Hungry boys

[Weeze315]

Hi, my two Male Guinea pigs are about 8 months old now and the past week they've seemed to be hankering after more food. I've moved all their meal times earlier by an hour and they are still rattling the cage more and more.

They have 2 lots of nuggets in the day totaling about 50gms between them daily. I put in 3 loads of hay during the day & they have their veggies about 4pm (about 40gms each of 3 types of veg).

Is this a growth spurt? I'm nervous to give in to them too much if they're just having me on. I can ignore them sometimes & they'll go back to their hay or have a lie down but it's getting more & more frequent...

 

[Claire W]

You could try splitting their veg in half so give them a portion of veg at breakfast and a portion at teatime.

I know it’s hard and tempting but just try and ignore them. So long as they have constant access to hay, they’ll be fine.

Also, they only need one tablespoon of pellets per guinea pig per day.

 

[Piggies&buns]

If they have fresh hay available constantly, then they aren’t hungry!

I would definitely cut the pellet amount down. 25g per day is likely still too much. One tablespoon of pellets per pig per day is enough and depending on brand, they can typically weigh around 5-10g per day.

You could try, if you don’t already, to scatter feed veg and pellets rather than using bowls. This encourages foraging and makes eating their daily portion take longer, thereby keeping them occupied.