become the owner of a guinea pig and as such I've been reaserching it as much as possible so that I can look after them well.

The most confusing part I've found is the diet so I'm going to list some questions and hopefully you guys can help me out.

1) When someone says for example that they are feeding thier piggie carrot, what does that mean? Is it a full carrot? Half a carrot? The diets I've seen online are helpful in telling what kind of food to give them but not an amount of that food.

2) I went to my local pet store to have a look around and I didn't see any Timothy Hay, though they did have a few bags of Meadow hay. Is there a difference? If there is where should I be looking for the Timothy variety.

3) When it says that I should give them "unlimited" hay, does that truely mean to replace all the eaten hay? Would this not lead to them eating too much and becoming unhealthy?

That's all I can think of currently, but any other beginner advice you might be able to share would be cool too. Thanks for your help.
 
Hiya and welcome to the world piggies!

Veg wise - about a tea cup a day per guinea pig is about right - a mix of veg is good too. if you look in the food section here you will find what's good veg to give. Of course a tea cup is for a guinea used to veggies - if they aren't then start them slowly.

Timothy hay is nutritionally better than meadow and you can buy it online or pets at home or something like that.

Yes keep topping up the hay non stop - they wont get fat from hay and it's needed for wearing down their teeth too.

Other advice I would say is give them a good quality pellet food rather than a museli type from the beginning - they may be slow to take to it but once theyre there that's it - switching is harder.

OH and finally guinea pigs are so much better in pairs - they are happier and more social. Please consider 2

Enjoy the forum! Welcome :)
 
hello and welcome, i will try and answer your questions,

3) first as it is the easiest! yes "unlimited" hay means when it runs out replace it, they will only eat what they need and when they want it.

1) i feed a hand full of food morning and evening for each piggie, so 1/2 a carrot, a large lettece leaf and 4 green beans each

2) timothy hay is the best, you can get it from Pets at Home, but if you cannot get it Meadow hay will do, but try and find timothy

hope that helps
 
Thanks for the help, I do actually intend to get two though they way I wrote my first post I can see how you thought I was getting one. It's nice to see there is such a friendly community I can ask questions in.

The suggestion of a tea cup full is VERY helpful, I can sort of imagine the right amount now I think.

As for a quality pellet food, is there any paticular brand that you can suggest that is available in the UK?

Thanks again for the help.
 
Hi there, welcome the the forum.

Excel nuggets are widely available, but my girls love Pets at Home own Nuggets too.

Good luck with your research and finding you little pigs
 
Hi! Welcome to the forum!

I use meadow hay more for bedding and snuggling in, and timothy hay for eating - although my guinea pigs eat both.
If you wish to order hay online, you could do it from here for example: http://www.dustfreehay.co.uk/

For feeding, Laura has written a very good thread that should answer many of your questions: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37030

For general info, you might find this thread here useful: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=36801

You will find more info, especially for newbies, in the GP Care Reference section, but don't hesitate, if you have any questions!
 
Can anyone help with my above question please?

I don't yet have guinea pigs but want to decide on what supplies i will need and from where as i want to get them in ready and so would appreciate some help on if the hay in the link above would be OK or not.

Any help would be much appreciated :)
 
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