Vege Amounts for Young Guinea-pigs...

[Piggy_Trio]

I am just wondering if a guinea-pig that is only 2 months old should have less than the 1 cup (30-50g) recommendation of fresh vege because they are smaller, or the same because they are doing a lot of growing and still need that full mix of nutrients? They will not be having pellets, so need all the nutrients from hay, fresh grass and veges. TIA

 

[Siikibam]

No, that amount is fine. Hay should make up at least 80% and should be in constant supply. Be careful with grass - if they’re not used to it you need to introduce it in small amounts and slowly increase. What I also do is if they’ve had lawn time, I cut back on their veggies.

May I ask why you’re not feeding pellets?

 

[Piggy_Trio]

No, that amount is fine. Hay should make up at least 80% and should be in constant supply. Be careful with grass - if they’re not used to it you need to introduce it in small amounts and slowly increase. What I also do is if they’ve had lawn time, I cut back on their veggies.

May I ask why you’re not feeding pellets?

Great - thanks for clarifying!

The hay is in constant supply - both as bedding, and hung up in their eating area (for an always clean option).
They are very used to grass, as they have been eating it since they started eating (as in before we acquired them). I know that for a lot of you in this forum they are considered indoor pets, but in the country where I live that is pretty much unheard of. Therefore they are in a cage with a run and access to grass all the time (apart from at night time as I have been bringing them inside in the evenings so far while they get used to their cage etc). At the moment they do not really go down the ramp onto the grass of their own accord (only when we put them there), so mostly just eat the grass I put in their eating space above. I assume that soon they will be down in the run a lot more and then able to eat whatever grass they like - so I am not really sure how to judge how much they are getting and offset that against their veges.

I am not feeding pellets because the pellets available here are of a very low quality and contains a lot of "junk" ingredients that would not be of benefit to the piggies. I am aiming to do HAFF well, rather than feed them things that are not good for them. It is all a lot of learning and reading at the moment though!

 

[Ellie-May]

I am just wondering if a guinea-pig that is only 2 months old should have less than the 1 cup (30-50g) recommendation of fresh vege because they are smaller, or the same because they are doing a lot of growing and still need that full mix of nutrients? They will not be having pellets, so need all the nutrients from hay, fresh grass and veges. TIA

At two months a healthy balanced diet is fine. I think there is a diet guide somewhere on this forum to help you. I have two babies that are two weeks old (nearly three) and they are eating solids completely now alongside mothers milk but I still stick to the diet guide. The only difference is they get two tablespoons of pellets each (up until 4 months) and the rest get one. As long as hay is available 24/7 that’s the main thing

 

[Siikibam]

Piggies are generally ground roaming animals, so won’t necessarily take to ramps. How steep is the ramp? If it’s quite steep you will need to adapt it. One alternative is you could attach a tunnel to it so they feel safer. Then encourage them up and down it using veg

 

[Piggy_Trio]

Piggies are generally ground roaming animals, so won’t necessarily take to ramps. How steep is the ramp? If it’s quite steep you will need to adapt it. One alternative is you could attach a tunnel to it so they feel safer. Then encourage them up and down it using veg

The ramp is not too steep, as we purposely kept it longer to be a bit more gradual. They happily go up it when I put them down in the run, but virtually never go down without encouragement - although they are going onto the top bit occasionally now, which I guess is progress. The tunnel idea is a great one - thanks! I think it is mostly that sense of feeling exposed going down that they don't like, so that could well help.