Dilly's Piggies
Teenage Guinea Pig
I did write a post about this in the food section the other day but I find this topic very interesting for the future of our piggies dietary requirements, so I wanted to write more of an article type post explaining my findings and experience and to get some feedback from other piggy owners and those experienced with Guinea Pig nutrition.
We all should know by now that we should be feeding probiotics when giving antibiotics for any reason to restore the good bacteria killed by the antibiotic and to keep the digestive tract in working order. A few months ago I started feeding Protexin Pro-Fibre for rabbits which is a pelleted prebiotic and probiotic on a daily basis, the pellets come with a 15ml scoop so I gave half a scoop (7.5ml) per piggy alongside their regular Oxbow pellets, and I've had nothing but great results by doing this. All my piggies eat a tonne more hay and their poops are larger and more uniform.
I have 9 female guinea pigs that live in 2 separate herds, a herd of 5 and a herd of 4, my herd of 5 have always been savage eaters and eat lots of hay just as they should, but my herd of 4 for some reason do not eat much hay and their poops are more ball shaped than the long oval shape they should be. In the herd of 4, two piggies got UTI's and another was spayed 2 months ago, due to this all 3 were on antibiotics and fibreplex (which is a probiotic paste.) During this time I noticed a huge increase in hay consumption and their poops went from ball shaped and small to normal looking, the fibreplex is what caused this and it caused me to consider feeding probiotics long term to encourage these piggies to eat more hay.
Fibreplex is expensive and a bit of a pain to administer by syringe to multiple pigs 2-3 times a day so I then looked into pelleted probiotics, the Protexin Pro-Fibre is made by the same company as Fibreplex so I trusted them and purchased Pro-Fibre, it's marketed mainly for rabbits but is also safe for other small animals such as Guinea Pigs, so I gave this a go. I gave my herd of 4 picky hay eaters half a scoop each first, I then came in to clean out and feed the next day and ALL of their hay had gone, this was really unusual and not like them, they would normally only eat half of it maximum, I was pleasantly surprised to see they had eaten all of their hay, with this their poops had changed size and shape dramatically and it was due to the Pro-Fibre.
In my herd of 5, one of the girls does suffer with a sensitive stomach, for example she can't eat oxbows urinary support tablet which all of my piggies get on a daily basis, so I had to swap her to oxbow digestive support which was better but still made her poops a little soft. Since feeding her Protexin Pro-Fibre she has had no symptoms at all and she can even eat the urinary tablet like everyone else with no effects, but I still feed her digestive support instead as she likes the taste better plus it's more tailored to her than the urinary.
This product has given me nothing but good results and I wanted to write this for other owners with similar issues, you should always see a vet first to make sure nothing medical is causing the problem but if your piggy is just a picky eater, doesn't eat much hay or has a mild stomach sensitivity, Pro-Fibre is definitely a supplement to consider. Since my girl Harriet was spayed she has struggled to gain weight without probiotics when the antibiotics were stopped, so I think these are great for piggies that need to gain weight too. All 9 of my girls get half a 15ml scoop daily and it benefits them all hugely.
We all should know by now that we should be feeding probiotics when giving antibiotics for any reason to restore the good bacteria killed by the antibiotic and to keep the digestive tract in working order. A few months ago I started feeding Protexin Pro-Fibre for rabbits which is a pelleted prebiotic and probiotic on a daily basis, the pellets come with a 15ml scoop so I gave half a scoop (7.5ml) per piggy alongside their regular Oxbow pellets, and I've had nothing but great results by doing this. All my piggies eat a tonne more hay and their poops are larger and more uniform.
I have 9 female guinea pigs that live in 2 separate herds, a herd of 5 and a herd of 4, my herd of 5 have always been savage eaters and eat lots of hay just as they should, but my herd of 4 for some reason do not eat much hay and their poops are more ball shaped than the long oval shape they should be. In the herd of 4, two piggies got UTI's and another was spayed 2 months ago, due to this all 3 were on antibiotics and fibreplex (which is a probiotic paste.) During this time I noticed a huge increase in hay consumption and their poops went from ball shaped and small to normal looking, the fibreplex is what caused this and it caused me to consider feeding probiotics long term to encourage these piggies to eat more hay.
Fibreplex is expensive and a bit of a pain to administer by syringe to multiple pigs 2-3 times a day so I then looked into pelleted probiotics, the Protexin Pro-Fibre is made by the same company as Fibreplex so I trusted them and purchased Pro-Fibre, it's marketed mainly for rabbits but is also safe for other small animals such as Guinea Pigs, so I gave this a go. I gave my herd of 4 picky hay eaters half a scoop each first, I then came in to clean out and feed the next day and ALL of their hay had gone, this was really unusual and not like them, they would normally only eat half of it maximum, I was pleasantly surprised to see they had eaten all of their hay, with this their poops had changed size and shape dramatically and it was due to the Pro-Fibre.
In my herd of 5, one of the girls does suffer with a sensitive stomach, for example she can't eat oxbows urinary support tablet which all of my piggies get on a daily basis, so I had to swap her to oxbow digestive support which was better but still made her poops a little soft. Since feeding her Protexin Pro-Fibre she has had no symptoms at all and she can even eat the urinary tablet like everyone else with no effects, but I still feed her digestive support instead as she likes the taste better plus it's more tailored to her than the urinary.
This product has given me nothing but good results and I wanted to write this for other owners with similar issues, you should always see a vet first to make sure nothing medical is causing the problem but if your piggy is just a picky eater, doesn't eat much hay or has a mild stomach sensitivity, Pro-Fibre is definitely a supplement to consider. Since my girl Harriet was spayed she has struggled to gain weight without probiotics when the antibiotics were stopped, so I think these are great for piggies that need to gain weight too. All 9 of my girls get half a 15ml scoop daily and it benefits them all hugely.
