can you over feed a guinea pig?

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Lola and Daisy

Hi, I have 2 guinea pigs and they seem happy and playful but i am not sure if i am feeding them too much....
They have 2 types of hay, the blueberry mix and gertie guinea which is always topped up. then every afternoon they have a quarter of a cucumber to share, half a round lettuce to share and either a few radishes or baby carrots or bit of orange depending on what i have in.

They are quite big but dont look that different to the pics of other piggies on here. they come out at least every other evening for a play cuddle and run but they prefer to just sit there normally which i am not too worried about because guinea pigs arent the most active of creatures anyway!

All views, advice, comments etc will be very much appreciated!

Thankyou love Lillian x
 
Hi Lillian,

Their diet and routine sounds good, I think you're doing well with them. The only thing I would really recommend altering would be more variety with the fresh veggies.

In direct answer to your question, it is not possible to generally overfeed as the piggies will eat as much as they need. As long as they are eating each aspect of their diet, and not favouring the dry food over the hay or fresh veggies, then they'll go with what they need.

However, it is possible to overfeed certain foods. Overfeeding dry food can lead to excess weight gain; once the pigs reach 6 months old it is worth starting to limit the amount you give them, that is to say not filling the bowl to the top and refilling as soon as it gets low.

Overfeeding fruits and veggies is specifically a problem when you give too much of one fruit/one veggie. Variety and moderation are the keys to handling the fresh diet, it might be worth reading up a little on this thread: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37030

It's not really possible to overfeed hay, as it is so important to their digestion and dental wear and they do need access to it 24/7.

Do you weigh your piggies at all? It's good to get into the habit of weighing weekly, so you can accurately track your piggies weight and spot any unusual losses or gains. Some minor fluctuations of up to 50g or 2oz is normal, and can often be dealt with by weighing the pigs at the same time of day e.g. before you top up the hay or feed veggies one morning. Weight tracking like this can also be very useful to a vet, if you ever need to visit the vet with an ill piggie.
 
ccc4 Thankyou so much, thats a great help and has put my mind at ease, owning piggies is worse than having children sometimes with all the worrying i do! x
 
Tell me about it! I spent the first four years fretting over everything and wanting to do everything just so. The last two years I've been a lot more laid back, but I have my firm beliefs on some things that I do like to worry about!
 
I stress about the piggies food. But some one on this forum recommended giving each 50g of veggies a day, spilt up if possible.

I also weigh the dry mix because that's the calorie buster.
 
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