Introduction
1 Why Does Fresh Food Need To Be Introduced Carefully
2 Introducing New Fresh Food into a Diet
3 Reintroducing Fresh Veg After A Break or Coming off Syringed Formula Feed
4 Introducing or Reintroducing Fresh Grass
5 Changing Pellets or Hay Brands
6 More Helpful Related Guides (Preparing for Lawn Time, Poos and Tummy Trouble, Syringe Feeding and Weight Monitoring/Feeding Support Levels Explained)
Introduction
As long term owners we all want to introduce new foods at some point, whether that is veg, herbs or fruit, or we come up against the need to reintroduce fresh veg after a milder or severe tummy upset or when the appetite has been wiped by pain, an illness, an operation or from an antibiotic or a seasonal rest.
This guide is here to help all those who are struggling with how to actually implement the advice of introducing/reintroducing fresh veg slowly and want to know how you go about it properly.
The rules can be both used as a general guide and adapted for your location around the world, but they can also be followed to the letter by those who need very clear guidance. I have tried to make the recommendations as clear as possible, using the most common daily veg from our recommended diet.
1 Why Does Fresh Food Need to Be Introduced Carefully?
The digestive tract in guinea pigs is a very finely tuned instrument. It is not laid out to deal with anything that comes their way, as is the case with predatory pets like cats or dogs, and it is much longer and thinner than those of predatory pets. In order for the digestion not to derail and lead to diarrhea or potentially fatal bloating (dysbiosis), we need to give the digestive system time to find and then grow and scale up the specialist bacteria for any fresh food that is new or has not been eaten for a while so
You also want to be extra careful after a tummy upset, whether it is just some soft and very squishy poos when all that is required to give the gut time to sort itself out or coming out of a more diarrhea, bloating or GI stasis.
2 Introducing New Fresh Food into a Diet
The most important trick is to never introduce any new fresh food on its own and in a larger portion.
Babies who have had their mother's milk, get traces of what she is eat ing in the milk and they start by just nibbling on food stuff at first and then eat a bit more with each passing day until by the end of the second week they eat more solids than they drink milk and the weaning process can begin. They are not getting tummy upsets from the veg and herb mix their mother is on.
Our advice follows this process in principle - just without the extra layer of mother's milk.
Guinea pigs also learn what is safe to eat and what not from their elders - this also goes for bottle drinking, which is a learned behaviour. This can make it difficult for you to introduce new foods or get past personal dislikes from the leading piggy. Be patient and persist in serving a small amount of different foods. A greedy guts piggy can be a blessing in that scenario.
First meal
Always introduce a new veg, herb or fruit as part of a mix and in just a small quantity, as a taster, first - about the size of a fingernail - or just a sprig, leaf or smaller part of a long herb like dill.
Second meal
On the next day you double the amount and still serve with other fresh food in order to bolster the impact.
Third meal
Third time round you can give a normal portion together with other food. You want to be more cautious with guinea pigs with digestive issues and if necessary, put in another step up on the next day before going the full distance.
Afterwards you can give it on its own as the specialist microbiome should have scaled up.
3 Reintroducing Your Normal Veg Diet after a Break
If you have just stopped feeding fresh veg and herbs after a mild tummy upset, you can start from scratch and scale up with each meal again, unless you notice signs of deterioration so you have to stop, give two days again and restart but scaling up day by day.
If your piggy is coming off syringe feeding and has started to eat on their own again (especially hay) and their weight is going up again, then you can do a rollover by offering top up syringe feed interspersed with fresh feed. Th
Use your daily weigh in first thing in the morning before the first feed to see how quickly or slowly the switchover can happen or whether you need to keep on topping up in addition to feeding fresh veg.
Please don't start with introducing fresh food before you are not sure that your piggy is eating more hay each day, which should be reflected in a weight gain against a stable syringe feeding portion.
Please stop as soon as you notice signs of problems again. Please be aware that the poo output is running about a day behind the food intake so you have to do this slowly and not panic. You want to wait a day and be sure that yesterday's step has literally passed the 'drive thru' test through the gut. It is better to not rush it than going too quickly.
With an undisturbed microbiome or a minor tummy upset, you should be back to normal within 3 days by feeding going up two steps per day (i.e first and second meal).
