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Vitamin D3

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Lilly

Lilly

Adult Guinea Pig
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My 2 boys are indoor piggies who go outside to munch grass a few times a week but always in the shade. It is just too hot here in Brisbane Australia to have them in direct sun. Even in the shade the heat & humidity can be high enough they start to wilt within 15 minutes and must be taken back into the air con. So, it was with dismay that I read at the school of vet science here at the uni of QLD that guineas need at least 1 hour 3 times a week unfiltered sunlight on their bodies to prevent vitamin D3 deficiency. That is not going to happen here! They would die of heat stroke making vitamn D3 deficiency a moot point. I know we humans can get vitamin D3 supplements. What about piggies? I know the UK can be hot in the summer and cold in the winter so there must be a lot of indoor piggies out there who just do not get any sun. What do such owners do about this vitamin D3 problem?
 
I've never heard there is a problem. What I am going to do is to check out their pellets and see if D3 is added. It's too COLD here to let them outside.
 
A lot of the pellet/mix dry food here is supplemented with Vitamin D, have you looked to see if the make you buy has Vit D added? :)
 
Most good pellet mixes have a lot of Vitamin D3 added in. Here in the UK its far too cold for our pigs to be outside and there is barely any sunshine.

If your feeding a good quality diet then theres no need to worry.

x.
 
If anyone has a pellet food that is fortified with vitamin D3 I'd be glad to hear of the brands. Maybe they are sold here or I can get them online. The brands here are not fortified with anything, including the much touted vitamin C. The nutrients are expected to come from the pellet contents. (I take care of the vitamin C issue with fresh veggies 3 times a day, grass several times a week and unlimited meadow hay). The pet shops do sell a small animal vitamin & mineral spray here that you can spray on their food. It is a multi vitamin & mineral spray though, so has vitamins a, c, d3, b1, b12 etc and minerals like calcium, magnesium, folic acid - well quite a cocktail, just like those human multi vitamin supplements. Mayne I should start using that?
 
You should be able to get Oxbow cavy cuisine out there and that has vit d3 in. I know burgess Excel here does, but it dont think you can get that there. The other good food is science selective guinea pig, but I'm not 100% sure if it definatly has vit d3 (i will go and check) and I'm not sure if you can get it over there.

x
 
Thank you Abi_Nurse! I looked up Oxbow & we have an Oxbow Australia distributor. I was able to view the Cavy Cuisine ingredients list on their website and yes Vit D3 (among other things). The retail outlets they list for my state seem to be only vet surgeries (and all of them an hour or more away by car). But, now that I know what to look for, I did find an Australian online retailer - hooray!
 
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