how much pellet food

[LittleEskimo]

Hey guys I am just wondering how much pelleted food I should be giving McMac each day. What I do at the moment is I have an egg cup and I give him 2 egg cups each day and that will usually last him until next dinner time. It is the same amount I give my rabbits of their pellet food but I have never really asked if it is the right amount

How much do you feed?

 

[mikulinek]

Hey guys I am just wondering how much pelleted food I should be giving McMac each day. What I do at the moment is I have an egg cup and I give him 2 egg cups each day and that will usually last him until next dinner time. It is the same amount I give my rabbits of their pellet food but I have never really asked if it is the right amount

How much do you feed?

Conventional wisdom is that a piggy's diet should contain 80% hay, 10% dried food and 10% fresh veg.

However, I am of the firm belief (after much experience and discussion) that pellets are completely unnecessary. I only feed them as treats, occasionally.

 

[gogoguineas]

Hey guys I am just wondering how much pelleted food I should be giving McMac each day. What I do at the moment is I have an egg cup and I give him 2 egg cups each day and that will usually last him until next dinner time. It is the same amount I give my rabbits of their pellet food but I have never really asked if it is the right amount

How much do you feed?

I think if you check guinea lynx it has some guidelines (can't remember off the top of my head, 50g?)

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

However, I am of the firm belief (after much experience and discussion) that pellets are completely unnecessary. I only feed them as treats, occasionally.

Christ, my piggies have pellets available all the time! They do like their Harringtons though. Incidentally, does anyone else think that 'Harringtons' is the most snobby title for a pet food imaginable?

 

[Shuvvy]

Unlimited up to about 9 months I think it is, after that think its about 50g although it should say on your packet? Or at least it does on excel nuggets

 

[LittleEskimo]

McMac has hay for bedding and I also give him Timothy hay aswell for food. He does a good job of eating it all.

50g? Yeah I think that is what I give him each day. Maybe less, but I am just guessing lol

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

They are about just shy of a year old so not far off 9 months.

How often should i replenish their bowl then?

If i fill it up in the morning, it is likely it will be gone by the following morning. I dont like to then leave the house with them having an empty bowl. What should i do?

 

[LittleEskimo]

I feed McMac the certain amount of pellets once a day. You could try breaking up when you feed them. So half in the morning and half in the evening?

 

[mikulinek]

Christ, my piggies have pellets available all the time! They do like their Harringtons though. Incidentally, does anyone else think that 'Harringtons' is the most snobby title for a pet food imaginable?

It's a question of whether you believe pellets to be essential. After a lot of discussions with my vet and other owners, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little nutritional value in pellets.

Essentially, what most producers will sell them for is to provide vitamin C. Once opened, a bag of pellets will lose it's vitamin C content rapidly and so the pellets essentially become empty calories.

 

[twiams]

I don't measure my feed but I moderate it to get the best balance I can as one of my piggies is slightly overweight and I've tried to get him to loose this, reducing his nuggets is all I have done and it's helped I give a small scoop full and just check on it and don't fill it up straight away like I used to because they aren't hungry they just eat it because it's there.

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

My problem is that one of my piggies is a greedy whereas the other one doesn't eat much. I dont want to ration food because i know that the greedy one will eat it all and the other will get all!

 

[mikulinek]

I don't measure my feed but I moderate it to get the best balance I can as one of my piggies is slightly overweight and I've tried to get him to loose this, reducing his nuggets is all I have done and it's helped I give a small scoop full and just check on it and don't fill it up straight away like I used to because they aren't hungry they just eat it because it's there.

We had the same thing with Caramel a while ago. I would definitely say that pellets/nuggets are pretty calorific and Caramel could just eat them non-stop. It would be the first thing I'd cut to try to get my piggy to lose weight too.

Do you give him/her sugary fresh veg at all? Peppers, carrot etc.?

 

[twiams]

We had the same thing with Caramel a while ago. I would definitely say that pellets/nuggets are pretty calorific and Caramel could just eat them non-stop. It would be the first thing I'd cut to try to get my piggy to lose weight too.

Do you give him/her sugary fresh veg at all? Peppers, carrot etc.?

