Proper feeding and nutrition
Feeding your guinea pig is a fairly simple
manner, though there are a few special needs that
you should be aware of. Guinea pigs are strict
vegetarians, and in addition to their pellets,
they will eat fruits and vegetables, bread, and
will even nibble on vegetarian dog biscuits. This
section describes the essentials of the guinea
pig's diet, as well as some quick notes on what
foods should be avoided.
Before getting in to the details, it is
important to point out that guinea pigs like a
routine, predictable life. Sudden changes in
their diet can cause stress, so be careful. If
you change brands of pellets, do so gradually by
adding a few of the new ones to their old
pellets, and slowly switching the mixture over.
Feeding excessive amounts of fruits and
vegetables at one time can cause diarrhea,
particularly if you are introducing new foods.
Water
All guinea pigs need water to survive. Though
they can obtain a large portion of their water
from fresh fruits, vegetables and greens, they
will still require water from a water bottle to
stay healthy. This water should be changed daily,
and the water bottles themselves washed
periodically to keep them clean. To prevent algae
growth, make sure that the sun does not directly
shine on the water bottle for long periods of
time. If you are looking for alternatives to tap
water, consider bottled water or a water filter
system. Distilled water is not recommended for
regular drinking, as it can disturb the osmotic
pressure in the body cells, which can potentially
lead to osmotic shock.
Be aware that some guinea pigs like to
"play" with their water bottle, leaking
out large amounts of water by holding the steel
ball up in the tube. Others like to try and blow
water back up into the bottle, which can
contaminate the entire supply. There's not a lot
that you can do about these games, except be
aware that they can happen, and that you may need
to change their water more than once a day.
Hay: the basic food
Hay is the mainstay of every guinea pig's
diet. Though guinea pig pellets do contain hay,
it is not in sufficient quantity to keep your
guinea pig healthy. You guinea pig must have a
fresh supply of hay every day in order to keep
its digestive system regular, and as a general
rule, you should allow your guinea pig to have as
much hay as it will eat.
Timothy hay is the best type of hay to feed,
though any grass hay will do. If grass hay is not
available, you can feed a legume hay, such as
alfalfa, though in general you should avoid this
as much as possible. Legume hays are high in
calcium, and this can lead to bladder stones
(uroliths) in some animals. Most pet stores carry
dried timothy hay in large and small bags, but it
is far better to purchase your hay fresh from a
feed and garden store, or directly from a farmer.
Buying hay by the bale is especially economical,
as a bale of hay will literally last for months,
and will stay fresh as long as it is stored
properly. Some tips on hay storage can be found
here.
If you don't have access to fresh hay in your
area, you can opt for some mail order solutions.
Emily Rocke writes: "Sandi Ackerman reports
that a person at PraireHay@aol.com delivers
Brome, a grass hay, for $30.00 (shipping and
handling included) for ten 16 oz bags. Also,
several people (including me) have had good luck
with the Oxbow Hay Company in Nebraska, which
ships UPS. Three 15 oz bags of Timothy costs
$11.55, including shipping and handling. You can
call 800-249-0366 to order or to ask for more
information. This is a family business and the
number goes into their home, so you may get an
answering machine sometimes even during office
hours. It helps if you leave numbers where you
can be reached both by day and in the
evening."
Guinea pig pellets
Guinea pig pellets will provide your guinea
pig with the proper balance of vitamins (save for
Vitamin C), minerals and other nutrients.
Although it's not necessary to feed pellets to
your guinea pigs, it is certainly recommended
that they be your primary feed, after hay. Guinea
pig pellets are, in particular, a prime source of
protein; obtaining the necessary amounts of this
and other nutrients will require careful dietary
planning if you choose not to use pellets.
As a general rule of thumb, adult guinea pigs
will eat between one and two ounces of pellets
each day. More active animals will eat less, and
animals without much stimulation will eat more
out of boredom. Nursing and pregnant sows may
demand a little more than this, and animals that
are given plenty of hay and some fresh vegetables
each day might eat a little less. It will be easy
to tell if you are feeding too much or too
little: if there are leftover pellets, then you
are giving them too much. If the bowl is empty
and they seem to be foraging for food, then you
aren't feeding them enough. Through
trial-and-error, you will know exactly how much
to give them at feeding time.
Try to feed at the same hour each day (or
hours, if you opt to feed twice a day), as guinea
pigs like a routine and predictable life. Remove
any leftover pellets after an hour or so; if you
let them stay in the cage all day, your guinea
pigs may nibble on them all day long. As was
mentioned above, guinea pig pellets are a prime
source of protein: a diet that is heavy on
pellets will lead to a fat guinea pig, so you
only want them eating pellets at meal times. Hay
is the only food that they should have access to
24 hours a day.
