guineapigs and dried food..do they 'need' it?

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Spishkey

Spishkey

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ive been recently scouring a few of the belgian forums and was suprised to see how many owners didnt actually feed their piggys ANY sort of dried food/pellets. just fresh fruit/veg and hay.
I'm just wondering what exactly is in pellets that they need, or is it just for variation/some easy means of piggys getting what they need that is easy for the owners to get?
I'm pretty sure they dont get pellets in the wild :)
i guess they would need a heck of a lot of hay/veg if they didnt have dried food so is it maybe a money thing? it cant just be for the extra vit C, with enough fresh fruit/veg they'd get all the vitamins they need. and I'm guessing the hay would provide roughage and help trim their teeth. protein maybe? calcium/fibre could be got from certain veggies too.
so...dried food...a nessesity? a health reason? easier on the piggies digestive system? for variation? easier on our wallets?

opinions please!
 
D3 is in piggy food, which I'm sure has something to do with fish. I maybe wrong though, but I know it's not Vegan.

D3 is produced by sunlight (I think) and as some pigs don't get out it is necessary to a degree, but with a healthy diet, veg and hay, some sunlight. Pigs don't need it.

Now my facts could be all wrong but this is what I have read in the past.
 
I don't think they need pellets, but it is just easier and giving them some pellets makes sure they're not missing out on something. It might be difficult to prepare a balanced diet from fresh everyday.

I feed mine pellet food just because it works out easier and cheaper, but I like them to get a variety of fresh food too, especially loads of grass in the summer. All summer they hardly eat any pellets.
 
Mine don't get any dry food to speak of. I bought a bag of Oxbow when I got them but it's close to its expiration date now and is still half full. In Sweden pellets are seen as something that may contribute to bladder stones and most piggies I know are on a mostly pellet free diet. Mine get a tablespoon of whole grains (oat, wheat and rye) about every second day, because they love eating it and searching for it (I scatter it all over the cage) and always have mounds of hay. They spend a lot of their time eating hay :) I would never rely on a dry food for their vitamin C.

I have been thinking about that vitamin D thing, goodness knows Swedish piggies don't get a lot of sun most of the year... Interesting enough one part of vit D deficiency is a lesser absorbtion of calcium.... Hm, will continue to check this up!
 
my vet mentioned to me last time that i could get rid of pellets from their diet completely. and also just feed hay and leafy greens. no other veg, no pellets. and this is the best thing for them.

i've been reducing the pellets and at the minute they have them a few times a week, just a small handful..

i hope that isn't true about the fish, that makes me feel really sick. :)>>>
 
My view on it is that dried food is a safety net. Not essential to the pigs life, but most people feed it.

Dried food can also help maintain body weight and condition with low-weight or aging pigs, but this may well be different if pigs have never had dried food and maintain their weight otherwise.

I believe if the diet is full of different hays, grasses, fresh fruit and veg, and if the pig is allowed to forage outdoors whenever possible, then pellets can be eliminated.

I have heard the view that pigs should be allowed to selectively feed according to what their body tells them they need, thus they should have the option of eating dried food or not. I believe this to a degree, but I do also believe that pigs can easily be led by taste, not nutrition. So if dried food is to be fed, it should be the very highest quality manageable and given in very small quantities.

The bulk of the diet should be based on lots of hays and ideally grasses, regardless of whether dried food is fed or not.
 
I know they say hay should be 80% of the diet, but does that work for grass aswell? For the summer my piggies eat about 80% grass and hay, some greens, some other veggies and a small amount of pellets. I don't think I feed them enough greens, but they have the pellets there just in case they are missing out on stuff. I give them as much pellets as they want, but they hardly ever eat them when there's grass and veggies instead. 2 of my piggies are still babies, and 2 others are still young and growing a tiny bit I guess, and one is a rescue so needs a lot of nutrients to get back to perfect health and he might be old, so I just free feed them.
 
Grass isn't essential, but it's a great addition to the diet if you can include it. It can be included as either hay or fresh veg, little difference either way, but I suppose it would make mose sense to group hays and grasses into a more general group called forages. So 80% forages, then 15-20% fresh fruit and veg.
 
Grass counts as hay, but a piggy should still have access to dry hay in order to balance the guts; too much fresh food is not good.

Most forums in Germany and Switzerland do not advocate the use of dried food either. I have made a compromise in feeding 1/2 a handful per piggy per day, but am trying to slowly reduce it further.
 
I'm really glad i started this thread now, some wonderful information has been shared and I'm now swinging towards lessening the amount of pellets and uping the fresh fruit/veg..and also bringing in some 'other' grasses and hays to try
many many thanks all for the input :) I'm gonna do it slowly so as not to upset the piggys stomachs...!
 
I'm so glad I've read this thread, two of my piggies eat quite a lot of the dried food but the others don't bother with it much. I was about to post a thread about this myself!

So I feel better knowing that dried food is not essential and it doesn't matter that 3 of my piggies don't eat a lot of it. They scoff loads of hay though and get a good variety of fresh veg daily and some grass every other day.
 
This has been really useful, I was just wondering a minute ago about dried food, as I just fed my piggies, and they weren't fussed about their pellets, but 10 minutes later when I came out with their veg they were straight into it! I am going to try and reduce how much I give them now, and try and up the veg intake a bit :)
Same with my bunnies too :)
 
I'm sure they DON'T need it, but most pigs from breeers, shops and rescues are already having dried food as their staple diet, so I think it would be quite hard (and maybe a bit mean!) to take it away from them. The problem is, if I just gave my pigs hay and fresh fruit and veg, it would all be gone within a few hours. They continually go back to their dried food bowls to have a nibble. I work 12 hour shifts so don't always have the chance to top up their hay and veggies and I'd be worried if they didn't have their dried food, as they are naturally 'grazing' animals so need to eat constantly.
 
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