Housing things

[guineapogmum]

hi all,
i am currently in the process of re furnishing my cage in preparation for new babies after my boys passed away. i have been scrolling through previous posts about product warnings and am just looking for some advice about current products and what to get.

hay rack- my current hayrack is in attached photos, just wondering if this is okay? or should I get something similar to the second photo?
Water Bottle- I am in Western Australia so a very hot climate and I was wondering if a glass or a plastic water bottle would be best?
enrichment- I have heard many different things about enrichment/toys, I was wondering what would be best? we currently have a longish tunnel but am looking for other things to fill the other space in our large cage.
food- what do people recommend for the best brand? we have been using Origins guinea pig food for our girls and 3rd photo for our boys.

thank you all for your help

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry for the loss of your boys.

We do not recommend the use of hay racks at all. Hay is so much more than just a food and they should be able to use it to forage freely in, run through, make nests in. For that reason it is best to simply throw thee hay loose onto the cage floor or to put hay into a shallow litter tray lined with absorbent bedding, and to not use any kind of rack which removes their ability to forage and play with hay.

This is a wonderful thread just started which shows why a pile of loose hay is such good fun and why restrictive hay racks aren’t recommended

Show us your hay nests

Enrichment - tunnels, cardboard boxes with holes cut in and hay piles hay are the most entertaining things for them.
Other than wooden hides. I don’t spend money on commercial toys. All my piggies and rabbits entertainment comes from foraging through hay for their veg and pellets, using cardboard boxes filled with hay to forage through etc.

This is our enrichment thread which may help you

Thread 'Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs'

Mar 11, 2019

1 Company and interaction
- Company of their own kind is the best enrichment
- Human interaction
2 Excercise
- Daily run time and exercise
- Race and obstacle courses
- Outdoors time and how to bring it indoors
3 Sensory enrichment
- Things for the nose and the palate
- Working to get their daily food
- Romping and burrowing in soft...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Housing, Enrichment, Travel and Climate

• 
• 

The food.
The fact that it says it’s for rabbits and guinea pigs leads me to conclude that it isn’t suitable to use. Rabbits and piggies have different dietary needs so one food can’t serve both properly.
As this isn’t a brand known over here and the ingredients can’t be seen it is difficult to say for sure but as I say the fact it says for both then Id be rather wary.
Do you have a food specifically for piggies available to you?
Remember it is just one tablespoon per pig per day.

Thread 'Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets'

Jul 14, 2014

1 The recommended ratio of food groups
2 Hay and fresh grass
3 Vegetables, fresh herbs and fruit with an illustrated balanced sample diet
4 Special dietary needs
- Urinary tract infections, bladder stones and sterile IC (non-bacterial interstitial cystitis)
- Diabetes and long term digestive problems
- Impaction in boars
- Pregnancy and nursing dietary tweaks (only visible to registered members who have accepted our no intentional breeding policy)...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Diet

• 

 

[guineapogmum]

thank you very much, will take everything into consideration. (cheaper for me anyway)

 

[guineapogmum]

is anyone familiar with the linked brand?
have been using for a while for my Girlies.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m not familiar with the brand but It looks to be pretty high in an alfalfa base (fescue is a grass which is the top ingredient but Lucerne is the alfalfa and is the second ingredient). Alfalfa should not be given to guinea pigs as it is not a grass (it’s a legume) and is high in calcium.
It also contains whole grains and wheat. These are in a lot of commercial pellets but they aren’t briliant to be fed to piggies.

If you feed them, then stick strictly to one tablespoon per pig per day and no more. Make sure you are not feeding other high calcium veggies as their calcium intake could end up being quite high with an alfalfa based pellet.
Or don’t feed the pellets every day. Mine have a 100% grass based pellet and even then I only give pellets twice a week.