Too Much/Little?

[Storm1974]

My partner and I keep having arguments about how much veggies I am feeding our three.

The main issue with me, is that they don't drink from water bowls or bottles, so I give them extra wet food to compensate. It's mainly cucumber I give 'excess' of because it's their only real form of water, but I also like to give them 'too much' wet food (I don't actually think it's too much but OH does!) because they usually finish eating their hay and then start begging for other foods. They do have unlimited hay in their trays and a few pellets (though Bramble has now stopped eating them completely for some reason, since he was ill a few days ago, but is now ok!) per day, but I often feel sorry for them that they are still hungry or just bored of eating nothing but hay, although I do realise that it should make up around 80-90% of their diet. I have been giving them a lot of grass too lately, but sometimes they don't seem to want this either, even though I've gone out and picked the nicest/greenest looking grass I can find for them!

I just feel like they're never satisfied, or have enough.

I often watch Saskia from LA Guinea Pig Rescue and she says that you can't feed Guinea Pigs too much and that they always know when to stop eating, when they've had enough....So should I be feeding them more? I don't ever weigh out what I give them, but they have gone off lettuce, so currently eat lots of corriander, spring greens, parsley and cucumber, the odd bit of carrot and apple mainly, plus lots of grass!

 

[Zorro1]

Guinea pigs need to constantly keep their gut moving by grazing on hay throughout the day. But they don't know not too keep eating veg all day. So they don't stop, they'll always want food from you because it's just in their nature to constantly eat to keep their teeth down and their gut moving. Grass is really good, I think they should have as much of that as they want because that has the silica to wear their teeth down and the fibre for their gut as well as good vit c. It's what they are designed to eat all day. But with veg, I think you might have to resist their begging and not overfeed them with it. Too much veg, especially a lot of watery and sugary foods, can cause a stomach upset.

 

[Queen of wands]

Personally I’m very strict but overdose on affection so when mine beg 75% of the time I give them attention I sit with them I read to them and tell them they are the best things ever, assuming the hay rack is overflowing like a waterfall lol. In the morning mine get 1 small rotated daily 1chunk of carrot , orsmall piece of kale, or1/2 cucumber slice , or chunk celery with leaf so none of these are repeated more then 2 x a week and mine is in that order ( what a geek I am)then at night either green leaf ,romaine or, radicchio mayb a half cherry tomato squeezed seeds out and a quarter bell pepper , but that’s just me , I would try to come up with a plan so caring for them is a joy between you too it’s hard when there is a difference of ideas mayb a schedule of your choosing would help best of luck

 

[Piggies&buns]

The first thing to note is that the water intake from piggy to piggy varies. Some drink a little, some drink a lot. The need to drink comes before the need to eat and they will never deliberately dehydrate themselves. As the need to drink comes first, you will know that a piggy is definitely getting enough water by the fact they are still eating.
You say you give additional watery veg to compensate for the fact they don’t drink from the bottle. It is really and likely the case that if you do that you will stop them from having the need to drink - they get their water from their excess veg so won’t go to the bottle. You could therefore be causing yourself the worry about their water intake.
I have one piggy who empties half a bottle a day; the other whose bottle I have never seen move down from full by more than a few ml (he does drink but barely anything, I have seen him at the bottle!). They both get the exact same diet in the same quantities plus grazing on grass up to 14 hours a day in summer but their water intake is hugely different.

They are not bored of eating hay and grass - it is their diet and that which they need to eat all day. It only feels boring for us because our dietary needs and required variety work differently. We provide veg and pellets as supplementary to make up for the small percentage of the diet which would naturally be other leaves and plants.
They also cannot finish eating their hay. If they have stopped foraging through what is there, then throw in another fresh handful.
If you are viewing it like they are fed up and giving them something else too much in excess instead then you will perpetuate their begging for something else.

They don’t tend to stop eating veg when they’ve had enough - they would just keep going and going and eventually hay intake could suffer.
If an owner is prone to giving veg beyond their actual needs then it can be a good idea to make up their veg portion for the day - one cup per pig per day - and then put it aside.
If you then feel that you want to treat them throughout the day, then take it out of that portion. That way, they are not being given excessive amounts of veg by you potentially losing track of what they have had.

I do tend to feed a bit over one cup per pig but I don’t feed pellets. I have plastic bowls which I fill with veg. I don’t weigh anything beyond that - I did for the first few times years ago to gauge how much of the bowl held.
In summer that one cup of veg isn’t always just veg either, it often contains foraged fresh weeds. I do feed it all in one go in an evening.