If you are dealing with coming out of gassing, diarrhea or GI stasis, then it is better that you take your time and only do one step per day and continue syringe feeding top up for longer.
A good indicator that you are on the right track is your piggy's eagerness of tackling fresh feed again and an increasing refusal of formula support.
First meal
Offer 1-3 sprigs of coriander or parsley in between syringefuls of formula and water. Start at the lower end after a tummy upset with diarrhea, bloating or GI stasis in order to give the gut microbiome time to stabilise and more time to build up.
If the problem of the loss of appetite lies outside the gut and the microbiome has not derailed as such, you can start with more herbs.
Second meal
Offer 3 sprigs (or equivalent amount) of herbs plus a thin half slice of cucumber
Third meal
Offer 3 sprigs of herbs plus a full slice of cucumber.
Fourth meal
Add a small slice of lettuce to your normal portion of herbs and cucumber
Fifth meal
Add a small bit of pepper (about the size of your small finger from the knuckle to the tip) to your normal portion of herbs, cucumber and lettuce.
Sixth meal
If all is still well, go fully back to normal. Otherwise stop and start afresh at least two days after the poo output and any gassing have stabilised again.
4 Introducing or Reintroducing Fresh Grass after a Break
Putting your piggies out on the lawn or feeding a large portion of rich fresh grass after the winter without preparation sadly leads to needless deaths from bad diarrhea or severe bloating every Spring.
Indoors guinea pigs (including shed piggies) need to be accustomed gradually to the outdoors anyway.
Please only put them out on the lawn when it is still warm and dry to your own bare feet after 5 minutes or you could risk urinary tract or respiratory tract infections, especially in young or frail piggies, or even adults that are being put out on a short damp lawn for hours after a cold night or to a cold breeze without any chance of getting into shelter and off the ground.
We have more information links with detailed how-to advice for lawn time, and grass advice (dog urine, lawn feeds etc) in the next chapter.
The guidelines for getting your piggies' tummies accustomed to fresh grass (again) are:
First meal
Give a pinch of grass (about the thickness of a pencil) to each piggy together with their normal fresh food.
Second meal
Give a bunch the thickness of your index finger.
Third meal
The bunch can be two fingers in diameter.
Fourth meal
Your normal indoors portion or half an hour on the lawn.
Fifth meal
From then on in you can go to normal. You may notice softer poos after a lot of fresh grass but they should still have perfect shape and thickness. In this case, please leave lettuce and cucumber out of the meal since they are not necessary. Your piggies have got plenty of water from the grass.
5 Changing Pellets and Hay Brands
While many piggies are perfectly OK with a cold turkey approach and you need not have a bad conscience if you suddenly run out or want to change to a more suitable to cheaper brand, occasionally, especially with older and frailer guinea pigs or those with a tendency to stronger reactions to changes it can help to do a gradual switch-over and to avoid tummy upsets.
In order for your piggies to accept the new brand, offer a little by hand as a special treat at first. This to get your piggies to know and accept the new brand and eat instead of just ignoring it when you start the switch other in earnest.
Start with mixing in a little more into your current pellets and hay with every passing day, about 10% more new ones and 10% less with each passing day. Check whether the new brand gets eaten before adding more. The process can take 1-2 weeks, depending on your choice of speed and how well the new brand is going gown.
If that doesn't work, then there is the 'cold turkey' approach - your piggies either eat the pellets and hay or they go hungry. Going hungry thankfully never lasts long although it can come with much drama, loathing and reproach. It is always more difficult if the group leader is the one not keen on the change as in this case the 'I want what you have' instinct doesn't work.
