feeding

[Zorro1]

Hi,
My piggy, as he is growing older, is getting more and more hungry in the afternoons. Are you supposed to feed a guinea pig twice daily? ie. once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Also, at 18 weeks old, he is 1kg is that a healthy weight?
-Thanks

 

[Siikibam]

Are you sure he’s 1kg? That seems big for that age. Or is he older? A healthy weight is dependent on the piggy. There’s no one size fits all. How much has he been putting on every week?

You need to feed 50g of veg. If he appears hungry then fluff/top up his hay. But don’t give him more veg than is required. You could split the portion into two and feed morning and night.

Have you contacted the rescues yet to get him a friend?

 

[avafaghani]

Hi,
My piggy, as he is growing older, is getting more and more hungry in the afternoons. Are you supposed to feed a guinea pig twice daily? ie. once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Also, at 18 weeks old, he is 1kg is that a healthy weight?
-Thanks

When you're referring to feeding do you mean pellets, veggies or hay? I don't know much about weight and don't want to give you false information but 1kg seems quite big!

 

[Piggies&buns]

1kg does seem big for a four month old but you also need to check his heft.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

As the main food is hay, he should have constant access to it. If he has lots of hay constantly then he won’t be hungry.
Veg and pellets are nothing more than snacks and should not be considered as meals - hay is their meal. If he is asking for them and you’ve already given him his daily portion, then he is trying his luck in trying to get more from you.

How you feed is your choice but what you need to do is ensure you don’t overfeed veg and particularly pellets. Pellets is one tablespoon only per day. If you want to split it and give half a tablespoon in the morning and half a tablespoon in the afternoon/evening, then that is your choice. Same with veg - one cup/50g per day but you can split and give half a cup in the morning and half a cup in the afternoon.
If you are going to split, then I’d suggest you prepare the daily portion and then halve it, rather than guessing what half might be as you can find overtime your portion sizes drift and you can end up giving them far too much (which would be a problem when it comes to pellets in particular).

 

[Zorro1]

He get's 1 tablespoon of pellets nightly. And he has fresh hay all day and night. And these veggies are available daily: lettuce, cucumber, capsicum, and parsley. And veggies that he gets on occasion are: carrot, tomato, fennel, and fruits like strawberry and apple. And he doesn't seem to have a steady weight gain rate. And I'm sure he's 18 weeks. Although, he doesn't look overweight to me.

 

[weepweeps]

Hiya. Pepper was 980 when he was 18 weeks. Weights can vary depending on the piggy. I feed veggies twice a day. One tablespoon of pellets per piggy in the morning, a few pea flakes at bedtime and lots of hay available all day.

 

[Zorro1]

Hiya. Pepper was 980 when he was 18 weeks. Weights can vary depending on the piggy. I feed veggies twice a day. One tablespoon of pellets per piggy in the morning, a few pea flakes at bedtime and lots of hay available all day.

Sounds like a good diet routine to me!

 

[Piggies&buns]

It sounds as if his diet is fine - although parsley is high calcium and isn’t suitable for daily, it should only be given once a week. As long as he gains weight and heft wise is right for himself (checking to feel ribs), then don’t worry too much. They gain weight in their own time and it may be he will hit his genetically determined weight a little sooner.

Mine get half veg portion in the morning and half in the evening. Hay topped up around four times a day. They don’t get pellets every day but if it is a pellet day then I tend to give them in the morning.

 

[Zorro1]

Thanks. I appreciate you're help, and I'll be sure to cut back on parsley as it is high in calcium.