daftscotslass
Senior Guinea Pig
guineapigvet said:
I will say again, here is a quote from Guinea Lynx who, in turn, quote from two guinea pig medical textbooks. http://www.guinealynx.com/nutrition.html
On Dairy Products:
Harkness and Wagner in The Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents describe cavies as strict herbivores. They have this to say about milk:
"They [guinea pigs] require specific amounts of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium, and therefore recommending feeding table scraps (and vitamin D-fortified cow's milk) or other animals' feed may promote metastic calcification, acidosis, ketosis, or skin disease from vitamin A or D toxicity...."
The 1992 edition of Richardson's Diseases of Domestic Guinea Pigs compares cows milk with guinea pig milk, and in cases of loss of the mother, recommends getting the young off a replacer as soon as possible. Another reason not to use cows milk:
".....encourage the orphans to eat solid foods as early as possible as a high percentage of orphans which receive too much milk replacer develop cataracts and become blind. The development of cataracts is thought to be associated with the intake of too many complex sugars which are dissimilar to those found in natural guinea pig milk."
The pig doesn't need any other problems in addition to the ones he has already. My vet was also the first person to tell me not to use yoghurt back in 1999.
The best probiotic, believe it or not, is a poop from a healthy cavy. It can be mashed up along with whatever is being syringe fed. Other probiotics available in the USA are acidophilus and one called Bene-Bac, available in pet stores and from vets.
