Guinea pig diet?

[Cherry59]

I'm interested in adopting 2 cavies, but one is 6 months and one is 10 months. They are bonded, and aren't under 10 month old cavies supposed to eat alfalfa based pellets, and over 10 months timothy based products? I'm so confused! Please help.

[Cre]

Not kept piggies for quite a few yrs now but do remember that after a few days old our new borns just ate whatever the parents ate and topped up by feeding from mum. Lovely animals, I am sure you will enjoy being a owner. X

[filardimarg2]

I kept them a good few years ago........i fed them weeds, most veg, & guinea pig pellets, the best u can get, there are some cheap rubbishy one on the market. I will find out the make of the good ones for you.
They are a great pet to have.

Marg.

[herriotfan]

Mine have weeds, vegetables and fruit.
They do need a constant supply of hay and I use Timothy hay.
With regard to commercial guinea pig food....I use Burgess Excell which I believe to be the best on the market. The ones like 'Gerty' which have a variety of things in is ok but the piggies will pick out what they like and leave the rest. The complete pellets may look dull and boring but they do ensure that the piggies get all the nutrients.
There are lots of caresheets on the web that will give you details of suitable fresh foods or you could look on some guinea pig forums...most have sections on feeding.
They are super pets, mine are very precious. Good luck!

[jonesy]

I give mine a mixture of a mixed guinea pig mixture with the addition of a very good guinea pig pellet. They also have a selection of mixed vegetables and I also offer Pre alpen twice a week.

[emma_mcraf]

They need vitamin C each day too, so I give my two piggies red pepper most days in addition to their guinea pig food and hay. Mine love carrot tops, carrots, grapes and the odd tomato too.

[Cherry59]

Thanks. I've already chosen the pellets and Timothy hay, they are going to be the Oxbow brand. Here's the link, but I'm not sure if they ship to the UK (I live in Canada).http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/

[Shelled Lady]

Please try and keep to green food for your cavies. They do not require loads of dried food. You must provide plenty grass and any other green food you can feed and like tortoises, always go for weeds, like dandies, clover and sow thistle. A nice bed of hay to sleep in and eat should also be provided. Crushed oats and pellets with vit C can be provided once aday as a top up. During the summer, they can be out on the grass. They do not cope with cold wet weather though.

[Pussygalore]

I had two which had the run of the garden with the torts, they had dried food but mostly spent all day grazing, during the winter months the torts were hibernated but the pigs moved to having the floor of the heated tort shed. They still had access to the garden through the tort door, I think they were a bit spoilt, they shared all the weeds thrown in with the torts although Sid would chase them off and they did keep the garden short which saved on strimming. This was the garden and the scaffold boards separated Sid from Tootsie the pigs used to hop over from one side to the other. I suppose they weren't as freindly as some as they hated being picked up but must have lived a natural life, they had a hutch for the summer and were always shut in at night as were the torts.

[Nellie and Morla]

Originally Posted by Cherry59

I'm interested in adopting 2 cavies, but one is 6 months and one is 10 months. They are bonded, and aren't under 10 month old cavies supposed to eat alfalfa based pellets, and over 10 months timothy based products? I'm so confused! Please help.

I bred show guinea pigs. That is utter nonsense. All our guinea pigs ate Gertie Guinea Pig mix. It's a good balanced mix. Plus hay ad lib and Vitamin C drops for the water. All of them got daily veggies plus a weekly piece of orange except month old babies who got lots of fresh food every day since their teeth are barely through, they struggle to chew the hard food.