Which hay is best for young pigs?

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Jebebr

Jebebr

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We have just re-homed two, 9 weeks old female guinea pigs. We have been feeding them Timothy hay, should we continue to or should we be initially be giving them alfalfa?

I will get a picture of them up soon. Going to let them settle in first!

Regards
x
 
As they are so young I would feed them alfalfa for the extra calcium.
 
I heard it was until they are six months. I am not entirely sure though,sorry.
 
You can feed an extra handful of alfalfa on top of the normal timothy or meadow hay (which should make up to 80% of the daily food intake) until the piggies are about 4-6 months old if you really wish to, but unlimited pellets until the weekly growth rate is slowing down will do the trick perfectly well. The extra amount of calcium needed is actually not all that high!

PS: Weigh your healthy piggies once weekly throughout their lives and daily during illness or even suspected illness.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
 
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Wiebke said:
You can feed an extra handful of alfalfa on top of the normal timothy or meadow hay (which should make up to 80% of the daily food intake) until the piggies are about 4-6 months old if you really wish to, but unlimited pellets until the weekly growth rate is slowing down will do the trick perfectly well. The extra amount of calcium needed is actually not all that high!

PS: Weigh your healthy piggies once weekly throughout their lives and daily during illness or even suspected illness.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
Click to expand...

Thank you Wiebke, we are keeping a diary this time. Weight of the girls currently are 365kg and 350kg. Think they have settled in reasonably well in the past 4 days. Although there is one of the girls I haven't seen drinking from the water bottle. She has been near it but not too my knowledge drank from it. I have put a dish of water in thier cage just in case (first couple of days she has taken wee sips out of this) I'm not overly concerned about it just now as she is eating veg, hay and pellets, thinking this is enough fluid for a small GP or am I wrong to think this?

Thanks
 
I don't think you need worry about them not drinking from the bottle just now. Mine were here about a week before I noticed them drinking and they still don't seem to drink much now, but they have plenty of veg and so get fluid from that.:)
 
It is a common problem with youngsters not having learned to use the bottle. Most will do at some point. Until then, eating veg is enough!
 
Thanks guys, one is happy using the bottle and the other takes sips from a bowl in their cage. They have certainly came out their shell in the past week :)
 
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