When choosing your pellets, be sure to avoid
the guinea pig "mixes" that contain
nuts, seeds and dried fruits. These mixes are
high in fats and oils, which can lead to
excessive weight gain. Additionally, many of
these mixes contain sunflower seeds in their
shells. Guinea pigs should never be fed
nuts or seeds that are still in their shells
(peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc.): dozens of
guinea pigs in the Pacific Northwest alone die
each year from choking on these shell fragments.
One thing that should be noted before we move
on: guinea pigs should be fed guinea pig pellets,
not rabbit pellets or pellets for another species
of animal. Guinea pig pellets are nutritionally
balanced for guinea pigs, and feeding them
pellets for other animals can result in serious
health problems. Though some people may tell you
that their guinea pigs survive well on rabbit
pellets, for instance, you should not trust that
all rabbit food is safe for guinea pigs. Their
particular brand may work for guinea pigs, but
another brand may lack necessary vitamins or
minerals, or have them in insufficient or
excessive quantities. There is no regulation in
the pet food industry, so pellets and feeds vary
considerably between manufacturers. Don't play
Russian roulette with your cavies: only feed them
pellets that are explicitly and exclusively
for guinea pigs.
Vitamin C requirements
It is extremely important that your
guinea pigs receive enough vitamin C each day to
prevent scurvy. Guinea pigs cannot manufacture or
store vitamin C, so they must obtain it from
their diet on a daily basis. Adult guinea pigs
will require 10mg of vitamin C each day, and
nursing and pregnant sows will require twice that
amount (20mg). The caveat: vitamin C, also known
as ascorbic acid, breaks down very quickly, so it
must be supplied fresh. Although many pellet
manufacturers will claim that their feed contains
the required amount of vitamin C, you should not
trust this. Vitamin C in pellets breaks down
during storage, and after about 90 days, there
won't be enough vitamin C in the feed to keep
your guinea pigs healthy. Also note that the food
starts breaking down on the shelf, not when you
open the bag of pellets. Unless the manufacturer
dates the bag, showing when the feed was
packaged, you really have no idea how long your
pellets have been on the shelf at the local pet
store.
Since pellets are generally an inadequate
source of vitamin C, most owners will either feed
sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables
rich in vitamin C each day, or provide vitamin C
in the form of supplements added to the guinea
pigs' food or drinking water.
Vitamin supplements come in many forms: you
can either buy pre-packaged vitamin supplements
for guinea pigs from your pet store, or grind up
vitamin C tablets on your own. In either case,
most people prefer to add the vitamins to the
animal's drinking water, as that is the only way
to guarantee that it will be ingested daily. If
you do choose to go the supplement route, here
are a few pointers:
- Add the appropriate amount of supplement
to the amount of water that the guinea
pig will drink in a day. Most water
bottles work best if they are filled
halfway or more, so you may end up
wasting a lot of vitamins. Fortunately,
they aren't very expensive. If your
guinea pig drinks 4 fluid ounces of water
a day, and you fill your water bottle
with 8 ounces, then you'll need to add
20mg of vitamin C supplement. This will
lead to 4 ounces of wasted water and 10
mg of wasted vitamin C.
- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) breaks down
very quickly in water, so you will need
to add it on a daily basis. Since you
should change your water every day,
anyway, this is pretty much a given.
- The chlorine in tap water can actually
inactivate ascorbic acid. If you opt to
use vitamin supplements in water, then
use tap water that has been standing for
at least 24 hours, or filtered tap water
from a filter system that reduces
chlorine content.
If you choose instead to supply their vitamin
C through fresh greens, fruits and vegetables,
then you need to make sure you are feeding the
right amounts of each food. The next section
discusses this, and other topics, in detail.
Fresh fruits and Vegetables
Being vegetarians, guinea pigs will eat many
kinds of fruits, vegetables and fresh greens. By
supplementing your pig's diet with them, you will
keep your guinea pig happy, as they may become
bored with eating only pellets and hay. And, many
fruits and vegetables are sources of vitamin C,
providing a natural way to meet your guinea pig's
daily requirement.
If you do choose to feed fresh greens or
fruits to provide vitamin C for your cavies, you
will want to consult this table
of vitamin C content for selected foods.
Printed in this table is the amount of a certain
fruit or vegetable that you will need to feed
your guinea pig each day in order to meet their
vitamin C requirement of 10mg/day. Double this
quantity if you are feeding to a nursing or
pregnant sow.
Also note that calcium and phosphorus totals
for the given food amounts are presented as well.
