Under Feeding?

[Cookie16]

I've had guinea pigs for 10 years, but I'm just getting up to date with everything since joining this forum!

From not knowing any better, I've always fed a small bowl of museli and about the size of half a large carrot in fresh veg/salad plus unlimited hay.

So recently I've increased the amount and variety of veg each day and I've swapped to pellets.
My 2 girls are 3 years old and are a good size, 1.2kg. So I've kept the dry food quite low. I kept reading on here they should have around 30g, so today I have weighed what I would usually give, and it's only 30g for both piggies for the day! It's not like I've given them loads of veg either!

They are clearly doing well on it, but should I increase the dried food a bit? I feel a bit bad now! They love the new food as well! It's my 5 month old that doesn't like it and squeaks for the museli! I thought it would be the other way round! I am mixing his at the moment for him.

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

See how your 5 year old copes, with a bit longer testing the nuggets. If she doesn't like it, then I would suggest you give her the muesli if she's going on hunger strike.

 

[catasintiger]

To be honest I've never weighed our piggies dry food but what is good is that your too older ladies are a good weight - so i wouldn't feel too bad. Plenty of hay and grass and a variety of vegetables everyday will do them the world of good too. If I were you I would monitor their weight and if it stays they same carry on as your are, especially as they are older piggies and seem to be doing well on their current regime. As for your younger chappy I am sure he will come around to the nuggets, keep reducing the amount of muesli you are mixing and he'll get used to it - and remember he has hay and veggies too so it's not like you are starving him :-) Just keep weighing them all once a week to check they are not loosing weight.

my piggies switched to nuggets about a year after i got them when I read about selective feeding and now they refuse to eat anything but Wagg optimum pellets. one Christmas we ran out and our usual store wasnt open so we got museli as it was better than nothing and they wouldn't touch it at all and had no dry food for the 3 days! We felt so bad!

 

[Cookie16]

Thanks, I'll try not to feel bad!

I did know about selective feeding before and I delt with it by only giving them a small amount of museli. So their bowl was nearly always empty. But that must be how I've ended up giving them such a small amount!