6 More Helpful Guides
This chapter contains links to issues mentioned in this guide where you can find more detailed information and practical tips:
Digestion
Wiebke's Guide to Poops
Wiebke's Guide to Tummy Trouble
Feeding Support and Levels (full feed/top up)
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Diet
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
All About Grass and Lawn Time (potentially life-saving)
Fresh Grass and Lawn Time - Tips for Avoiding Spring Time Deaths
Hot Weather Advice (potentially life-saving)
The temptation to overfeed watery veg and fruit in hot weather
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike
1 Why Does Fresh Food Need To Be Introduced Carefully
2 Introducing New Fresh Food into a Diet
3 Reintroducing Fresh Veg After A Break or Coming off Syringed Formula Feed
4 Introducing or Reintroducing Fresh Grass
5 Changing Pellets or Hay Brands
6 More Helpful Related Guides (Preparing for Lawn Time, Poos and Tummy Trouble, Syringe Feeding and Weight Monitoring/Feeding Support Levels Explained)
Introduction
As long term owners we all want to introduce new foods at some point, whether that is veg, herbs or fruit, or we come up against the need to reintroduce fresh veg after a milder or severe tummy upset or when the appetite has been wiped by pain, an illness, an operation or from an antibiotic or a seasonal rest.
This guide is here to help all those who are struggling with how to actually implement the advice of introducing/reintroducing fresh veg slowly and want to know how you go about it properly.
The rules can be both used as a general guide and adapted for your location around the world, but they can also be followed to the letter by those who need very clear guidance. I have tried to make the recommendations as clear as possible, using the most common daily veg from our recommended diet.
1 Why Does Fresh Food Need to Be Introduced Carefully?
The digestive tract in guinea pigs is a very finely tuned instrument. It is not laid out to deal with anything that comes their way, as is the case with predatory pets like cats or dogs, and it is much longer and thinner than those of predatory pets. In order for the digestion not to derail and lead to diarrhea or potentially fatal bloating (dysbiosis), we need to give the digestive system time to find and then grow and scale up the specialist bacteria for any fresh food that is new or has not been eaten for a while so
You also want to be extra careful after a tummy upset, whether it is just some soft and very squishy poos when all that is required to give the gut time to sort itself out or coming out of a more diarrhea, bloating or GI stasis.
2 Introducing New Fresh Food into a Diet
The most important trick is to never introduce any new fresh food on its own and in a larger portion.
Babies who have had their mother's milk, get traces of what she is eat ing in the milk and they start by just nibbling on food stuff at first and then eat a bit more with each passing day until by the end of the second week they eat more solids than they drink milk and the weaning process can begin. They are not getting tummy upsets from the veg and herb mix their mother is on.
Our advice follows this process in principle - just without the extra layer of mother's milk.
Guinea pigs also learn what is safe to eat and what not from their elders - this also goes for bottle drinking, which is a learned behaviour. This can make it difficult for you to introduce new foods or get past personal dislikes from the leading piggy. Be patient and persist in serving a small amount of different foods. A greedy guts piggy can be a blessing in that scenario.
First meal
Always introduce a new veg, herb or fruit as part of a mix and in just a small quantity, as a taster, first - about the size of a fingernail - or just a sprig, leaf or smaller part of a long herb like dill.
Second meal
On the next day you double the amount and still serve with other fresh food in order to bolster the impact.
Third meal
Third time round you can give a normal portion together with other food. You want to be more cautious with guinea pigs with digestive issues and if necessary, put in another step up on the next day before going the full distance.
Afterwards you can give it on its own as the specialist microbiome should have scaled up.
3 Reintroducing Your Normal Veg Diet after a Break
If you have just stopped feeding fresh veg and herbs after a mild tummy upset, you can start from scratch and scale up with each meal again, unless you notice signs of deterioration so you have to stop, give two days again and restart but scaling up day by day.
If your piggy is coming off syringe feeding and has started to eat on their own again (especially hay) and their weight is going up again, then you can do a rollover by offering top up syringe feed interspersed with fresh feed. Th
Use your daily weigh in first thing in the morning before the first feed to see how quickly or slowly the switchover can happen or whether you need to keep on topping up in addition to feeding fresh veg.
Please don't start with introducing fresh food before you are not sure that your piggy is eating more hay each day, which should be reflected in a weight gain against a stable syringe feeding portion.
Please stop as soon as you notice signs of problems again. Please be aware that the poo output is running about a day behind the food intake so you have to do this slowly and not panic. You want to wait a day and be sure that yesterday's step has literally passed the 'drive thru' test through the gut. It is better to not rush it than going too quickly.
With an undisturbed microbiome or a minor tummy upset, you should be back to normal within 3 days by feeding going up two steps per day (i.e first and second meal).
