What Do Your Piggies Eat In A Day?

Status
Not open for further replies.
luckyandsammy

luckyandsammy

Teenage Guinea Pig
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Messages
505
Reaction score
524
Points
525
Location
Peterborough
I'm trying to make Sammy's and Lucky's diet a little bit more interesting so I'm going to be a bit nosy and ask what your piggies eat every day. :)

This is what mine currently eat in a day.

In the morning I give them Meadow Menu guinea pig food. They have it with a handful of readigrass or a handful of Woodlands Rabbit's Herbal Forage, I just mix the pellets and the readigrass/forage in their bowl. They usually eat this throughout the day. I also fill up their hay rack with B&M meadow hay or Pure Pastures meadow hay. I usually have bags of both so sometimes they get a mix. These hays have different textures.

In the evening they get a bowl of vegetables. These are usually different every day unless I have loads of something (like a big bag of lettuce), then they get it for a few days in a row. They get at least 5 different veggies every day but it's usually 7-8. By veggies I meant fruit and herbs too. :D
I also give them some more meadow hay and I mix some of Nature's Own timothy hay in.

When they run out of hay during the day I fill it up with more meadow hay. They also get a few pea flakes as a treat when they are being super cute. :)


What do your piggies eat?
 
Mine get meadow hay, Timothy hay and four types of fruit and veg .This consists of sweet pepper every day and celery, cucumber, herbs, green beans, curly kale alternate.They get Asda pellets every day
 
madguinealady said:
Mine get meadow hay, Timothy hay and four types of fruit and veg .This consists of sweet pepper every day and celery, cucumber, herbs, green beans, curly kale alternate.They get Asda pellets every day
Click to expand...

Mine love peppers! :) I gave them some celery today and they threw it out of the bowl :D
 
This is my feeding routine:

Early morning - cleaning time! Then 1x big handful of Timothy hay (American Pet Diner, Momi or Oxbow - whatever is available as it's hard to get in Aus!), 1x smaller handful of meadow / grassy hay (local-grown).

Late afternoon - 1+ hour of grazing on grass (whenever possible!), at least 5 types of veg (usually a mix of cucumber, pumpkin, celery, capsicum, carrot, parsley, coriander, Asian greens, etc.), 1x big handful of Timothy hay, 1x smaller handful of meadow / grassy hay.

Evening - 1x tablespoon of Oxbow "Cavy Cuisine", 1x Oxbow Vitamin C hay tab.

Repeat!
 
Piggies like to forage, it's how they eat in the wild. So please give veg during the day, a bit at a time, then they will enjoy finding and eating it more. Varying the diet can be simply varying when you give the veg.
Please note, as my girls are not growing then they don't get a lot of nuggets. I want them to eat lots of hay, lots of hay, lots and lots of hay, and regular topping up with veg. For their health, I don't want them filling up on nuggets. So they have to empty the bowl after putting nuggets in, it is never left with nuggets lying in it as then I have fed too many.

First thing, green. (Kale, cabbage, spinach, broccoli/cauli stem,) One small handful. I have 3 middle aged girls. One small handful nuggets. Top up hay.

Back in from work and just before tea and just after tea and just before bedtime - top up hay if needed. One veg.
Veg given each day are - one carrot. Two sticks celery. One whole pepper (including seeds and stem). The carrot, celery, green and pepper given each day cover the basic vitamins they need, C,D and A.

They get a second small amount of nuggets, at some point during the evening.
They also get one more veg from the following: sweetcorn, half a beetroot, baby tomatoes, (These are treats, they like them)

If we eat grapes, they get the stems. If we eat melon, they get a bit of the rind, If we eat bananas they get some skin and so on.

