Help!

[Jaxie52]

> I'm just after some advice, please. We have three piggies. One was bereaved just before we took them in. He's doing well, being pampered. The other two are fine. However, I really want to ensure that I feed them well. Currently, they have a mix of salad leaves (NOT iceburg lettuce, but includes rocket and spinach. They all love cucumber and baby corn, and will eat celery, kale and greens. As a treat, my little guy has two blueberries once a week. When we first took them in, I tried giving them bell peppers, and they all turned their noses up. I've tried a few times since, and they won't eat it. I also tried tomatoes during the summer, too, nice home grown ones. They have access to fresh hay constantly, and they roam in the garden in warmer weather. Now, my piggie is a Peruvian, and I've noticed his fur is often wet around his bottom, I clip his fur ever 3 to 4 weeks, and he's well groomed. I really want all of them to be as healthy as possible, and I've read so much conflicting advice regarding diets. I'd appreciate any advice any of you have. Thank you.

 

[Wiebke]

> I'm just after some advice, please. We have three piggies. One was bereaved just before we took them in. He's doing well, being pampered. The other two are fine. However, I really want to ensure that I feed them well. Currently, they have a mix of salad leaves (NOT iceburg lettuce, but includes rocket and spinach. They all love cucumber and baby corn, and will eat celery, kale and greens. As a treat, my little guy has two blueberries once a week. When we first took them in, I tried giving them bell peppers, and they all turned their noses up. I've tried a few times since, and they won't eat it. I also tried tomatoes during the summer, too, nice home grown ones. They have access to fresh hay constantly, and they roam in the garden in warmer weather. Now, my piggie is a Peruvian, and I've noticed his fur is often wet around his bottom, I clip his fur ever 3 to 4 weeks, and he's well groomed. I really want all of them to be as healthy as possible, and I've read so much conflicting advice regarding diets. I'd appreciate any advice any of you have. Thank you.

Hi and welcome

Your kale, spinach, celery and greens are all both high in oxalates and calcium which promotes the formation of bladder stones and sludge. Please also keep in mind that the UK is a mainly hard water country, so a lot of additional calcium is coming into the diet via unfiltered water. You also have to be aware that the calcium content in any nuggets, including those with no added calcium is still higher weight by weight compared to greens.

Please filter your water, reduce your pellets to 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day, drop spinach altogether (too high in both oxalates and calcium) and feed either a little bit of kale or greens once or max. twice a week. You can feed cos/romaine, gem lettuces and lambs lettuce daily. Try cucumber and try a little coriander on the days you do not feed greens or kale.

The problem with diet is that there is a sweet spot but what works in one country doesn't necessarily work in another. The USA are mainly a soft water country while the UK is mainly a hard water country; this simple fact can upset the balance. You can safely feed more high calcium veg in the USA than in the UK. If you want to follow the ph:ca ratio diet, you have to be aware that it is essentially very high in calcium and oxalates and that therefore if you get it just a little wrong in terms of other contributing factors like water or pellets, you can quickly end up with bladder stones. A diet too low in calcium can conversely also promote the formation of stones if you miss that sweet spot. It would be very easy if there was a simple ideal diet for everybody but that is not the case.

As with any new foods, anything your piggies have not learned to eat from their elders as babies is very difficult to introduce. You have to do be the patient and persist, like with children and green veg...

Our diet recommendations are based on what has worked out for most of us over the years here in the UK. Any diet is always a local compromise.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets


I would recommend that you see a vet for a health check in the new year. Long-haired piggies have much more of a tendency of getting wet and matted bum ends; with some regular judicious hair cutting you can minimise that to a good deal. A gentle bum wash with baby warm water can also help.
An Illustrated Guide to Hair Cutting

 

[Jaxie52]

Thank you so much. Your advice is really helpful. Are there any safe foods that they can have daily? We have a water filter, so I'll make sure that's what we use in future. I'll keep trying with peppers. I'm not sure they were given much fresh food at the place who had the piggies before us. All three absolutely love hay!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you so much. Your advice is really helpful. Are there any safe foods that they can have daily? We have a water filter, so I'll make sure that's what we use in future. I'll keep trying with peppers. I'm not sure they were given much fresh food at the place who had the piggies before us. All three absolutely love hay!

the safe daily veggies are lettuce, bell pepper, cucumber and coriander

 

[Jaxie52]

Thank you. Your help is really appreciated. They love cucumber and various types of salad leaves, too. They're all devils for herbs, too, which is another mistake I know I've been making. Conflicting advice made me believe my piggies could have parsley daily.

My little Elvis had a trip to the vets on his second day with us. He was terribly underweight. He'd lost his cage buddy and was clearly pining. He's gained the weight he needs. I will take him again, as you recommended. Thank you.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you so much. Your advice is really helpful. Are there any safe foods that they can have daily? We have a water filter, so I'll make sure that's what we use in future. I'll keep trying with peppers. I'm not sure they were given much fresh food at the place who had the piggies before us. All three absolutely love hay!

Hi

Since hay makes over three quarters of the daily food intake and is what the digestive system and the dental growth rate is laid out for, your adoptees are doing fine. If you have access to dog pee-free fresh grass, you can start introducing it slowly in order to not unbalance the gut microbiome and give it time to produce enough digestive bacteria that can cope with it.

