Got a GP book, and it says. . . .

[Pat Shields]

For further education I bought a guinea pig book. It said all of the things that everybody here has said, until it got to the part about feeding. It said twice a day should be enough, morning and evening, and that in the wild guinea pigs regulate their feeding times.

First of all, I was under the impression that cavies as a species are in the wild, and they are, but that guinea pigs are not as they are a product of captive breeding.
Second, if I didn't keep food in with Redemption I think he'd starve. I feed him as much as he will eat, 99% of it fresh, the rest alfalfa pellets and timothy pellets and pumpkin seeds, and he is thriving. After asking about taking the food away at night, and being informed that GPs probably need to eat all the time because of their gut, I have left the food in there for him, throwing it out if there is leftover food after a significant time, but always putting more food in. This is working quite well.
Did I misinterpret by keeping food in there with him all the time?

 

[mstori]

Mine only get 1 bowl of pellets a day and 2 lots of fresh, a handful per piggie of mixed which depends on what I have bought. Eg 2 carrots with leaves, kale, rocket, celery, cabbage, greens, spinach, cucumber, apple, pear, tomatoes, strawberries, corn on the cob, grapes melon, etc being favourites, They have unlimited hay at all time though. The pellets is a complimentary food, the hay is essential and makes up the majority.

 

[emmalala]

Mine have a bowl of pellets in once a day, stays there all day. Fresh hay all the time and veggies twice a day

 

[CandyFloss]

Mine have veggies twice a day, plenty of hay all the time and there are nuggets there too if they want them.
x

 

[shazbo]

mine hav got bowl in there full of nuggets which i fill every morning i put aload of veg in morning but do find that they have a nibble at it and leave it but it is all gone in morning . and have constant hay and go on grass for runs

 

[BossHogg]

Mine get a bowl of fresh fruit and veg in the morning and a bowl of guinea brunch for evening meal. The brunch is left for them to graze and gets changed every day. Plus they get hay and time hoovering the lawn if the weather's nice.

 

[MrsM]

Pat, I wouldn't worry too much about the feeding, if your piggie is happy with what he has, plus he is growing so needs that extra bit of cals, right?

I stopped giving mine fresh veg in the morning (in an effort to put them on a diet, yeah right), so I give them pellets and hay in the morning, veg at night and hay for supper. They are happy, their coats are great (better than before with the 2x veg).

I also expect that wild cavies are much leaner than our pet piggies. After my son's party where THEY were the starsof the show, everybody commented on how BIG they are... they are huge at 1600g and 1400+g.

 

[AndreaJane]

Mine have nuggets in a bowl available all day and night, I top them up in the morning. Hay is always available. They have a small bowl of fresh stuff for breakfast, at teatime and then something before bed ( and if they leave any of that I take it out so it's not left to go frot overnight. ). If it's nice they're outside all day munching grass and if it's horrible I make sure the hay stays topped up and try and bring them something extra during the day, be it grass, plantains etc or just the odd bit of veg. There's nothing wrong with Red's diet Pat, he's a growing boy. Even experts give out conflicting info in books, that's why it's worth reading more than one, looking online, asking advice and then arriving at what works best for you and your piggie.

 

[Poppy'sMum]

They have a small bowl of fresh stuff for breakfast, at teatime and then something before bed ( and if they leave any of that I take it out so it's not left to go frot overnight.

I used to do that with mine, I always sneaked them an extra slice of cucumber before bedtime lol!

Pat you are doing everything right. The only thing I'm not sure about is giving seeds of any kind as they might choke on them? Not sure, hopefully someone will advise us about that.

I always removed any veg the next morning that they hadn't eaten, & always gave them fresh veg, washed & left out of the fridge for a while first so it wasn't too cold. Don't keep veg after 3-4 days, bin it as it may cause bloat. Buy small quantities instead.

Dry food I left in all the time, not too much as then every other day I would bin what was left & wash the bowl & put fresh pellets in.

Hope that helps, you are a champion piggie owner, no doubt about that, Red is the luckiest piggie in the world!

 

[piggyfan]

I do not think you can always go by books. It depends on the individual piggy. You are not meant to always have nuggets available for your piggies but I do and I do not care what a book tells me. I think you are doing a wonderful job of raising Red and he is a healthy little boy.

 

[Pat Shields]

Well, it is no wonder now why Redemption weighs nearly 2 pounds (0.907 kg)! I've been giving him the whole refrigerator every day! Hay, a pile of pellets of *2* different kinds, at least a cup of fresh vegetables of several different kinds, and piles and piles of sweet grass that I have acres of.

They have unlimited hay at all time though. The pellets is a complimentary food, the hay is essential and makes up the majority.

Red has unlimited hay, also, but he generally won't eat it. He did when I first got him, but I feed him so much fresh grass and timothy (still growing and green) that I suppose he sees no need for the hay. That book says 2 tbsp of pellets in the morning and 2 in the evening; he has at least one-quarter cup at all times. I'll probably cut that back.

Pat you are doing everything right. <Thank you.> The only thing I'm not sure about is giving seeds of any kind as they might choke on them?

Pumpkin seeds are quite large in the guinea pig scheme of things, and they have to nibble them and chew them away like they would a carrot slice. The kind I buy comes with a guinea pig picture on the front; I know that does not mean they are suitable, but I take it to mean that they can be considered guinea pig food. Red likes them, at any rate, and they offer as much teeth wear and roughage as hay on the outside, and on the inside there are the nutrients. I wouldn't give him a small seed that could slip past his teeth without being chewed.

I do not think you can always go by books.

Agreed. I got this for supplemental information, and as I read it I am already re-writing it in my head in accordance with what I have found to be true in just the past 2 months!

 

[Pat Shields]

Example of Red's evening repast:
Sweet grass, a big bundle about 10 inches long and 4 inches in diameter
the hay, of course
A stack of bean leaves and stalks
Sprigs of parsley
dandelion leaves
huge pile of pellets and pumpkin seeds
alfalfa pellets
timothy pellets
all pellets fortified with vitamin C and others
1 large carrot, julienne
4 long green beans, sometimes julienne
maybe a cherry
a couple of slices of corn on the cob
apple bits with the peels on
sometimes a new vegetable or fruit

All the water he can drink, plus there is plenty of water in the fruits and vegetables I give him.

I keep the grass in the cage all the time, and when I note that he has eaten it all I give him more. There is food in there all the time, and he eats nearly all of it! His droppings are dark, moist, and well formed, and there are piles of them.

It has been too hot here to allow him to graze outdoors, so he stays in his cage and eats what I give him. I have come to two conclusions, right or wrong:
Much of the published information about feeding is based on the fact that they are left in cages with nothing but pellets for days on end, and of course they will then eat other things given to them.
If they can eat acres and acres of fresh grass and hay, they won't go for the dried stuff, even though both types offer protein and roughage, because they like the sweet, juicy taste of the fresh more