How much fruit and veg per day ?

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Fidgetthefirst

Fidgetthefirst

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For one Guinea Pig how much salad per day? People say one cup, but different 'cups' are different sizes, and some people have said, a large salad (1 cup) in the morning, and a small (not a full cup) in the evening? Is this right?
And do they need hay 24/7, so like i'd need to fill the hay in the morning before school, and say - before i went to bed? And how much of piggie mix/pellets?
 
Piggies need unlimited access to hay and mine also have ulimited pellets.
 
Sadly, we are currently without a piggy diet thread.

You do not have to be too exact with the veg - just try out at first what amount about 50g of veg and fruit mix is volume wise and then take it from there. It would be good if you didn't give fruit every day. Two or three times a week is best; as is varying veg, fruit and herbs so your piggies get a bit of everything.

Many people on here feed twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening. They also refill pellets and hay mornings and evenings.

Young and still growing piggies need more pellets than mature adults. In the main growing phase until about 6-9 months old (or about getting towards a kilo in weight) you keep the bowl topped up. After that, you can reduce it slowly until the piggies have reached their adult weight at about 12-15 months old. I give my adults about half a handful of pellets per piggy per day in summer when they have plenty of fresh rich grass and a bit more in winter when they haven't.

Growing rates and final weight vary wildly amongst guinea pigs - anything between 800g and 1800g can still be a healthy weight, although most piggies end up weighing somewhere between 900-1400g (that goes for both genders). Rather than following absolute weight charts, we recommend going for "condition" - is your piggy happy, healthy and active and somewhere between not too bony and not having fat rolls and a belly that touches the floor? It would be a good habit to weigh your piggies once weekly; you can catch many an illness earlier by noticing loss of weight straight away!

You may find this thread here helpful; it tries to address many of the fears conscientious new owners have. http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38805
 
Romily said:
What happened to it?
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Laura who had written it had it deleted after some people were rather confused by it; she's promised to write a new one, but she hasn't been well lately.

However, you can't go wrong with giving a bit of everything and everything in moderation!
 
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Wiebke said:
However, you can't go wrong with giving a bit of everything and everything in moderation!
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I got really confused though looking at the ratio thing, and all the different veg you should give. I just want to know how to look after piggies, and understand diets and stuff before (if) i get some :)
 
Fidgetthefirst said:
I got really confused though looking at the ratio thing, and all the different veg you should give. I just want to know how to look after piggies, and understand diets and stuff before (if) i get some :)
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That ratio thing can be ever so confusing! When you look closely, many foods are not good given regularly in large amounts and it can drive you crazy to try and figure it out, only to be thrown completely again by the next bit of research!

The best thing is frankly to vary as much as you can afford to within the limits of your purse and practicality, and to always offer at least three to five different veg, fruit and herbs a day if that is possible (it is admittedly easier with a bigger number of piggies!).

That way, your piggies get a wide range of essential vitamins, trace elements and nutrients, and you need not to worry about giving too much of something. Let your common sense be your guideline rather than trying to follow too many conflicting rules to the letter.
 
PS: Please keep in mind that fresh food and dry food (pellets) only constitute a comparatively small, if essential part of a good piggy diet!
 
I agree with Wiebke, there's alot of people/books/websites etc. that all say totally different!
The best thing to do is just use your common sense, if you're worried about over feeding them on veg, give them a bit less, if they still seem hungry and you think they haven't quite had enough then give them a bit more. This morning I slit half a celery between my 7, it was roughly 7X3.5 inches. Then they also had a slice on pepper, only a cm or 2 wide.
Some of them ate it all, other left some of the celery. You get to know how much & what each piggie eats after time :)
 
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