Fresh, dog pee-free and fertiliser-free growing grass is high in vitamin C and the best fresh daily food all. This is also the reason why guinea pigs could switch off their vitamin C producing gene complex - because of their grass based diet there is no need to produce vitamin C in the body. It is not very nutritious at this time of the year, of course, and you want to always offer hay at all times of the year.

Veg, pellets and any treats are all together replacing the supplementary role of wild forage in the diet tha guinea pigs have evolved on. Together they should not make more than 20-25% of the daily food intake. You have a bit more leeway with any veg high in vitamin C and magnesium that are unfortunately always bound up ith high calcium (kale, greens and brassicas) if you massively reduce the calcium intake in the water and from the pellets which are not reinforced with magnesium.

However, looking at garden or wild forage, these are a good addition to a diet since they offer a range of nutrients and as a mix in addition to the daily veg they won't upset the dietary balance. Dandelion and lettuce for instance are mildly diuretic and encourage urination; which helps with washing bacteria and any build up out of the urinary tract.
You will find a chapter on forage with further practical links in the diet link in my first post. Seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time, we cannot type out all the little details in every post, so we have created practical information guides with all the little in-depth information and practical how-to tips.

It usually takes several factors coming together for producing stones/sludge unless your diet is grossly overladen with calcium. The other factors (genetic, not good natural drinkers and something going wrong in the complex calcium absorption process) cannot be controlled and there is no medication, so diet is pretty much our only weapon. It will also take several weeks for any dietary changes to come through in the body.

 

[Jaxie52]

Hi

Since hay makes over three quarters of the daily food intake and is what the digestive system and the dental growth rate is laid out for, your adoptees are doing fine. If you have access to dog pee-free fresh grass, you can start introducing it slowly in order to not unbalance the gut microbiome and give it time to produce enough digestive bacteria that can cope with it.

Fresh, dog pee-free and fertiliser-free growing grass is high in vitamin C and the best fresh daily food all. This is also the reason why guinea pigs could switch off their vitamin C producing gene complex - because of their grass based diet there is no need to produce vitamin C in the body. It is not very nutritious at this time of the year, of course, and you want to always offer hay at all times of the year.

Veg, pellets and any treats are all together replacing the supplementary role of wild forage in the diet tha guinea pigs have evolved on. Together they should not make more than 20-25% of the daily food intake. You have a bit more leeway with any veg high in vitamin C and magnesium that are unfortunately always bound up ith high calcium (kale, greens and brassicas) if you massively reduce the calcium intake in the water and from the pellets which are not reinforced with magnesium.

However, looking at garden or wild forage, these are a good addition to a diet since they offer a range of nutrients and as a mix in addition to the daily veg they won't upset the dietary balance. Dandelion and lettuce for instance are mildly diuretic and encourage urination; which helps with washing bacteria and any build up out of the urinary tract.
You will find a chapter on forage with further practical links in the diet link in my first post. Seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time, we cannot type out all the little details in every post, so we have created practical information guides with all the little in-depth information and practical how-to tips.

It usually takes several factors coming together for producing stones/sludge unless your diet is grossly overladen with calcium. The other factors (genetic, not good natural drinkers and something going wrong in the complex calcium absorption process) cannot be controlled and there is no medication, so diet is pretty much our only weapon. It will also take several weeks for any dietary changes to come through in the body.

Thank you so much. I've literally just said to my husband that I can't wait until our boys can go outside again. I deliberately left a big patch of grass lol Ng this year so there was plenty for them to eat. I bought some dried rose petals and marigolds so they could forage, too. This is Fidget, chomping away!

 

[Bill & Ted]

A little coriander is my lots favourite. Fidget is

 

[Wheekallweek]

Oh Fidget is just gorgeous!

 

[Jaxie52]

Thank you. He's a little cutie. Well, they all are! Elvis isy favourite little guy. He's a real character!

 

[Jaxie52]

Just to add, Elvis is going to the vets on the 9th January. He's seeing the same vet that he saw last time. He was tiny compared to his size now.

 

[Betsy]

Your Fidget and Elvis are lovely. Well done in getting the weight back on to Elvis. Let us know how you and Elvis get on at the vet.

 

[Jaxie52]

I will. Not expecting any issues, but I know the vet wants to see him again!

This is Fidgets hutch mate Oreo. They're all such sweet boys, though Orea can be a bit of a bully.

 

[fluffysal]

They are all gorgeous

 

[Jaxie52]

Thank you! I adore them, but Elvis is my favourite little guy. Just don't tell him I said that!

 

[Betsy]

Thank you! I adore them, but Elvis is my favourite little guy. Just don't tell him I said that!

 

[Jaxie52]

Your Fidget and Elvis are lovely. Well done in getting the weight back on to Elvis. Let us know how you and Elvis get on at the vet.

Well, my little guy visited vet Maddie today. She's so pleased with him! His teeth are much better than they were (they were crooked, I think? She said he's a little overweight, so I'm cutting down his dry food. Elvis was so good, though. He let Maddie flush his mouth out so she could check inside. He even let her hold him so she could check his genitals!