My 2 piggies , chocolate and coffee .
They are sisters and live inside . ( they are 8 weeks or so old)
They are fed 1/2 a cup of veg everyday ( carrot , bell pepper , lettuce , herbs and fennel when i can get it ) , pellets ( burgess excel mint) , hay and sometimes fruit or cucumber as a treat
they get fruit 2 or 3 times a week . Fruit like berries, apples , grapes and sometimes banana .
I have other guinea pigs too.
They pooped like 18 times in 3-4 hours , when they usally poop around 50-60 times in that amount of time ( roughly i don't count much ..)
I don't know very much aobut pigs , i know more about rabbits
Hi and welcome!
80% of what a guinea pig should eat in a day is hay and fresh dog pee free grass if you access to it when in season; this the food that guinea pigs have evolved on and that keeps their crucial back teeth ground down and their gut balanced. Rich fast growing grass counts towards veg; be careful to introduce any slowly as too much to quickly can cause diarrhea or severe bloat.
Fresh grass is rich in vitamin C and even hay still contains some; which is the reason why guinea pigs (unlike rabbits) have never had to make their own.
Fresh herbs and preferably green veg should make about 15% of what a piggy eats. It should be mainly a mix some high vitamin C foods a couple of sprigs of herbs, a slice of pepper and a very small amount of more calcium but also magnesium and the rest should be fairly low nutrition but high fluid veg like a slice of cucumber, a chunk of celery and or some romaine/cos or gem lettuce (no iceberg on a regular basis).
High sugar veg like carrots or sweet corn and any fruit and tomato should only ever be a rare treat once in a while but not a regular part of the diet. You can easily cover the vitamins in fruit with healthier veg. The same goes for rabbits, too, by the way. Carrot is the equivalent of a bar of chocolate (or several!) for both guinea pigs and rabbits.
It would be better if you saw the fresh feed more like the wild forage piggies would come across as an added nutritional treat to dry or fresh grass. Too much rich fruit and veg can in the longer term derail the natural fermentation process in the gut and make them more prone to digestive problems that can hit out of the blue.
Ideally you filter your water and only feed 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day; those two food group are actually where most of the calcium comes in the diet. Even no added calcium pellets still contain more than the highest calcium veg, kale and spinach. Guinea pigs have naturally very alkaline pee; this means that they are a lot more prone bladder stones or urinary tract infections of various sorts.
Here is our comprehensive diet guide that takes you in practical detail through all food groups with a sample veg diet picture:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
It is important that you weigh your piggies once weekly and give them a body check all their life long. This helps you spot slowly developing issues early on before they become a massive emergency. If you have worries, weighing daily at the same time gives you a much better idea of whether your piggies are eating enough than watching the poo output as that is lagging 1-2 days behind. The weight guide also tells you how you can check whether a guinea pig is a good weight for its current size at any time of their lives.
If you are worried, please see a vet.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Guinea pig body quirks - What is normal and what not?
New guinea pigs: Sexing, vet checks&customer rights, URI, ringworm and parasites
Guinea pigs learn from their elders what it safe to eat and what not; including drinking from a bottle. If you are worried that yours have never had any veg or are still frightened in their new surroundings please feed any veg, herbs and fruit only very sparsely and extend their diet gradually both in amount and variety.
Cover their area with a sheet to give them a feeling of safety.
How Do I Settle Shy New Guinea Pigs?
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig Safely
You can find a lot more information about guinea pigs as a species, their behaviours, care, housing, how to spot early signs of illness and what to do in an emergency via this link to our New Owners guide collection, which addresses specifically all the areas we get the most questions and worries about as well as the area where owners can get into trouble.
You may want to bookmark the link and use it as a resource. Unlike a book, the guide format allows us to update nd extend our information regularly. Our even larger information collection, which you can access via the guide shortcut on the top bar, is one of the of the most extensive information collections for guinea pig owners.
Here is the link:
Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
It is worth putting the effort in and reading up on your piggy information as you will be able to see and understand so much more and therefore enjoy them a lot more!
