What would you do?

Status
Not open for further replies.
lizzie_71

lizzie_71

Joined
Oct 12, 2007
Messages
633
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Today my two guinea pigs have had

1 full bowl of tesco guinea pig food
2 romaine lettuce leaves
1 stick of celery
2 full hayballs of hay

Just about to go to bed and I noticed they have no food in their cage, not a scrap, not even a strand of hay.

Would you give them more, or just say tough, wait till breakfast? They aren't squeaking for food by the way.
 
Guinea pigs are forages so they need a constant supply of hay and although not vital to their diet dried food should always be supplied. If Guinea Pigs don't eat over 5 hours their bodies shut down so they need to have something there to feed on. Even if they only have hay for the night its far better than nothing at all.

I'm just in the process of feeding mine. They are munching of readigrass and I'll top up hay, dried food and water bottles before I go to bed. :)
 
i would feed them too, i feed my piggies more than that, maybe I'm over feeding them :-\ was all the hay gone? if so id put more in next time so they didnt run out :) i never let mine run out of pellets or hay :)
 
I give mine loads of hay, went in yesterday to find Twinkle covered head to toe in Hay, he cracks me up! But the thing is, no matter how much hay I give them I worry that once they stand on it they don't eat it! I have hay racks but it always ends up on the floor! ::)
 
The hay is always all gone, however much I put in there. They eat whatever I put in, and won't stop until it is gone ::)

I feed them dried food in the morning and veg at teatime, and put hay in each time. Isn't that enough? They are huge piggies, each weighing over 1.3kg.

I might put some hay in I guess, but I don't normally bother and their bodies have never 'shut down' - where did that idea come from?
 
how much hay do you put in? i know i go through loads but some does end up on floor covered in poop ::)
 
None ends up on the floor, I fill up a hayball so about 2 handfuls each time and it is all eaten. The odd strand might get missed but no significant spillage since I ditched the hay rack which they kept pulling down.
 
I don't know how much I give mine.....veg, yes but hay and dried no, as I always just keep it topped up...sorry that didn't help did it ::)
 
sammy I'm the same i was trying to work out how much they go through but i never let it go empty :-\

they get 3-4 lots of veg a day but thats all i know ;D
 
Well it's up to you, they are your pigs. :) I've read it on here from one of the Mods, I personally wouldn't chance it but then I am a worry wart.
 
They've been getting this amount for ages and are big healthy boys, but maybe they need more?

I only ever give veg once a day. They get it at teatime, which usually coincides with when I'm cutting some up for us too :) Can't believe I'm underfeeding them given their huge size ;D
 
I've read it too Louise....they graze and something about the digestion system...I think :-\
 
I feed veg x2 daily and hay is topped up in the morning, afternoon and night and they get a bowl of Readigrass daily. Perhaps offer veg in the morning too :) Hay is good for fibre and they like to forage in it, mine don't have 'balls' hay was meant for playing in too :) I do have some window baskets that I fill with hay for them but they empty them over night and eat most of the hay I put in for playing ::)

Hay racks are useless and too small, tissue boxes, paper bags or any cardboard boxes (cereal etc) that you have can be stuffed with hay and are much better for them than racks and balls I think :)

Guineas need hay to keep the gut moving which is why they shouldn't be starved before an operation :)
 
I wouldn't say you are underfeeding them, they just need the supply so they have the choice to have it or not. I think I was killing my pigs with kindness I was giving them too much veg I've cut it down to 5 veg a day and they seem better with that and the hay, readigrass and pellets. I guess it works both ways. :)

Karen, I find the hay racks too small as well but I have one in the indoor hutch that is stuck on the bars...lol I use old teabag boxes. I've got the family who keep me in supply of cardboard! :D
 
They can't have it to play in as it sticks to the vetbed and is a to clean.

I'll give them a handful of hay I guess before I turn in. It'll be gone in 20 minutes though!

Feeding more than twice a day is out as I'm not usually here between 8am and 7pm on a workday. On those days they get fed early morning, then they get fed when I get back, or occasionally they get a carrot from OH if they squeak loudly enough.
 
i was feeding my pigs too much veg because i gave in every time they wheeked so now they get 3-4 small portions where as before they were getting 2 bigger portions and odd bits when they wheeked, but all these odd bits here and there ended up being another large portion ::)

maybe you could get a carboard box and give another portion of hay twice daily?
 
Then my suggestion would be to loose the VetBed, or at least only have it covering half the cage, guieas forage naturally- its part of their behaviour :) Or perhaps you could put some sort of litter tray stuffed with hay in there?

Save your recyclable rubbish/cardboard for a wheek, its suprising how useful things are ;)
 
mine are on fleece and they have a hay rack (bottom draw of a feezer ;D ) with a litter tray underneath and a big pile in a corner, to keep my cage cleaner i put lots of newspaper under the hay (which is in the corner) :)
 
ok i will take pics tonight and email them you tomorrow or tues, i still dont know how to put photos on the forum ;D i need another date with Graham :-*
 
UPDATE - I put in a full ball of hay at 11pm, this morning it was totally untouched :o Guess they weren't hungry after all!
 
Lizzie71 said:
None ends up on the floor, I fill up a hayball so about 2 handfuls each time and it is all eaten. The odd strand might get missed but no significant spillage since I ditched the hay rack which they kept pulling down.
Click to expand...
One day I counted that I filled up the hayball 6 times and the little piggies ate the whole lot, they are 8 and 10 weeks old, I find that the balls are too small so I now put a handfull in the corner of their cage in the plastic dish that comes with the cage so I dont have to full up so often and they have hay there to eat during the night :)
 
I know hay is a pain to clear up, mine make a mess with it anyway but I do my best to minimise it by filling a box with hay, a bit cat food box from a friend or a big Tea bag box, any cardboard thing will do.

I leave a small lip that they can easily jump in and that stops at least some of the hay scattering everwhere, TBH they usually just pull most of it out anyway but it does keep some in.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top