Although these are necessary minerals, and a part
of every guinea pig's diet, they are getting them
from their pellets, as well. Hence, you want to
be mindful of how much of these nutrients your
guinea pig is getting along with their vitamin C.
Too much calcium can cause bladder sludge, a
precursor to bladder stones (uroliths).
Phosphorus, on the other hand, is listed for
reference purposes. The proper balance of
phosphorus, calcium and vitamin C prevents guinea
pigs from needing vitamin D supplements. Although
most guinea pig pellets contain vitamin D as a
precaution, there's no guarantee that your
particular brand of feed does. Unfortunately, I
don't have figures for vitamin D content in the
listed foods, nor do I know what the phosphorus,
vitamin C and calcium balance should be. I am
neither a vet, nor a specialist in guinea pig
nutrition, so use these numbers as guidelines
only, and consult your vet when appropriate.
In addition to providing vitamin C and
variance in your cavy's diet, fresh greens and
fruits contain a significant amount of water.
Feeding "wet foods" will aid nursing
sows in lactating, and will reduce the amount of
water that the average guinea pig will drink from
the water bottle. It is especially useful to take
lettuce, green peppers and other watery greens
with you on trips to provide moisture for your
guinea pigs while in the car, since water bottles
will leak heavily as the bumps in the road rattle
the ball in the drinking tube.
If you ever opt to reduce or completely
eliminate pellets from your guinea pig's diet,
they can survive on water, hay and fresh fruits
and vegetables. However, this will require very
careful dietary planning on your part, to make
sure that they receive the necessary nutrients in
the proper amounts.
Also, be aware that many fresh greens are
laxative in action, which means that you run the
risk of giving your guinea pigs loose bowels, or
even diarrhea, if you feed them too much at one
time. If you notice runny droppings, immediately
cut fresh greens out of their diet and feed dry
foods until the feces returns to normal.
Vegetables that are not laxative (such as
carrots) may still be fed.
Fresh food choices
Guinea pigs will not eat what they don't like:
some cavies have very discriminating tastes,
while others will eat anything that you put in
front of them. Each pig has it's own preferences,
and it may take some time to figure out what he
or she likes best. Given below is a list of foods
that guinea pigs can/will eat. This list is
neither comprehensive nor complete.
- apples, bananas, bread (slightly
stale & crunchy, but not moldy),
broccoli, carrot greens, carrots and baby
carrots, celery (cut into small pieces
first), cilantro, cucumber, dandelion
greens, grass, green & red bell
peppers, green leaf & romaine
lettuce, kale, kiwi, mustard greens,
oats, oranges, parsley, raspberries,
spinach, tomatoes
When feeding "wild" greens, such as
grass and dandelion greens, make sure they have
not been sprayed with chemicals, or contaminated
by droppings or urine from other animals, such as
cats, dogs and birds. The dangers of pesticides
are obvious, and feces can carry any number of
parasites which can be transmitted to cavies
eating contaminated greens. Even if dogs and cats
are dewormed regularly, their feces can contain
protozoa/bacteria which can cause debilitating
diarrhea in a guinea pig.
Some foods to avoid are listed below:
- long celery stalks (the
"strings" in celery are
difficult to digest); cut them into small
pieces
- iceberg lettuce (high in nitrates, no
nutritional value)
- any shelled nuts or seeds (guinea pigs
can choke on the shell fragments)
- raw beans (poisonous)
- rhubarb (extremely poisonous)
There is some confusion as to whether or not
potato peelings are good or bad: some books
indicate that they are poisonous to guinea pigs,
while others say that they are okay in small
amounts. The truth is that potatoes are okay,
however, any green in a potato is
poisoinous. So, if you do give potato or
peelings, make sure there are no green spots
anywhere in the portions.
Also, some people may recommend yogurt in
small amounts, for it's bacteria-growing
properties (to aid the digestive system).
Instead, look into acidophilus powders or
liquids: acidophilus is also a bacteria growing
culture, and it';s likely to give better results
since less of it needs to be fed.
Treats
There are several commercially available
treats on the market that are aimed at guinea
pigs. Berry flavored "crunchies" and
flavored chew sticks are popular among some
owners and guinea pigs, and are generally safe.
Some owners also have experimented with
vegetarian dog biscuits and dry cereals such as
Cheerio's.
However, you should be wary of the guinea pig
"treat sticks", which are also
available commercially. These sticks are
essentially seeds and nuts that are held together
with honey. Most of the treat sticks on the
market contain sunflower seeds that are still in
their shells, which is a big no-no for guinea
pigs due to the choking hazards.
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