Sorry if I sound lecturish, I can't help it. I've done loads of research on this. I need to write some articles for the food bit, When I have written an article, which mod should I send it too please? (I have written for the guinea pig magazine already)
 
my 2 girls (1 in March) get:
Morning - fresh B&M Hay - about 3 handfuls so the cat litter tray is full
a very small amount of Harringtons guinea pig nuggets - just a sprinkling
veg - pepper, cucumber, green bean, a herb, gem lettuce
Dinner time - fresh B&M hay
veg - pepper, green bean, different herb to breakfast and usually spring green/kale (not very often)/red cabbage

As treats they might get a bit of apple when i have one, i don't give fruit very often, just as a treat when its there.
 
piglette said:
This is my feeding routine:

Early morning - cleaning time! Then 1x big handful of Timothy hay (American Pet Diner, Momi or Oxbow - whatever is available as it's hard to get in Aus!), 1x smaller handful of meadow / grassy hay (local-grown).

Late afternoon - 1+ hour of grazing on grass (whenever possible!), at least 5 types of veg (usually a mix of cucumber, pumpkin, celery, capsicum, carrot, parsley, coriander, Asian greens, etc.), 1x big handful of Timothy hay, 1x smaller handful of meadow / grassy hay.

Evening - 1x tablespoon of Oxbow "Cavy Cuisine", 1x Oxbow Vitamin C hay tab.

Repeat!
Click to expand...

that sounds interesting! Mine have never had pumpkin. I might try giving them some when we get some :)
Do your piggies like the vitamin c tablets? I was looking at them few days ago but they had loads of bad reviews and it put me off buying them.
 
Sarah from Chucklebunnies said:
Piggies like to forage, it's how they eat in the wild. So please give veg during the day, a bit at a time, then they will enjoy finding and eating it more. Varying the diet can be simply varying when you give the veg.
Please note, as my girls are not growing then they don't get a lot of nuggets. I want them to eat lots of hay, lots of hay, lots and lots of hay, and regular topping up with veg. For their health, I don't want them filling up on nuggets. So they have to empty the bowl after putting nuggets in, it is never left with nuggets lying in it as then I have fed too many.

First thing, green. (Kale, cabbage, spinach, broccoli/cauli stem,) One small handful. I have 3 middle aged girls. One small handful nuggets. Top up hay.

Back in from work and just before tea and just after tea and just before bedtime - top up hay if needed. One veg.
Veg given each day are - one carrot. Two sticks celery. One whole pepper (including seeds and stem). The carrot, celery, green and pepper given each day cover the basic vitamins they need, C,D and A.

They get a second small amount of nuggets, at some point during the evening.
They also get one more veg from the following: sweetcorn, half a beetroot, baby tomatoes, (These are treats, they like them)

If we eat grapes, they get the stems. If we eat melon, they get a bit of the rind, If we eat bananas they get some skin and so on.

Sorry if I sound lecturish, I can't help it. I've done loads of research on this. I need to write some articles for the food bit, When I have written an article, which mod should I send it too please? (I have written for the guinea pig magazine already)
Click to expand...

I guess I should try splitting their evening veg into a few meals then! :) sometimes they get some during the day when I'm cooking something and I want to give them a treat but I will try doing it every day now :)

I always find nuggets tricky, I have one baby and one adult piggie so I want to give the baby as much as he wants but they only get about an egg cup a day. It's the readigrass and forage that takes them a while to eat :D
Are your piggies okay with the pepper seeds? I always check for seeds about 10 times before I feed pepper to them as I've read loads of things about making sure they don't eat the seeds.
 
artcasper said:
my 2 girls (1 in March) get:
Morning - fresh B&M Hay - about 3 handfuls so the cat litter tray is full
a very small amount of Harringtons guinea pig nuggets - just a sprinkling
veg - pepper, cucumber, green bean, a herb, gem lettuce
Dinner time - fresh B&M hay
veg - pepper, green bean, different herb to breakfast and usually spring green/kale (not very often)/red cabbage

As treats they might get a bit of apple when i have one, i don't give fruit very often, just as a treat when its there.
Click to expand...

The B&M hay is good isn't it? It's always so green and it smells amazing! It's the best one I can find :)
Mine love apple! They only have it like once every two weeks though, I'm worried about giving them too much. Out of fruit they only eat apples, tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries and it's only a tiny bit once or twice a week.
 
luckyandsammy said:
that sounds interesting! Mine have never had pumpkin. I might try giving them some when we get some :)
Do your piggies like the vitamin c tablets? I was looking at them few days ago but they had loads of bad reviews and it put me off buying them.
Click to expand...

