Vitamins For Guinea Pigs?

[seikami_kieruma]

Now we have those Vitamin C gummys for us... Is there anything I can get for my guinea pigs like that? I want my piggys very healthy and happy!

 

[Siikibam]

It’s not recommended to give them vitamin c supplements. The pellets are fortified and coriander and bell pepper (which can be fed daily) provide vitamin c.

 

[seikami_kieruma]

It’s not recommended to give them vitamin c supplements. The pellets are fortified and coriander and bell pepper (which can be fed daily) provide vitamin c.

Well jsut vitamins in general

 

[Piggies&buns]

They don’t need extra supplementary vitamins - they get everything they need from a good balance diet of unlimited hay and access to grass, one cup of veg and one tablespoon of pellets per day.
Routinely giving supplementary vitamins can be at best a waste as some vitamins in excess are simply excreted in the urine, and giving vitamins above what they need can cause health problems.
Do just stick to a healthy diet and don’t worry about giving supplements to guinea pigs.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Wiebke]

Now we have those Vitamin C gummys for us... Is there anything I can get for my guinea pigs like that? I want my piggys very healthy and happy!

Hi!

Concentrating on a good grass hay besed diet that provides all their dietary needs is much healthier and life prolonging. Piggies on a good general diet with 80% of the daily food intake in hay and fresh growing grass (the latter of which is high in vitamin C and the reason why piggies never had the need to make their own in the first place) will not suffer from scurvy in the 15 years this forum has been running with literally tens of thousands of piggies passing through here.

Ironically, most scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) cases we see on here are from people over-supplementing with vitamin C. The body gets used to these unusually high levels, so when they suddenly drop for some reason (like illness), the piggies will reacti with scurvy even though the vitamin C levels are still well above normal. Please keep in mind that the actual amounts needed in such small animals are minute.

Don't be tempted to overfeed on fruit and rich veg, either. Fresh herbs, leafy greens and some cucumber and a slice of pepper take the supplementary role that extra wild forage has in a guinea pig's natural diet. Rather consider growing your on fresh herbs or speciality treat grasses in windowsill boxes at home than giving artificial food supplements. Importantly - stay away from multivitamins that are not for guinea pigs, as they will inevitably have the wrong amounts which can be very damaging and life-shortening in the longer term. Even more so with any oil based vitamins (A and D) that build up in the liver.

Please take the time to carefully read our diet guide. It looks at diet as a whole and at each food group in detail in their function in an overall balanced diet. The closer to their natural hay based diet you can keep (especially if you are living in an urban setting), the better. It can add 1-2 years to a healthy life span and take it from the lower end to the upper and beyond.

Below is our very comprehensive detailed diet guide link, which you may find helpful in learning which foods are good, which can be fed in small quantities and which should be handled with care. Keep in mind that the dental growth rate and the digestive system are entirely laid out for chewing the silica rich grass and hay and for breaking down the nutritious but tough grass and hay fibre in two runs through the gut. The less you meddle with that process, the longer your piggies will live and the overall healthier they will be. It is really as simple as that!
Here is the link: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

PS: A much larger proportion of my own piggies (all adopted rescue piggies, some of them from true hellholes) are living to the upper end or beyond the average healthy life span of 5-7 years since I have reduced the amount of pellets and veg (especially the amount of high sugar and starch veg) in the diet. I currently have got two sows that have celebrated their 7th birthday in February, even though nobody would have ever expected them to live as long as that, considering their horrible background. I don't supplement with artificial vitamins.