If you are dealing with coming out of gassing, diarrhea or GI stasis, then it is better that you take your time and only do one step per day and continue syringe feeding top up for longer.
A good indicator that you are on the right track is your piggy's eagerness of tackling fresh feed again and an increasing refusal of formula support.
First meal
Offer 1-3 sprigs of coriander or parsley in between syringefuls of formula and water. Start at the lower end after a tummy upset with diarrhea, bloating or GI stasis in order to give the gut microbiome time to stabilise and more time to build up.
If the problem of the loss of appetite lies outside the gut and the microbiome has not derailed as such, you can start with more herbs.
Second meal
Offer 3 sprigs (or equivalent amount) of herbs plus a thin half slice of cucumber
Third meal
Offer 3 sprigs of herbs plus a full slice of cucumber.
Fourth meal
Add a small slice of lettuce to your normal portion of herbs and cucumber
Fifth meal
Add a small bit of pepper (about the size of your small finger from the knuckle to the tip) to your normal portion of herbs, cucumber and lettuce.
Sixth meal
If all is still well, go fully back to normal. Otherwise stop and start afresh at least two days after the poo output and any gassing have stabilised again.
4 Introducing or Reintroducing Fresh Grass after a Break
Putting your piggies out on the lawn or feeding a large portion of rich fresh grass after the winter without preparation sadly leads to needless deaths from bad diarrhea or severe bloating every Spring.
Indoors guinea pigs (including shed piggies) need to be accustomed gradually to the outdoors anyway.
Please only put them out on the lawn when it is still warm and dry to your own bare feet after 5 minutes or you could risk urinary tract or respiratory tract infections, especially in young or frail piggies, or even adults that are being put out on a short damp lawn for hours after a cold night or to a cold breeze without any chance of getting into shelter and off the ground.
We have more information links with detailed how-to advice for lawn time, and grass advice (dog urine, lawn feeds etc) in the next chapter.
The guidelines for getting your piggies' tummies accustomed to fresh grass (again) are:
First meal
Give a pinch of grass (about the thickness of a pencil) to each piggy together with their normal fresh food.
Second meal
Give a bunch the thickness of your index finger.
Third meal
The bunch can be two fingers in diameter.
Fourth meal
Your normal indoors portion or half an hour on the lawn.
Fifth meal
From then on in you can go to normal. You may notice softer poos after a lot of fresh grass but they should still have perfect shape and thickness. In this case, please leave lettuce and cucumber out of the meal since they are not necessary. Your piggies have got plenty of water from the grass.
5 Changing Pellets and Hay Brands
While many piggies are perfectly OK with a cold turkey approach and you need not have a bad conscience if you suddenly run out or want to change to a more suitable to cheaper brand, occasionally, especially with older and frailer guinea pigs or those with a tendency to stronger reactions to changes it can help to do a gradual switch-over and to avoid tummy upsets.
In order for your piggies to accept the new brand, offer a little by hand as a special treat at first. This to get your piggies to know and accept the new brand and eat instead of just ignoring it when you start the switch other in earnest.
Start with mixing in a little more into your current pellets and hay with every passing day, about 10% more new ones and 10% less with each passing day. Check whether the new brand gets eaten before adding more. The process can take 1-2 weeks, depending on your choice of speed and how well the new brand is going gown.
If that doesn't work, then there is the 'cold turkey' approach - your piggies either eat the pellets and hay or they go hungry. Going hungry thankfully never lasts long although it can come with much drama, loathing and reproach. It is always more difficult if the group leader is the one not keen on the change as in this case the 'I want what you have' instinct doesn't work.
6 More Helpful Guides
This chapter contains links to issues mentioned in this guide where you can find more detailed information and practical tips:
Digestion
Wiebke's Guide to Poops
Wiebke's Guide to Tummy Trouble
Feeding Support and Levels (full feed/top up)
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Diet
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
All About Grass and Lawn Time (potentially life-saving)
Fresh Grass and Lawn Time - Tips for Avoiding Spring Time Deaths
Hot Weather Advice (potentially life-saving)
The temptation to overfeed watery veg and fruit in hot weather
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike