Feeding the guinea pigs at TEAS

Tilly and Flossy tucking in! Tilly loves her food! She was unable to eat anything other than mush for 18 months, before coming to TEAS! She now enjoys all foods, but needs two weekly filing of her teeth! For the sake of 5 mins every fortnight, she has a completely normal life. Tilly is truly what TEAS is all about!


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furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Benjamin has just found a chunk of carrot, in the hay! It’s lovely to see him able to eat this, as he’s been finding biting down painful, due to a retrobulbar abscess! There is no way he’s letting Hudson have it!


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Where are you getting this hay from in These pictures? I got 3 big bags of hay from the farm shop in Kingsthorpe for the xmas period, and it all had loads of thorns in it. So I've scrapped the lot, and had to use the range hay
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
Where are you getting this hay from in These pictures? I got 3 big bags of hay from the farm shop in Kingsthorpe for the xmas period, and it all had load sof thorns in it. So I've scrapped the lot, and had to use the range hay
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I buy it from Hunters Farm Shop in Milton Keynes. I go over once a month and squeeze five bales into the car! It's a full size bale, dust extracted and costs less than £6 per bale. Fantastic hay!
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I buy it from Hunters Farm Shop in Milton Keynes. I go over once a month and squeeze five bales into the car! It's a full size bale, dust extracted and costs less than £6 per bale. Fantastic hay!
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Il have to get onto that, I keep meaning to ask my uncle and auntie who have a farm in yardley hastings, if they can get me some, but I never get around to it
 
These four are (Spoilt) used to being hand fed so scatter feeding (aside from hay) is still confusing to them! So today I cut all the veg and put them in bowls for them, along with pellets in the bottom. The boys polished it off quickly while the girls still had veg in their bowls. They also tend to like sharing the same bowl as well 🙄
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
I do t know why I worried about Bernie be neutered now. I got him done as soon as he was old enough aswell
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Simon was saying he much prefers to do them while they're young, as they bounce back so quickly. In saying that, they all do well, when neutered by Simon!
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
I remember when I took dot for her spay op, and bernie was with her, Simon picked bernie up and went " right let's take a look at you dot" I was like o dam quick, no that's bernie, no ovaries will be found there
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Oops 🤣
 
PigglePuggle said:
Here's my main herd enjoying their regular saturday morning scatterfeed in the playpen, there are veggies and hay in a big pile on the floor and hidden in the cardboard boxes! Piggle, Puggle and Theo are in the middle, the Blod and Clover are rummaging for coriander in the big amazon box, and Jezzy is hoovering up the beansprouts I've hidden under the wooden sticks hideys :)View attachment 130173
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I hope they don't chew on the box, you've left a sticker on it and there's sticky tape too! 😯
 
Darcey15 said:
Loving this thread! My pigs are outdoor piggies and I have tried to recreate as natural an environment as possible for them. They have their shed but a runaround connector to a run on the lawn means they can choose to be inside or outside. I close the tube each evening at feeding time as thats the only way I can get all 6 inside at the same time (and nobody spending the night camping out in the tube!). The grass is limited at this time of year which is when my veggie bill has risen but they still graze on what they can and I move the run every few days to the best bit...it will get less and less as winter progresses so I'm also going through a bale of hay a week which is stuffed into every orifice in their shed. They have a decent scoop of pellets in 2 bowls (no measuring done here) and a big collander full of mixed veggies in the evening which they normally finish.
In the current weather if its not too rainy, they will pop out (usually as a herd) a couple of times a day but always at dusk, this is when I love to watch them jumping about, chasing one another and scooting in and out of the connector tube if a bird squalks & freaks them. When one zips off the others follow...safety in numbers I guess.

I'm looking forward to the grass growing again as they have almost trimmed the lot & I need more dandilion leaves which we have tonnes of on our local field but not much at the moment.

I sometimes feel mine are not as tame as pigs kept inside and they can be difficult to catch when I need to do any nail cutting or grooming but once on my lap they love it & I try to do this once a week (in pairs). However, I think having as wild an experience as possible along with daily human interaction is as nice a life as a pig could wish for....like others have said, its about them primarily.

Some piccies from tonights feed...they all come darting in (Roma always first) and i have to use a Pezl as my light broke 😂
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They are gorgoeus, and so varied 💕. Do you give them that much leafy salad every day?
 
Piggylove82 said:
They are gorgoeus, and so varied 💕. Do you give them that much leafy salad every day?
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Yes I do and what is really interesting, I’ve NEVER had a guinea pig with a bladder issue. My vet says that by feeding such a wet diet, it helps keep the bladder flushed through. He says that by just concentrating on feeding lots of hay, which they all eat plenty of anyway, lots of owners are feeding too dry a diet which can be detrimental to bladder health. Even though I feed such a lot of leafy veg, the piggies at TEAS eat an enormous amount of hay too!

In the summer months, they spend most of the day on the lawn, in runs, grazing on the grass.
 
Most interesting thread!

I was shocked to read how common the issue of bladder problems seems to be nowadays as i have never had a guinea pig with such problems. I thought perhaps it was because I don't buy from pet shops or dealers and perhaps it was genetic, and hence increasing with the amount of animals bought from pet shops.