They get a wide variety of veg with occasional pepper in the bowl which they don't always eat as they're fussy, and carrot is only ever a treat bought up from spares during cooking.
It's hard to believe the fattest pig out of my duo, Chester, is the most fussiest eater, where as Bentley eats anything edible or not and is almost half Chesters weight !

 

[twiams]

My problem is that one of my piggies is a greedy whereas the other one doesn't eat much. I dont want to ration food because i know that the greedy one will eat it all and the other will get all!

Have you tried seperate feeding ?
Or having two bowls ? Piggies tend to claim there own bowl when there's two. Especially males.
I'm lucky as the one who eats less in my pair is the dominant one so makes sure that greedy guts doesn't spend too long at the food bowl anyways !

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

Have you tried seperate feeding ?
Or having two bowls ? Piggies tend to claim there own bowl when there's two. Especially males.
I'm lucky as the one who eats less in my pair is the dominant one so makes sure that greedy guts doesn't spend too long at the food bowl anyways !

Lol, my dominant one is the greedy guts. What do you mean by separate feeding? Different bowls? I just think Mr Greedy would be at both and i dont really have the time in the day to hand feed them, only in the evening, or would that suffice?

 

[LittleEskimo]

McMac will graze his pellets. He will slowly nibble away at them and often when I check his bowl still has some in from where he didn't finish it.

He tends to prefer his herbs and hay really

 

[mikulinek]

They get a wide variety of veg with occasional pepper in the bowl which they don't always eat as they're fussy, and carrot is only ever a treat bought up from spares during cooking.
It's hard to believe the fattest pig out of my duo, Chester, is the most fussiest eater, where as Bentley eats anything edible or not and is almost half Chesters weight !

Sounds like some people I know as well as our two boars. Biscuit basically puts everything in his mouth and tries to eat it until he finds out it's not food...

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

My dominant boar will acutally sit on food so the other cant get at it- bloody greedy pig- quite literally!

 

[twiams]

Lol, my dominant one is the greedy guts. What do you mean by separate feeding? Different bowls? I just think Mr Greedy would be at both and i dont really have the time in the day to hand feed them, only in the evening, or would that suffice?

By seperate feeding you could try to just make sure when you take the less greedy out that you offer a small bowl of nuggets to at least give him/her a chance.
Not eating nuggets won't necessarily harm your pig, and through the recomended weekly weigh in you should do as part of a regular routine health check for your pig, you'd quickly see, if you did reduce nuggets wether it was harming the weight of the smaller of the pig or not and also wether it was helping knock a bit of weight of the chubby one. ! (:

 

[twiams]

McMac will graze his pellets. He will slowly nibble away at them and often when I check his bowl still has some in from where he didn't finish it.

He tends to prefer his herbs and hay really

Sounds like my Marmite pig, think its a loan boar thing, as if with no other pigs around to steal food they don't feel the need to rush. ?

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

By seperate feeding you could try to just make sure when you take the less greedy out that you offer a small bowl of nuggets to at least give him/her a chance.
Not eating nuggets won't necessarily harm your pig, and through the recomended weekly weigh in you should do as part of a regular routine health check for your pig, you'd quickly see, if you did reduce nuggets wether it was harming the weight of the smaller of the pig or not and also wether it was helping knock a bit of weight of the chubby one. ! (:

Christ, a weigh in? Didn't realise this was the biggest loser. What do you weigh them with- a kitchen scale?

Also- i do sometimes take the greedy one out for a cuddle when i put veggies in so the other one has a fighting chance. Is that the kind of thing I should do? Sorry for the questions but i really havent got a clue so any tips would be good. I have never had a guinea in my life and i am now 25 so i am just creeping and going.

 

[twiams]

Christ, a weigh in? Didn't realise this was the biggest loser. What do you weigh them with- a kitchen scale?

Also- i do sometimes take the greedy one out for a cuddle when i put veggies in so the other one has a fighting chance. Is that the kind of thing I should do? Sorry for the questions but i really havent got a clue so any tips would be good. I have never had a guinea in my life and i am now 25 so i am just creeping and going.

