Treats for guinea pigs

[Launey]

So if I have been giving my guinea pigs pea flakes and hay treat things (I have realized those aren’t really treats since they have hay all the time) mostly and sometimes freeze dried strawberries as treats can I get them other types like the dried carrots or will that harm them? For their food you should stick to the same kind so are they the same with treats? Also I don’t know if other treats are ok for them but I don’t want to feed them the ones that I don’t know what are in them

 

[Piggies&buns]

It’s always very tempting to want to give them treats but some things just aren’t healthy or in their best interests. Dried carrots or strawberries (due to the water being removed) are very high in sugar and I would avoid them entirely.
The odd peaflake is fine. The hay based treats you are giving are also fine.

I personally never feed or buy any kind of commercial treat.
A treat for my piggies is a different type of fresh herb or a veg which they don’t normally have in their daily diet; or a treat hay.
I also buy dried forage leaves from a UK small business but I am sure you can find something similar on the US. They are literally just safe wild leaves - blackcurrant leaves, plantain, nettles, birch leaves etc - which have been dried - no high sugar content and are perfectly healthy!

Any time you add anything new on the diet you need to do is in small amounts to ensure it doesn’t upset digestion.

There is a treat section in our diet guide which may also help you

Thread 'Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets'

Jul 14, 2014

1 The recommended ratio of food groups
2 Hay and fresh grass
3 Vegetables, fresh herbs and fruit with an illustrated balanced sample diet
4 Special dietary needs
- Urinary tract infections, bladder stones and sterile IC (non-bacterial interstitial cystitis)
- Diabetes and long term digestive problems
- Impaction in boars
- Pregnancy and nursing dietary tweaks (only visible to registered members who have accepted our no intentional breeding policy)...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Diet

• 

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

I also buy dried forage leaves from a UK small business but I am sure you can find something similar on the US. They are literally just safe wild leaves - blackcurrant leaves, plantain, nettles, birch leaves etc - which have been dried - no high sugar content and are perfectly healthy!

Also raspberry leaves are fine, which are plentiful as wild plants in Europe, idk about in the US.

@Launey
Some of my guineas liked to be hand-fed (some of the time), so for them it was a treat for me to sit beside their Palace and hand over blade of hay by blade of hay (or the same with grass or little slivers of some vegetable). The 'treat' was my undivided attention rather than what they were eating. It was all available in their Palace too, but eating from my fingers was more fun, apparently. I sometimes bought pea flakes, especially when a guinea had to take medicine over a long period, but one can do without it too.

The pet stores want to make money with yoghurt drops and chew-sticks etc etc imho rather than that being anything guineas should have.