Thanks :) I buy the Oxbow Vitamin C hay tablets, rather than the regular tablets (which are no longer sold in Aus). I can only speak about my experience - it took my boys a little time to get used to the hay tablets, but now they LOVE them - there's literally a riot in the pig room when they hear the bottle open, haha. Even though mine eat a pretty good diet, I found their health and condition picked up markedly when I started supplementing Vitamin C everyday :)

Nothing nicer than munching piggies!
 
piglette said:
Thanks :) I buy the Oxbow Vitamin C hay tablets, rather than the regular tablets (which are no longer sold in Aus). I can only speak about my experience - it took my boys a little time to get used to the hay tablets, but now they LOVE them - there's literally a riot in the pig room when they hear the bottle open, haha. Even though mine eat a pretty good diet, I found their health and condition picked up markedly when I started supplementing Vitamin C everyday :)

Nothing nicer than munching piggies!
Click to expand...

That's the ones I meant :) I might buy some in 2 weeks when I get paid :)
Do you give them one each or do they share them?
 
My two have unlimited meadow hay, then in the morning I'll give them a big handful of timothy hay with dandilions mixed into it.
Also in the morning I give them a small handful of veggies, then amother small handful at night.
I mix it up between peppers, coriander, parsley,cucumber, celery leaves, chard, green beans, baby sweetcorn, chicory, pak choi, apple, blueberries, banana skins..

Things like fruit, chicory and pak choi they only get ocassionally and most of their diet is hay. My two are never not eating hay :xd:
 
a variety of hays 24/7 - always the hay4pets ings, and the timothy hay from timothyhay.co.uk, then maybe one or two others mixed in aswell which i rotate. things like the oxbow orchard grass etc.

then once or twice a day (once at the moment) they have a small serving of veggies. usually 3-4 depending on what we have bought in for them and what they are each allowed (mollie has to have all low calcium but benjie doesn't)

after mollie's meds morning and night they each have a couple of small pieces of vitakraft pellets (usually two of the smaller broken off pieces in the bag each)

and available in their bowl the rest of the day and night are 1/8 cup of the galens garden pure timothy hay 'pellets' (so the bowls are never empty and another way to feed hay)

when the weather is dry they will also have a handful of grass most days aswell. :)

i like to focus on hays (and grass) and use veggies and pellets as little supplements :)
 
Last edited:
luckyandsammy said:
The B&M hay is good isn't it? It's always so green and it smells amazing! It's the best one I can find :)
Mine love apple! They only have it like once every two weeks though, I'm worried about giving them too much. Out of fruit they only eat apples, tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries and it's only a tiny bit once or twice a week.
Click to expand...
Yes its always green... mine scoff the lot.. and at £1.99 a bag its good value... only had a prob once when i found a dehydrated mouse squished in a bag!
 
I always take out all pepper seeds, just in case. I hear they can be a choking hazard so I'd rather not take the risk.

My girls have unlimited everything atm, needing Bella to put on some weight especially. Idk if she ever will though, she was the runt and she loves her zoomies too much to put on weight lol. Science selective nuggets mixed with Tescos own. Meadow hay for bedding (they don't like to eat it much, though they do sometimes) Timothy hay from Wilkos (their favourite, idk why).

Mine are quite fussy tbh, go off things quickly. All they really love is lettuce, romaine or little gem that's what they go for first. They also love coriander and parsley. They like pepper and small amounts of tomato, they sometimes like cucumber and carrots. They don't like apples or oranges, but atm they like mango and watermelon... They have expensive tastes I think lol. And they love dandelion leaves and fresh grass from the garden of course. I wanna find more natural plants to forage/grow for them though. I'm making a piggy garden with all their favourite foods this year. They are spoilt little brats :)
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
I always take out all pepper seeds, just in case. I hear they can be a choking hazard so I'd rather not take the risk.

My girls have unlimited everything atm, needing Bella to put on some weight especially. Idk if she ever will though, she was the runt and she loves her zoomies too much to put on weight lol. Science selective nuggets mixed with Tescos own. Meadow hay for bedding (they don't like to eat it much, though they do sometimes) Timothy hay from Wilkos (their favourite, idk why).