Weigh ins are the best way to keep a good eye on your pigs health, they're good at hiding signs of illness due to being prey animals and illness being a sign on weakness, often a guinea pigs weight will dramatically drop before even the slightest hint of being unwell appears.
I use kitchen scales just cheap ones but I'm hoping on getting digital ones as its more acurate.
It's really up to you and what you think works best when it comes to feeding, try a few suggestion out and pick what's best for your pigs as everyone's are different also pick something your comfortable with !

 

[ZaraPiggie6]

Christ, a weigh in? Didn't realise this was the biggest loser. What do you weigh them with- a kitchen scale?

Also- i do sometimes take the greedy one out for a cuddle when i put veggies in so the other one has a fighting chance. Is that the kind of thing I should do? Sorry for the questions but i really havent got a clue so any tips would be good. I have never had a guinea in my life and i am now 25 so i am just creeping and going.

Googl Peter gurney and read through his website.

Also I think you should stop giving out advise re sick pigs when you yourself admit you are clueless..

 

[twiams]

Googl Peter gurney and read through his website.

Also I think you should stop giving out advise re sick pigs when you yourself admit you are clueless..

Give him a break he's just learning everyone's entitled to give out advice if they so wish wether it be of any use or not. !

 

[mikulinek]

Weigh ins are the best way to keep a good eye on your pigs health, they're good at hiding signs of illness due to being prey animals and illness being a sign on weakness, often a guinea pigs weight will dramatically drop before even the slightest hint of being unwell appears.
I use kitchen scales just cheap ones but I'm hoping on getting digital ones as its more acurate.
It's really up to you and what you think works best when it comes to feeding, try a few suggestion out and pick what's best for your pigs as everyone's are different also pick something your comfortable with !

We tried some digital kitchen scales and guess what, they're no better than normal scales and they didn't even read Biscuit at all... I don't think you're going to get anything more accurate than ordinary kitchen scales unless you spend a ton of money on those ones the vets use..

We got our money back in the end though

 

[twiams]

We tried some digital kitchen scales and guess what, they're no better than normal scales and they didn't even read Biscuit at all... I don't think you're going to get anything more accurate than ordinary kitchen scales unless you spend a ton of money on those ones the vets use..

We got our money back in the end though

Thanks for the heads up. ! I'll stick to the ones I have then, I doubt I could find digital scales in the same pretty blue colour anyways. !

 

[fuzzyvalefan]

Googl Peter gurney and read through his website.

Also I think you should stop giving out advise re sick pigs when you yourself admit you are clueless..

In fairness love, i dont know an awful lot about human health being as i'm not a doctor but i am capable of making reasonable judgements which is the same advice as I have given to people about their piggies.

Our genes are around 97% identical so our health is going to be similar and the best health advice is always 'see whats it like in a fortnight and if its no better call the doctors.' In my opinion the same should apply for piggies, do you agree?

 

[mikulinek]

In fairness love, i dont know an awful lot about human health being as i'm not a doctor but i am capable of making reasonable judgements which is the same advice as I have given to people about their piggies.

Our genes are around 97% identical so our health is going to be similar and the best health advice is always 'see whats it like in a fortnight and if its no better call the doctors.' In my opinion the same should apply for piggies, do you agree?

Not really. Some things that don't seem too urgent can kill a piggy in a matter of days. Like bloat or a URI if untreated. Every lifeform on the planet has some DNA in common with every other lifeform but that doens't mean that the health advice should be the same.

Most notably, guinea pigs are fibravores, rooting animals and rodents and so differ massively to humans.

For a fortnight in humans, read a couple of days at most for piggies.

 

[ghostbusterbunny]

In fairness love, i dont know an awful lot about human health being as i'm not a doctor but i am capable of making reasonable judgements which is the same advice as I have given to people about their piggies.

Our genes are around 97% identical so our health is going to be similar and the best health advice is always 'see whats it like in a fortnight and if its no better call the doctors.' In my opinion the same should apply for piggies, do you agree?

I'm not going to say too much because mikulinek covers it, but that is just about the most dangerous and reckless piece of advice to give an owner with a sick piggy. What looks like nothing more than the 'sniffles' can kill a guinea pig in hours or days if not treated.