Guinea Pigs hungrier than usual

JunePiggies19

JunePiggies19

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I always sweep out and feed my guinea pigs (two males just turned one) at 8. I then watch a bit of tv/cross stitch and check them one more time before going to bed at around ten. Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed they are eating a lot more than usual- between 8 and 10 it is not uncommon for them to empty the pellet bowl and eat most of the hay. They have not acted like this before when usually their pellets would last them til lunch time the next day and their hay a full 24 hours. I don't think they're bored because during lockdown they've been getting more floor time, lap time and toys than ever before. Is this normal for their age? Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
They should have no more than one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day so if they are lasting them for several hours, then they are likely being overfed pellets. Do not leave them with constant access to pellets as they are the least important and least healthy food for them. I give mine their one tablespoon of pellets (so they only get half a tablespoon per pig per day), and they get 30 minutes to eat them and I then remove whatever they haven’t eaten (mine are scatter fed so I don’t use bowls) to encourage them to eat plenty of hay for the rest of the day (with one cup of veg per pig per day in the evening).

Their hay should be replaced much more often than once every 24 hours. It is their main food and the only food they should have constant access to but it should be replenished a few times a day as they should be eating it all the time. Mine need their hay refilling 3-4 times per day. Veg and pellets are merely snacks making up, jointly, just 15% of the daily diet.

How have their weights been?

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
Yes as @Piggies&buns says they should only have very limited pellets, fed in a limited timeslot once or twice a day, and really they should be eating hay constantly- anytime a piggy isnt sleeping they should really be eating hay! Its very easy to overfeed pellets but you can never overfeed hay, so if they are eating it all it is fine to add an extra few handfuls of hay several times a day.
 
I feed them 50g of pellets per day as it says on the back of the packet (but if this is more than two tablespoons I will amend it). I always make sure the hay rack is full and fresh (about one hay rack a day was just an estimate to give you an idea). When I weighed them last week they were 1000g. I never top up their pellets but do give them as much hay as they want and vegetables. I only wondered if there was any reason why they were suddenly eating more than usual
 
JunePiggies19 said:
I feed them 50g of pellets per day as it says on the back of the packet (but if this is more than two tablespoons I will amend it). I always make sure the hay rack is full and fresh (about one hay rack a day was just an estimate to give you an idea). When I weighed them last week they were 1000g. I never top up their pellets but do give them as much hay as they want and vegetables. I only wondered if there was any reason why they were suddenly eating more than usual
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You can’t go by the packet of pellets - that’s for their marketing not piggies health. It says 50g, but (depending on the brand, as there will be a little variation) the recommended one tablespoon comes to roughly 5-7g of pellets (this was measured using burgess and science selective pellets which both came out to this range) - it really is a tiny amount - so you can see how far over the health recommendations the packaging actually is.
If they are more active etc, then maybe there is why, but as long as fresh hay is topped up regularly throughout the day they will fill up on it
 
Piggies&buns said:
You can’t go by the packet of pellets - that’s for their marketing not piggies health. It says 50g, but (depending on the brand, as there will be a little variation) the recommended one tablespoon comes to roughly 5-7g of pellets, so you can see how far over the health recommendations the packaging actually is.
If they are more active etc, then maybe there is why, but as long as fresh hay is topped up regularly throughout the day they will fill up on it
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OK thank you. I just would never want them to be hungry and just wanted to check that it was nothing I was doing. Thank you for the pellet advice--I did try to check online but it seems manufacturers obviously skew the amount of pellets they need in order to sell more
 
No it’s not anything you’re doing. As long as fresh hay is always available, they won’t be hungry. Veg and pellets are merely snacks so they should not be filling up on them in any event
 
Piggies&buns said:
No it’s not anything you’re doing. As long as fresh hay is always available, they won’t be hungry. Veg and pellets are merely snacks so they should not be filling up on them in any event
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Thank you so much for your help :)
 
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