My guinea pig has broken teeth should he eat hard food?

[joji]

My guinea pig broke two of his teeth but still eats hard food by choice should i let him or is it bad for him?

 

[Wiebke]

My guinea pig broke two of his teeth but still eats hard food by choice should i let him or is it bad for him?

Hi and welcome!

I assume that he has broken two of his incisors? They will grow back and self-sharpen again once they reach the correct length and the crucial back teeth are perfectly fine. The incisors are there to pick up and cut food while the premolars and molars at the back are there to grind down any food. The silica in unlimited hay and grass, which should make over 80% of the daily food intake, is the best abrasive possible to keep the back teeth in good health because that is the food source guinea pigs have evolved on and that is best suited for them.

If your piggy is still able to pick up and process any hard food, then that is a very a very good sign; it means that the over an inch long incisor roots have not snapped (please always see a vet promptly if your piggy has a wobbly broken incisor whose root has snapped or if the gums/mouth/nose are bleeding from a fall).
Please let him eat as normally as possible but switch from weighing once weekly on your kitchen scales to weighing daily at the same time in order to make sure that he is able to eat enough hay to keep the back teeth ground down.
We talk of weight loss from 50g/2 oz onward.

The teeth should grow back again within a week to ten days. Guinea pigs and capybaras have some of the fastest growing rodent teeth in order to keep up with the silica in hay. Too much soft food (i.e. fresh veg and pellets that soften in contact with moisture) is not good for them.

You will find these links here helpful:
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[joji]

Thank you so much! I really needed some help with this matter