No pellets?

[kennethyau]

Hi,
I've just taken one of my piggies to the vets as she has been losing weight. The cavy savvy vet says she has ovarian cysts and possibly some dental issues (only slight and may not be causing her any problems) so they are going to take some bloods to see if her hormones are causing the weight loss later in the week and sort out the dental issues if the bloods are normal.

During the consultation, he said that I shouldn't give the piggies pellets as it doesn't wear their teeth down.
I give my piggies unlimited supply of Timothy hay in their hay racks, meadow hay in their bedding area and lots of leafy veggies twice a day. Their pellet bowl only get topped up once it's empty, usually once every 2-3 days between 4 piggies.

I'm just worried that if I stop feeding them pellets they will develop some other types of nutritional deficiencies.

 

[Hermes]

Did he say they shouldn't be given at all? Personally I'm surprised by this and would ask your vet to explain his reasoning further and to provide advice on feeding a nutritionally complete diet without the aid of pellets.

Pellets (should) comprise a very small part (10%) of your pigs diet anyway and the majority of their time will be spent feeding on hay which should provide adequate tooth wear (particularly the stalky types), although it doesn't mean they'll never have dental issues. Pigs can live on a pellet free diet (I've heard of ones living purely on grass/other garden plants) but I feel the pellets act like a nutritional supplement to back up the hay and veggies and cover essentials like vitamin C, I'd want to know exactly how I could meet these requirements with hay, grass and veg (and maybe other supplements) if I didn't feed pellets. My other thought is pellets seem to help maintain weight and can promote weight gain (if fed in excess), usually people with dental pigs or ones that undergo surgery (which I'm guessing may be an option with the cysts and potentially her teeth) are working hard to help their pig maintain and/or gain weight, I would have thought removing pellets from the diet would be counterproductive in this.

This is all speculative and I'm happy to be wrong, I'd be interested to hear what your vet advises.

 

[Rilenceny]

Pellets were not intent for them to wear their teeth down in the first place anyway.

I'll still continue feeding them with pellets since for it, it's important in their diet as well.

 

[Stewybus]

It's the hay that is best for wearing their teeth down. I get hay bales from a local farm & it has a lot more courser hay which I think is better for their teeth & they love it. Veg like carrots can be good too. I also give mine Readi-Grass which can also good for their teeth.

 

[biscandmatt]

alot of exotics vets agree with the no pellets advice. mine does aswell but he said if i was going to give any, just lightly cover the bottom of the bowl once a day, which is what i do. i do this at night and that's it again until the next night.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

In general i agree with the no (or very limited) pellet advice. guineapigs are grazing animals (as are other creatures such as horses, cattle and deer). their bodies are highly evolved to extract the nutrients from grasses and hay which, being made of cellulose, takes some doing; their teeth grow constantly to counter being worn down by grass and they have very long guts to allow time to aborb nutrients which is further aided by caecotrophy.

a large component of pellets is made from grain (wheat and oats) which is not something that would naturally occur frequently in a guineapigs diet but only seasonally in, for example, the form of grass seed. which whilst providing a nutritional boost would still only make up a very tiny amount of their natural diet. guineapigs are not grain foraging animals like mice.

provided guineapigs are fed good quality unlimited hay along with a variety of veg containing vit c (and/or fresh grass which also contains good levels of vitamin c) daily they should not need much in the way of pellets.

i would, however, be concerned about withdrawing pellets from a pig with on going dental issues, as if the teeth are already overgrown the piggy may not be able to cope with hay until his teeth are properly sorted.

i mostly feed a hay and veg diet with a small amount pellets once a week (or twice in winter) as a treat.

 

[shiny]

I give the Burgess Excel Sensitive pellets by the amount recommended on the pack for the weight of the guineas. It is a surprisingly small amount, have a look on your pack & weight it out - you might be surprised!

Personally I feed the pellets to ensure they are getting their vitamin C & other vitamins & minerals which this type of food can give. I would worry about vitamin deficiency without the pellets in the diet.

Our exotics vet recommends a diet comprising 75% hay, 20% veg & 5% pellets or mix (he prefers pellets as they can't selective feed) & I feel this is a good balance.

The really important thing for guineas is getting them to eat sufficient good hay, with loads of other mixes etc around they may not eat as much hay as they need.

Hope your piggie is ok soon

 

[kennethyau]

thanks. i'll find out later in the week which is the likely problem. I think the dental issue is a red herring. Most likely cause is ovarian cyst i would think, as her fur is quite dry and thinned and not like photos of other swisses that I've seen.
They eat quite a bit of hay anyway. usually goes through 1-2 bales from dustfreehay a week but i'm going to put more in there from now on. . My 10kg bag of pellets usually lasts me 3-4 months so that works out to be 25g per guinea pig per day.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

i have heard that swiss piggies sometimes moult but i don't know if this is true or not. coats thinning out all over can be due to mites even if there are no obvious scratchy spots. hair loss can lead to weight loss as pigs will need to burn more energy to keep up their body temperature, even if they are kept indoors, so this is an other possibility.
i very much doubt that a piggy eating plenty of hay and just 25g of pellets a day would have dental problems due to diet.
hope all goes well for your piggy.