Mine are quite fussy tbh, go off things quickly. All they really love is lettuce, romaine or little gem that's what they go for first. They also love coriander and parsley. They like pepper and small amounts of tomato, they sometimes like cucumber and carrots. They don't like apples or oranges, but atm they like mango and watermelon... They have expensive tastes I think lol. And they love dandelion leaves and fresh grass from the garden of course. I wanna find more natural plants to forage/grow for them though. I'm making a piggy garden with all their favourite foods this year. They are spoilt little brats :)
Click to expand...

Ooooohhh is the wilkinsons hay in long or short pieces? I always see it when I go to get stuff but I never bought it because it looked kind of dusty.
Mine love coriander but they like most things :)
I will be growing veggies for my pets too, we had a little vegetable patch in the garden last year and it was so useful!
 
Short pieces, the stuff that I've had has never been dusty. I just bought some more from their website and they delivered next day which was fantastic and unexpected. My fussy girls don't really like anything else lol.

I'd love to pick your brains on the veggie patch, I'm a relatively new gardener (and a forgetful/lazy one lol) I still need to finish my raised bed but the weather has been so lousy. I might make another thread for it actually, save taking over yours!
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Short pieces, the stuff that I've had has never been dusty. I just bought some more from their website and they delivered next day which was fantastic and unexpected. My fussy girls don't really like anything else lol.

I'd love to pick your brains on the veggie patch, I'm a relatively new gardener (and a forgetful/lazy one lol) I still need to finish my raised bed but the weather has been so lousy. I might make another thread for it actually, save taking over yours!
Click to expand...

Oh okay, I use a hay rack and small pieces fall out and my piggies don't eat them off the floor. It's a shame because it's really cheap :td:
Aw, I'm not great at gardening, I just do what the seed packets say :D
Making a thread about it will be a great idea, I think loads of people will find it useful!
 
luckyandsammy said:
Oh okay, I use a hay rack and small pieces fall out and my piggies don't eat them off the floor. It's a shame because it's really cheap :td:
Aw, I'm not great at gardening, I just do what the seed packets say :D
Making a thread about it will be a great idea, I think loads of people will find it useful!
Click to expand...

I use a hay rack too, don't have much issue with bits falling out so maybe it's not as short as I think.

I try to follow the seed packets but it doesn't always work out for me haha. Lost my melons last year to bloody slugs and snails lol. I made a thread and people have been helpful already, yay!
 
Sorry for intruding, but I've just one quick question: why do you split the feedtimes and is it better to have different meal times?

To answer the question, I start of with 1/8 cup of pellets and a refill lots of hay , then at dinner time I like to give him about a cup of mixed vegetables daily. It varies, but currently I give him broccoli, carrot, pepper, herbs, spinach.
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
I use a hay rack too, don't have much issue with bits falling out so maybe it's not as short as I think.

I try to follow the seed packets but it doesn't always work out for me haha. Lost my melons last year to bloody slugs and snails lol. I made a thread and people have been helpful already, yay!
Click to expand...

Oh, I might but it next time I'm there then :)
Aw haha, I lost loads of things last year because my rabbits ate them before they had a chance to grow :D
 
Piggiekisses said:
Sorry for intruding, but I've just one quick question: why do you split the feedtimes and is it better to have different meal times?

To answer the question, I start of with 1/8 cup of pellets and a refill lots of hay , then at dinner time I like to give him about a cup of mixed vegetables daily. It varies, but currently I give him broccoli, carrot, pepper, herbs, spinach.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? I feed them in the morning and at night because I like feeding them before I go to college and I clean out my rabbits every morning so it's easier to give pellets than make a salad (it would take longer to wash and cut up veggies for all of my pets :) ) and I work evening shifts at the weekend so I feed them when I come home. On normal days I have more time to cut up veggies and stuff in the evenings and on weekends I cut them up before I go to work so they are ready. I don't know if it's better to do it like this or a different way but it works for me. I'm not sure if that answered your question, I'm sorry if it didn't.
 
