Young Guinea Pellets vs. Adult Pellets - Necessary?

[melodyinairdrie]

Hi there,

For reasons that I have posted on another thread, I now have a 2 months old piggie and a 10 month old piggie living together. For that reason, I have some questions:

• Does the younger piggie really need the pellets that are labeled as Baby/Young Food? We use Oxbow. Because if so, how do we keep the older one from eating it really?

• If the answer ends up being that it doesn't really matter, does that mean it's ok for my older piggie to eat the Baby Pellets while we finish out the bag we didn't need to buy?

• And from a lot of the answers I'm reading here, it looks like contrary to pellet feeding instructions, the baby piggie doesn't need to have constant access to pellets. He technically doesn't need more every day than the older one. Which is good because again - how would I keep the older one from gaining too much weight?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Piggies&buns]

No, the younger piggy does not need baby pellets. They can eat adult pellets from birth. Baby pellets are a bit of a gimmick and entirely unnecessary.

No, it’s not really ok for your older piggy to eat the baby pellets while you finish the bag. This is because baby pellets contains alfalfa which should not be fed to adult piggies (it’s a legume and it contains too much calcium which can lead to bladder stone formation).

No piggy should have constant access to pellets - don’t go by feeding instructions on the packet. It is one tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day only (usually weighs around 6-10 grams, and with most packaging saying to feed 30-40g of pellets you can see how piggies can end up being wildly overfed pellets which can lead to multiple health issues).

Even the normal adult pellets contain a lot of calcium (it’s one of the main ways calcium comes into the diet along with unfiltered drinking water) so they must be kept limited at all times.

 

[Siikibam]

As well as the above, I would scatter feed the pellets rather than put in a bowl. It’s a form of enrichment for them and stops hogging/eating most because they can chase the baby away.

If you have to use bowls then put them at least one piggy length apart.