But now I am not so sure that it isn't exactly as the thread starter stated, because I too feed my guinea pigs very differently to what tends to be recommended on the internet. (and yes I know I'm currently looking for hay - but that is only in the depths of winter!) Would be most interesting to do some more research.
 
Bluebell said:
Most interesting thread!

I was shocked to read how common the issue of bladder problems seems to be nowadays as i have never had a guinea pig with such problems. I thought perhaps it was because I don't buy from pet shops or dealers and perhaps it was genetic, and hence increasing with the amount of animals bought from pet shops.

But now I am not so sure that it isn't exactly as the thread starter stated, because I too feed my guinea pigs very differently to what tends to be recommended on the internet. (and yes I know I'm currently looking for hay - but that is only in the depths of winter!) Would be most interesting to do some more research.
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I buy our hay by the bale, from farm shops! I ask if I can look the hay, before I buy, as it can be very hit and miss at times!
 
Bluebell said:
Most interesting thread!

I was shocked to read how common the issue of bladder problems seems to be nowadays as i have never had a guinea pig with such problems. I thought perhaps it was because I don't buy from pet shops or dealers and perhaps it was genetic, and hence increasing with the amount of animals bought from pet shops.

But now I am not so sure that it isn't exactly as the thread starter stated, because I too feed my guinea pigs very differently to what tends to be recommended on the internet. (and yes I know I'm currently looking for hay - but that is only in the depths of winter!) Would be most interesting to do some more research.
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I believe genetics is a part of it, I once had 2 boars, of the same family. And one got 3 stones, the other no health issues in 7 years apart from one's that old age brings on like arthiritis, then cancer. Both exact same diets. And they were very high calcium, I didn't know not to feed kale, spinach, Parsley everyday back then.
 
I only feed veg and salad leaves once a day! In the morning they get their cage filled with hay, plus a handful of readigrass. In the evening they get lots of veg/salad leaves and then their cage is once again, filled with hay! I feed parsley most days, kale every other day and spinach occasionally! I never feed spring greens, etc. Everything else is fed as and when!
 
Since I have upped the wet diet more, I noticed the fleece is getting soaked faster, must be working 👍
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I only feed veg and salad leaves once a day! In the morning they get their cage filled with hay, plus a handful of readigrass. In the evening they get lots of veg/salad leaves and then their cage is once again, filled with hay! I feed parsley most days, kale every other day and spinach occasionally! I never feed spring greens, etc. Everything else is fed as and when!
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Maybe my stone pig was just he was going to get them, and that's that
 
Piggylove82 said:
They are gorgoeus, and so varied 💕. Do you give them that much leafy salad every day?
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Thanks! Yes with lots more hay in the winter months to make up for the lack of grass. That said, they are still out grazing when its not too wet but there's really not much left to graze on but they seem to manage a bit.

Cannot wait until we have some sun & the grass starts to grow again! They really save me time mowing the lawn as often 😂
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I buy our hay by the bale, from farm shops! I ask if I can look the hay, before I buy, as it can be very hit and miss at times!
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Same- i got some recently that was horrible- the pigs were not impressed so ditched that for feeding & just use it for extra bedding. It was more yellow and had a funny waxy smell. The kind mine like is softer & has at least some green bits in it. Funny how you get an eye for a good batch over time!
 
Darcey15 said:
Same- i got some recently that was horrible- the pigs were not impressed so ditched that for feeding & just use it for extra bedding. It was more yellow and had a funny waxy smell. The kind mine like is softer & has at least some green bits in it. Funny how you get an eye for a good batch over time!
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Just cleaning out today & thought I'd share a pic of the good hay with the rubbish stuff (bottom of the pic). Very different in texture & colour (and smell). The good stuff is much softer with green bits & funilly enough came from Tesco...rubbish stuff Pets at home. My local farm is next so will see what they have!
 

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Darcey15 said:
Just cleaning out today & thought I'd share a pic of the good hay with the rubbish stuff (bottom of the pic). Very different in texture & colour (and smell). The good stuff is much softer with green bits & funilly enough came from Tesco...rubbish stuff Pets at home. My local farm is next so will see what they have!
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The hay in our Tesco always looked brown whenever I checked it out. It’s cheaper to buy from Timothy hay anyway.
 
alpacasqueak said:
Lucky piggies!
I’ll have to do the same for myself in a couple of days, going back to being a healthy vegetarian and not a lazy meat eater! :)) This thread’s so interesting, my cats are eating much more meat than dry food as they’re older and I’d read on a cat forum much better for the kidneys etc. Had never thought about the pigs with such a dry diet but can definitely understand how it’d help.
Hope the pigs enjoyed their greenery :D
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Have you started scatter feeding your own vegetables around your house yet?
 
I have got to the point where I'm feeding Dot and bernie, a huge heap of grass everyday now ( had to build the amount gradually) and I have noticed no bladder issues with Dot, all cleared up, atleast for a week now. Coincidence? Maybe, but il report back after another week , or before if I see any issues.freshly picked Grass is looking like the way forwards
 
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