My guinea pigs eat everything what do I do?

[pxggyslovves]

I have 6 guinea pigs and they love to eat everything the find in the house. We had to start putting our dogs food on top of a bin because the guinea pigs started to eat her food. They find ways to get into the printer paper bin and they start eating the paper in there. They even eat chocolate sometimes. They have done this for about a three weeks now, my oldest.. about a year. They show no signs of sickness, what should I do?

 

[fluffysal]

My beastie boys are free roaming, I use grids to pig proof the room and they are supervised. Weirdly, they stay in the lounge despite the door to the kitchen being open.

 

[Pantalaimon]

Are your pigs free range?
Floor time should only occur in a guinea pig proof room. It also has to be accepted that they are rodents and will explore with their teeth, excessive chewing can be as a result of boredom or something lacking in their care (such as companionship or a correct diet).

If they are getting hold of things such as dog food and chocolate it will not be long before you have (at best) a very very expensive vets bill (or, at worst, a dead guinea pig). Sorry to be blunt, it would be horrible for you to find that an animal has died due to something it has got hold of.

 

[BrianPaul1969]

I have 6 guinea pigs and they love to eat everything the find in the house. We had to start putting our dogs food on top of a bin because the guinea pigs started to eat her food. They find ways to get into the printer paper bin and they start eating the paper in there. They even eat chocolate sometimes. They have done this for about a three weeks now, my oldest.. about a year. They show no signs of sickness, what should I do?

Hello from the USA Wow you have six we started with five and that was a handful. You literally have to treat them like 5-year-old kids anything they can get into they will. My first suggestion to you is make a list of all the things your piggies definitely should not eat.

Foods Guinea Pigs Should Never Eat - Oxbow Animal Health

From what I understand paper, toilet paper and paper towel rolls would be fine just nothing with glue. I would have to say any other kind of animal food will be very bad because these are herbivores and their diet is very different than a dog which is a carnivore.

I'm only posting the picture of the Sherwood appetite restore because of what it says on the back of the packet. I found this to be extremely helpful bringing one of our sick piggies back to health.

If you train OMG all 6 of them properly you won't have too much troubles but what I found is they have very short attention spans and memories so it's literally an endless process. Lol

Take care
Brian

 

[Piggies&buns]

Hello from the USA Wow you have six we started with five and that was a handful. You literally have to treat them like 5-year-old kids anything they can get into they will. My first suggestion to you is make a list of all the things your piggies definitely should not eat.

Foods Guinea Pigs Should Never Eat - Oxbow Animal Health

From what I understand paper, toilet paper and paper towel rolls would be fine just nothing with glue. I would have to say any other kind of animal food will be very bad because these are herbivores and their diet is very different than a dog which is a carnivore.

I'm only posting the picture of the Sherwood appetite restore because of what it says on the back of the packet. I found this to be extremely helpful bringing one of our sick piggies back to health.

If you train OMG all 6 of them properly you won't have too much troubles but what I found is they have very short attention spans and memories so it's literally an endless process. Lol

Take care
Brian

We actually have our own forum guides available.

I do disagree with some of the feeding information in the link you posted. It’s coming from a company producing pellets who want you to overfeed pellets so you buy more. Most pellet packaging tells you to feed way beyond what is actually necessary or indeed wise to feed for health reasons.

It states 20% pellets and just 8% greens.
This could run the risk of causing all kinds of health and bladder related issues.
Pellets should be just 5%, only amounting to one tablespoon per pig per day.
Greens can be 15-20% of the diet. One cup per pig per day is the recommended amount but the reality is there are benefits in providing a wet diet with considerably less concentrated pellets.
For my animals, they get pellets just twice a week in summer and three times a week in winter. They get a lot of grass and a bit more than recommended amounts of veg. Their diet is wet one which promotes good urination and consequently, I believe, good bladder health.

To the OP, I absolutely agree to restricting their access by using grids to block areas off and ensuring things are moved away from them is the best course of action

 

[BrianPaul1969]

We actually have our own forum guides available.

I do disagree with some of the feeding information in the link you posted. It’s coming from a company producing pellets who want you to overfeed pellets so you buy more. Most pellet packaging tells you to feed way beyond what is actually necessary or indeed wise to feed for health reasons.

It states 20% pellets and just 8% greens.
This could run the risk of causing all kinds of health and bladder related issues.
Pellets should be just 5%, only amounting to one tablespoon per pig per day.
Greens can be 15-20% of the diet. One cup per pig per day is the recommended amount but the reality is there are benefits in providing a wet diet with considerably less concentrated pellets.
For my animals, they get pellets just twice a week in summer and three times a week in winter. They get a lot of grass and a bit more than recommended amounts of veg. Their diet is wet one which promotes good urination and consequently, I believe, good bladder health.

