How to change a cavy's diet?

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Hello everyone, I'm a new member and just acquired a guinea pig. My friend had to suddenly move out of her house and could not keep her cavy, so I decided to take him in instead of letting her two 10 year old sisters keep him. I lived with my ex girlfriend for two years, and she had all sorts of small mammals, such as chins, rabbits, mice, and rats. So I know a lot of the general concepts of small mammal care and have been researching the specifics of dealing with guinea pigs.

My question comes to changing his (Mr. Pig as I have so originally decided to call him) diet. From everything I have researched, the diet that the girl I got cavy from is not what it should be. She gives him 2 tablespoons of Healthy Select Guinea Pig Diet per day (as she says he's a bit over weight), a couple pinches of petsmart bought timothy hay per day, one california cutie orange slice per day, and that's it.

To my understanding, this is how his diet should be... Unlimited timothy hay or bermuda hay (since I have horses that eat bermuda hay, i have an unlimited amount of it that I would like to use instead of timothy), 1/8 cup of timothy based pellets per day, 1 cup of vegetables per day (parsley, romaine lettuce, carrots, tomato, green peppers, spinach, and cantaloupe), and an orange slice per day. Most of my dietary info comes from Guinea Lynx, though if this site is known to be incorrect, i would appriciate it if someone could tell me about a better guinea pig site. If I am incorrect or incomplete in any aspect of his diet, please please please feel free to tell me, as I am completely new to guinea pigs.

Also, because of the stark difference between what she was feeding him and what I (at least so i've read) should be feeding him, i'm unsure of how to change his diet so greatly without causing any problems.

And one more small question... Is it alright for a guinea pig to have a multiple story cage with a ramp leading up to the second story? I know that having ramps in cages sometimes cause rabbits problems because their spines cannot handle much incline, but i'm unsure if it's the same for guinea pigs.

If all of you cavy experts could help me out, that would be wonderful!
 
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Hi,

For changing the diet I would recommend starting off by giving Mr. Pig unlimited hay and the guineas original pellets and maybe a little bit of carrot or something - you don't want to change anything to quickly or everything all at once. If you have a bag of the original food (enough for about 2 weeks) you can then start to add a handful of the new guineapig pellets to the bag each day and mix it up. This way you will gradually switch over to the new food over about a month or so. It can be done a bit quicker than this, but no more than 10-14 days.

For the veg I would introduce each new veg item slowly. So give one thing for a couple of days, then try the first one and another for a few days - and so on.

I'm sure some other posters will think of things I have forgotten!

Also, about the ramp - Ramps are ok, but the inclune shouldn't be massive. I normally prop the ramp up on a brick or something when I have used them in the past to make it a little less steep. Then again some of the ones I've seen in pet shops are very steep. So I guess that advice might depend on the make of cage you've inherited.
 
You have been given some great advice there!

You can give him unlimited hay right away (this is very essential in his diet, as he has not had it, please keep an eye out ofr signs of dental problems. These include drooling, not wanting to eat (either all food, or favouring soft food) Difficulty eating. - if you have a look around you will get more of an idea what to look out for exactly.)

The pellets, as mentioned, can be mixed in slowly over a couple of weeks (first start with 50/50 and gradually reduce the amount of the undesuired food untill your not feedingg any at all. :)

Same goes for the veg, only introduce one new veg at a time, so as not to overwhelm his system. Couple of things i did notice about your food list - Fruit should only be fed twice a week, as its very high in both sugar and acid, (tomatoes also come into this category) Spinach should also be limited.
Here is a link to our veg list, so you can see other kinds of veg you can feed :D
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=17

Here is a link to our housing section, So you can see the kinds of homes suitable for guinea pigs. http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Its wonderfull that you are doing so much research!
 
Thanks a ton daisyd and connie! I'll start doing that first thing tomorrow. So fruit should only be fed twice a week, but the vegetables should still be a cup or so every day (eventually, after I've gradually introduced them into his diet)?
 
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Firstly hi and welcome to you and Mr. Pig to the forum :)
Well done for taking care of this little guy, you'll be rewarded with so much love from him :)
I do hope you can pop some pigtures on soon, whee have a stories/photo's section.
Yes fruits not too often, more like a treat than a regular food.
As the others have said, one new food at a time, making sure he doesn't react to them.
I look forward to hearing more about Mr. Pig and his antics!

Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
Thank you for the welcome Glynis! I'll try to post pictures of him soon. And wow, that page you linked to Connie is incredible, I'll be making a trip to the store tomorrow with that list.
 
Hi and welcome.

I'm also fairly new to GPs, got my first ever pair of boars in Dec 2011 so I too have done a lot of research and this forum has been invaluable!

As the others have said change the pellets over slowly by mixing in with the current food, took me 3 weeks to do this as my boys decided they didn't want their new pellets and started protesting for their old museli, they finally accepted the new pellets and now can't get enough!

Introduce new veg slowly, one at a time just in case of tum upsets. My boys love coriander, parsley, cucumber, carrots, apple, nectarine and broccoli.

Good luck and enjoy Mr Pig!
 
Just an update, I'm pretty sure that I have a picky cavy. So far he won't even look in the direction of green bell peppers, kinda will eat bermuda grass hay but goes nuts for timothy hay, and scarfs carrots down like they are going to sprout legs and run away. Tomorrow I start romaine lettuce and broccoli.
 
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