Leaving food down all the time?

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Mummybean

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Apart from Hay do you leave food (pellets and or fresh) down all the time? and do you measure the Pellets out? I have 2 piggies and I’ve been making sure they always have a huge pile of hay mixed with dry grasses/dry forage flowers. Then I leave two small bowels of pellets out and keep them constantly topped up so they never run out. Fresh veg goes in once or twice a day but that gets gobbled up straight away. But I noticed recently someone posted about them having half a cup of pellets per pig per day, should I be measuring it and if they run out letting them go without until the next day? They are pretty big boys so I wonder if they are over indulging 🙈
 
It differs on how people know their piggies. Advise says no to pellets 24/7.
I do have pellets down all the time . . Most days they not touched at all.. plenty fresh Hay and Water. . . My girls love a chew stick also lol.
 
My two boys get a small amount in the morning. Sometimes they eat them and sometimes not. Then I give them more the next morning. My boys are quite chunky too. 😆
 
No I don’t. The only food they have constantly is hay. They get veg twice a day (and it’s eaten in a flash!)
The recommendation is for just one tablespoon per pig per day (not half a cup). Mine only get half a tablespoon of pellets each and they don’t get them every day - (particularly in summer) they only get pellets about three times a week (scatter fed amongst hay, I don’t use bowls). If I notice any pellets still left after about half an hour then I remove them. Mine get so few though that they do tend to see it as a big treat when they do get some!

The advice is that pellets should be kept limited at all times and not left out constantly

Too many pellets aren’t healthy - too many can stop them eating enough hay which can contribute to reduced dental and gut health, they are fattening (filled with unhealthy fillers) and they contribute (along with unfiltered drinking water) a large amount of calcium into the diet. Too much calcium contributes to the formation of bladder stones.
Pellets are the least healthy and least important part of the diet. They are the one thing they can go without


Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
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I used to make that mistake about having a bowl full of pellets. I looked at the feeding guide and measured out exactly how much they should be getting and from then on I can tell by eye how much to give. I give a small amount every teatime. There are often some left, which I wonder whether it's because they have grain free and it's not as tasty as some other brands.
It's so satisfying giving them big bowls of nuggets but If they're eating too much veg and nuggets, they're not eating enough hay, and their teeth and guts can go horribly wrong over time, aside from health issues to do with overweight.
 
When I had piggies about 10 years ago the nuggets were the main food and hay was the snack! How things have changed.
 
I never leave food in the cage except plenty hay and drinking water. During the summer my piggies get hand fed/scatterfed a variety of salad leaves for breakfast, then handfed a cucumber chunk as an afternoon snack, then pellets and peppers in bowls in the evening. I never give more veg or pellets than can be eaten in about 10 minutes in their cage, in the playpen their veg takes longer to eat because I chop it into tiny pieces and hide it so they have to forage!
There is a very noticeable difference healthwise between my piggies who came to us as youngsters and have always had that type of pellet restricted diet, and my poor old girls who were overfed and under exercised for the first 2 years of their lives and only got a balanced diet since we adopted them.
As @weepweeps says pellets or even muesli used to be considered staple foods, but in those days piggies rarely lived as long as they do nowadays!
 
Thank you all! Oh boy I’ve been getting this wrong. I just always worry about them having enough and not getting hungry but if this is bad for their health I need to get it together. I stared to wonder when my friend was on the phone one day and her piggies were wheeking when she took food out. I have hardly ever heard mine do that (except on a couple of occasions where the pellets have run out over night and I’ve gone to top up in the morning) I’m starting to think they don’t wheek because they always have so much food there’s no point getting excited when I go out with more. I will definitely cut right back and ration the pellets. I need to tell myself they have hay so there is no way they will be going hungry. I guess it’s the equivalent of giving a child too many sweets because they like them but then having them leave their dinner because they aren’t hungry. 🤦‍♀️
 
Definitely lots of hay is the way to go, it takes a bit of a change of mindset perhaps for the piggies as well as you but you can always have some posh hays to add variety, mine have meadow hay all the time then twice a day they get a pile of timothy hay after their veggies- often in the evening they leave the last few pellets and wheek for tasty timothy hay instead!
 
I always think feeding piggies pellets is like feeding children a sugary breakfast cereal fortified with vitamins and minerals- yes a small portion can provide a reassuring source and amount of guaranteed nutrient supplements you can't see and measure in real food, but not something you would want them to eat all day!
 
My 3 old gals get a strict tablespoon of pellets each (which I scatter feed) every morning and veg at night. They like to choose what they want from the bowl before the veg gets scatter fed. Pretty Patsy is a bit of a diva and likes to be handfed the first few bits of veg. They all have unlimited access to meadow hay.
 
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