Thank you for your response! I increased their veggie weight to 80g a day for two pigs, It's like a sauce-free salad with 15g lettuce, and 65g of bell pepper+cucumber+carrot. I also hand feed them so the piggies would have about the same amount of veggies, surprisingly they just hesitates for 10 seconds before eating from my hand, which would be the same if I just put it down near them. They almost have no problem with me near the cage at all, when I walk towards the cage they might run away for a few seconds, but then they just get back to what they were doing. (they just got here 4 days ago so I think they're pretty chill with humans)
Please please look at the guide I linked in. It gives a sample of the amounts for each safe daily veg. One small slice of bell pepper each is enough.
Please don’t go by weights of veggies, their densities will knock it out so much. Please just full a cup measure with a variety of leafy veg and herbs (coriander is safe for daily, parsley is not safe for daily), some cucumber and some bell pepper
Carrot must not be given every day as it is far too high in sugar. If given a lot if can can lead to overgrowth of the wrong kind of gut bacteria which can upset their digestion and cause soft poops. Its also like feeding them a chocolate bar every day - it’ll lead to unhealthy weight gain.
internet also says guinea pigs only eat 3 oz of hay per day, and that would be 80% of their diet, so whaaaaat...
Frankly, what you are reading on other sites about hay amounts is rubbish! You absolutely cannot put a weight on the amount of hay they eat!
They need huge amounts of it every day - for food, for playing in, laying in etc - Just throw a big handful in loose in the cage floor and let them have fun with it!
So guinea pigs won't be eating the veggies if they are full right? Because I see my guinea pigs always just finishes the veggies I give them everytime in a short amount of time, so I'm concerned if they just eat whatever they find because in nature it would be hard for them to always find food so they prob eat wtv they find? If my guinea pigs are not hungry they won't eat the veggies I give them right?
You are over thinking this and making it more complicated than it needs to be.
Guinea pigs are never full, they are appetites with fur, they are always hungry and they need to be constantly eating. They need to eat a lot of hay but they will still also eat all their vegetables every day. If you stick to the one cup of veg, then they will be getting what they need while still eating plenty of hay. If you consistently underfeed veg, then they will eat more hay to compensate (which Is good) but they may then be losing out on the micronutrients from not getting enough veg. This is why the guide gives a good nutrient balance and all you need to do is follow it.
Not once in 35 years of small animals keeping have my healthy animals turned down their veggies! If they do I immediately become concerned for their health and switch to daily weight checks and get the vets number prepared!
As soon as the veg goes in their cage my two run straight over and eat almost all of it straight away. They may leave their less favourite bits for later. They then go and eat some more hay, rest, eat more hay, rest, finish the veg and continuing with the cycle of eating hay and resting!
They go on a normal adult diet from when they are weaned at three weeks of age so at 8 months old, you really don’t need to be worrying.
Just stick to the guides we are providing and your piggies will be absolutely fine, it’s how we feed our piggies on the forum and there was any problem with our guides then all the forum piggies would be unwell.