For @Piggiekisses just to let you know. Piggies can't be sick, they need regular hay going down to empty their stomachs into the gut so hay must be all times including overnight. Our food, our veg, is very rich because we have bred it that way - our guts are hopeless at getting nutrients from veg compared to a piggy. So constant hay, rich foods spaced out so that the stomach is never overloaded and there is no problem with digestion at all. It is a lot closer to the way they would eat in the wild anyhow, better for them to follow the pattern of eating their digestion is set up for.

I hope that helps, Sarah
 
For pellets Mine started off on Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch Muesli, as I liked the thoughts of giving them variety. However, I noticed that one of mine favoured the pea flakes and biscuit-type bits over the rest, and it's not the best in terms of grain content.
So to keep variety in their pellets I opted to buy different types, and just keep a little muesli in the mix. So mine have a mixture of:

Versele Laga: Complete Cavia (Pellet)
JR Farm: Basic food (good quality muesli)
JR Farm: Grainless Complete (pellet)
Vitacraft: Emotion Prebiotic (pellet)
Burgess Excel: Nuggets with Mint (pellet)
Pets At Home: Nuggets (pellet)
Bunny (pellets)
Tesco Guinea Pig Muesli.

Their favourites seem to be the muesli mix from the JR Farm, and the Burgess pellets with mint. I'm sorry to say that although the Bunny is nutritionally excellent only one of my pigs will touch them, even if they're the only ones left and I don't top it up for the rest of the day. Therefore I won't be buying any more of that.

They have this in the morning.

In the evening they get five-six different veggies, and occasionally a little bit of fruit. Today they're going to get a bit of apple each as I'm making an apple pie :)
Staples are: cucumber, green beens, pepper, lettuce (often rocket), water cress. They also get broccoli and celery but not every day, and other veg now and then.

They get little bits of coriander throughout the day. Always a sprig each as I greet them in the mornings, and always just before I go to bed, and at lap-time too, and sometimes I sneak a bit in there just because the piggies exist! They love coriander.

Hay gets replaced when I spot-clean/full-clean, and that can be any time of day depending on my shift pattern, but they always have a large pile. They have:
Pillow Wad Meadow Hay,
Lunnun Meadow hay
Alfalfa King Timothy Hay
ReadiGrass (but not his every day - tends to make a great treat stuffed in a apaper bag :)) or small amounts sprinkled round the rest of the hay

Daily water of course! :).
 
Piggiekisses said:
Sorry for intruding, but I've just one quick question: why do you split the feedtimes and is it better to have different meal times?

To answer the question, I start of with 1/8 cup of pellets and a refill lots of hay , then at dinner time I like to give him about a cup of mixed vegetables daily. It varies, but currently I give him broccoli, carrot, pepper, herbs, spinach.
Click to expand...

feeding fresh food once or twice a day is fine. some say smaller meals spread out are better but i don't think it matters too much as fresh food is a small part of the diet anyway so feeding once you shouldn't be feeding them huge amounts of anything that their tummies would struggle with.

i tend to feed two smaller meals when there isn't grass available. when there is, i like to give veggies once and a handful of grass the other meal :)
 
luckyandsammy said:
What do you mean? I feed them in the morning and at night because I like feeding them before I go to college and I clean out my rabbits every morning so it's easier to give pellets than make a salad (it would take longer to wash and cut up veggies for all of my pets :) ) and I work evening shifts at the weekend so I feed them when I come home. On normal days I have more time to cut up veggies and stuff in the evenings and on weekends I cut them up before I go to work so they are ready. I don't know if it's better to do it like this or a different way but it works for me. I'm not sure if that answered your question, I'm sorry if it didn't.
Click to expand...


Thanks ! It's a great answer, was just wondering if it's better to have breakfast, lunch, dinner? :)
 
From experience, Guinea pigs are more active morning and evening so I give them veggies at breakfast time and supper time. It fits in with my last lifestyle too!
 
luckyandsammy said:
Oh, I might but it next time I'm there then :)
Aw haha, I lost loads of things last year because my rabbits ate them before they had a chance to grow :D
Click to expand...

Oh dear, naughty rabbits! No home grown fruit or veg for them this year then, that'll teach them a lesson :))
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top