How much pellets per day for 2 piggies

[Bubble&Trouble]

Hi, As you are aware I'm quite a novice to the guinea pig world. Ive read that you should give unlimited pellets to baby guinea pigs. At what age/week do they officially become adults. How much pellets should I be giving per day for 2 piggies aged around 18 weeks?

Thanks

 

[MOC]

The jury is still out in regards to pellets. I personally used to feed my pigs quite a lot and they were all healthy weights, stupidly though I cut the amount and I've now got three piggies who've lost 200g in weight over the past 4 months. They aren't at unhealthy weights but I have since started feeding them a better amount again, 1/4 cup each in two servings (morning-evening), this amount is used by quite a few people with no issue. In my opinion it comes down to different piggies, most stop when they're full however some will keep wanting more and these are the pigs you have to monitor carefully. I'd suggest you track their weight progression/regression whilst they're on a certain amount of pellets. As long as they are a stable weight then you're feeding them the optimum amount. I would also be aware of how much hay they're eating. If the amount of pellets is causing aversion to hay I would cut them as hay should be around 80% of a pigs diet, along with a cup of vegetables per day.

Just as a side note, cups are American measurements but they are very handy for piggie feeding. Most places sell sets of measuring cups with both 1/4 and 1 cup. I know asda definitely do!

 

[kimlou5288]

I've always kept the pellets topped up each day, both are healthy weights, also have veg in the morning and hay through out the day.

 

[Bekki]

I fill the bowl and only refill when its empty they're good weights :-) they're all adults too ranging from 2.5 - 5

 

[SpinningNickel]

It depends on your measure of adulthood, I guess. Guineas are sexually mature at a few weeks old, but giving baths, trimming nails, etc. tends to be recommended after 3-6 months, so in many ways that's when they're considered "adults" I guess. However, depending on breed and individual pig, I believe they can keep growing up to 12-18 months old.

I top up morning and evening and don't really measure -- one of my pigs is only 6 months old, and the other is a runt so I'm not worried about weights. It's also winter and although my boys live indoors my house gets cold, so I let them pile on as much as they can!

The bag of food will tell you how much you should be feeding -- I think it's normally about 40g per pig per day. I would say that's about what my two eat up even with unlimited access, though, and Machu especially is a greedy guts about his pellets. Unless they're ignoring their hay (which should be 80% of their diet) in favour of the pellets, I wouldn't worry too much about their intake until they're about a year old, personally. At that point you need to ensure they aren't piling on weight.