Replacing hay

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Weeze315

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Hi all, we're new to having Guinea pigs and have 2 16 week old males. Peter & Ginger Biscuit.

Each day I restock their hay but I'm not entirely sure if I need to bin all of it...? In their sleeping quarters they eat some of it and spread the rest across the base (I'm assuming) to sleep on. When I do a poo & wee pick each day I'm unsure if they'd be content with keeping this layer & having a couple of new piles of fresh hay as well, or remove the whole lot each day. They also barely touch the hay in their trough so most of this gets thrown each day. Does this sound normal?

They have nuggets twice daily as well, sometimes they finish them all sometimes there's lots left.

We've started giving them kale around tea time which measures roughly 40g, & a few sticks of red bell pepper.

Occasionally they'll wheek for something when I come in the room but I can see they've got enough & not sure whether giving them more when they do this is a bad habit to start?

Thanks for any tips in advance!
 
Nuggets need to be just one tablespoon per pig per day. If you give them twice a day, that’s fine but only give half a tablespoon at each time. They are least important and least healthy part of their diet. Any pellets which are left after a short period, then remove them and don’t let them have any more for the rest of the day.

Kale, and all high calcium veg, should be one small amount once per week only. Too much calcium, most of which comes from too much pellets and unfiltered drinking water, can lead to bladder stone formation.

in terms of hay, mine are fully bedded on hay. I remove any wet areas daily. I throw fresh hay in three times a day. I only do a full cage clean once per week. I do not use any kind of hayracks/troughs at all - as you are possibly finding, they seem to prefer their hay being easily accessible, right in front of them and I find mine eat so much more without the hassle of having to get it out of a hayrack

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
 
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I dump 2 large piles of hay on the cage floor every day.
There’s also a hidey of some description , such as a cardboard box also stuffed with hay, plus a hay bag ( paper bag filled with hay).
Mine love to eat it, play in it, sleep on it, hide under it. I remove any that’s really yucky and cage clean roughly every 5 days.

As soon as you appear a piggy will wheek for food. This is how they train their slaves.
Ours have often had 2 snacks when either my husband or I have given them something which is rapidly eaten then they try to convince the other that no-one has given them their midday snack ( usually some fresh herbs).
 
Weeze315 said:
These are sooo helpful thank you so much I'll reduce the kale down & look at the fresh herb option as the daily treat instead!

We're only giving the recommended amount of nuggets so that's good.
Click to expand...
The favourite herbs here are coriander, parsley and dill. They don get dill too often and parsley even more rarely because they’re not as good. Coriander- it’s practically inhaled.
 
I used to use a hay rack but mine never touched the hay in it, so I used to empty it out into the cage every day til I realised I might as well just put it in the cage anyway!:doh:
 
I use a magazine rack for hay and put some on the hay tray ( which the magazine rack stands on). The rest of the cage has fleece bedding.

I fill the hay rack back up each day and replace all the hay tray hay.

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