To the OP, I absolutely agree to restricting their access by using grids to block areas off and ensuring things are moved away from them is the best course of action

Hello and thank you for your reply it's much appreciated. I'm sorry the link wasn't really meant for what to feed them it was more meant for what not to feed them. I'm sorry I didn't clarify that better.

Something I disagree with you on is feeding them vegetables and fruits because so far two companies that are reputable here in the US have recommended not to feed them those things so I guess it's basically up to the owners discretion what they want to feed their piggies. I don't eat fruits or veg because studies are proving their toxic to humans whether anyone believes that or not it's what the science is showing. Plants, fruits, vegetables have toxins because they don't want to be eaten. I also take feeding recommendations with a grain of salt because who is to say one company's recommendations are correct over another?

Where would you say the bladder stones are coming from? I would have to think it's something from their diet that they would not eat in their natural habitat other than hay or field grass. If we had more area outside where I could let them roam around and eat grass that would be perfect. I just don't trust it here in the city because you never know what chemicals could be on the grass.

Anyway thank you for the recommendations and have a good weekend

 

[Piggies&buns]

Hello and thank you for your reply it's much appreciated. I'm sorry the link wasn't really meant for what to feed them it was more meant for what not to feed them. I'm sorry I didn't clarify that better.

Something I disagree with you on is feeding them vegetables and fruits because so far two companies that are reputable here in the US have recommended not to feed them those things so I guess it's basically up to the owners discretion what they want to feed their piggies. I don't eat fruits or veg because studies are proving their toxic to humans whether anyone believes that or not it's what the science is showing. Plants, fruits, vegetables have toxins because they don't want to be eaten. I also take feeding recommendations with a grain of salt because who is to say one company's recommendations are correct over another?

Where would you say the bladder stones are coming from? I would have to think it's something from their diet that they would not eat in their natural habitat other than hay or field grass. If we had more area outside where I could let them roam around and eat grass that would be perfect. I just don't trust it here in the city because you never know what chemicals could be on the grass.

Anyway thank you for the recommendations and have a good weekend

Bladder stone issues come from genetic predisposition to stone formation and incorrect calcium balance and is mostly contributed to by feeding pellets - so yes it is something in their diet, the human made concentrated dry food which they don’t need. The calcium in drinking water is also a factor if you live in a hard water area.
Pellets, even low calcium ones, contain a lot of calcium hence the reason they should never be fed in large amounts (one tablespoon per pig per day is plenty). It’s also recommended drinking water is filtered.

 

[BrianPaul1969]

Bladder stone issues come from genetic predisposition to stone formation and incorrect calcium balance and is mostly contributed to by feeding pellets - so yes it is something in their diet, the human made concentrated dry food which they don’t need. The calcium in drinking water is also a factor if you live in a hard water area.
Pellets, even low calcium ones, contain a lot of calcium hence the reason they should never be fed in large amounts (one tablespoon per pig per day is plenty). It’s also recommended drinking water is filtered.

I really like and agree with everything you just said there. I have a little story that happened to my wife and I last year that I think you'll like. We had Amazon prime so free shipping and to save even more ( yeah right ) we signed up for a 4 month subscription for Oxbow pellets. After all the deals were done we completely forgot about canceling the subscription and in 4 months another 5 lb box of pellets arrived. Looking at the 5 lb box of pellets we already bought it's only half used and we had four guinea pigs at the time I was like we need to send this back. I contacted Amazon explain the situation and they said that we couldn't send it back because it was pet food and you know there's people that do stuff that could harm pets so it couldn't be returned. I explained to the person that we really had so much pellets we don't need it and she said we're only going to discard it so just keep it and we got the credit anyway. I actually felt bad after that because I wasn't after free pellets we just have too many to begin with. I've still not opened that new box yet and I wish I knew somebody that I had guinea pigs because I would give them half.

I'm also in agreement with you that companies are in business to sell product and make money which isn't always in line with the health of the animal or person for that matter.

I am in full agreement with you on clean fresh filtered water for people and piggies. Here in the city you don't ever drink what comes out of that tap you might as well just drink out of the toilet. Our piggies only get bottled spring water which is what we drink.

Thank you again for the very helpful and useful advice and information. Take care and have a wonderful weekend

 

[Grand Guinea Pigs]

Our piggies only get bottled spring water which is what we drink.

Bottled water is costly on the planet though, don't you think?

 

[BrianPaul1969]

Bottled water is costly on the planet though, don't you think?

Yes I do actually think it's a lot because we're paying for the water that comes out of the tap but can't drink it and filters are also expensive and need maintenance. Compare one gallon of spring water at a local grocery store here is $1.00 so really not to bad.