Ways to wear down teeth

[Capybara]

Hi, I recently got a new guinea pig, he is currently getting fed a blend of timothy hay, as well as pellets in a bowl along with vegetables every day. He has plenty of toys ranging from wood sticks to compact hay, but he doesn't seem to gnaw on any of them. Is this a new guinea pig behavior, or do I need to try and find different toys for him? I'm mainly concerned that his teeth will become too long if he isn't gnawing on anything other than his food. I'm more than willing to try a variety of toys with him, but I would like to avoid having to bring him to the vet to have his teeth clipped/filed every so often.

 

[Betsy]

Guinea pigs need an unlimited supply of hay to eat not just a small amount in a bowl. They also only need a tablespoon per piggy per day of pellets. An unlimited supply of hay is generally all that is needed to keep the teeth in good order and not toys. Does your piggy have a friend?

 

[Capybara]

Guinea pigs need an unlimited supply of hay to eat not just a small amount in a bowl. They also only need a tablespoon per piggy per day of pellets. An unlimited supply of hay is generally all that is needed to keep the teeth in good order and not toys. Does your piggy have a friend?

He does have an unlimited supply of hay, I meant that his pellets were in a bowl. He doesn’t have a cage mate, he does have a friend however, and I know many say ‘play dates’ are bad because they have to re-assert dominance every meeting, but me and a friend, who also has a single male, will pay very close attention to their behavior when meeting. These will be more than simple play dates in that they will likely spend much more time together as me and my friend are often together several days a week for the majority of the day. We have discussed the possibility that this may not work and we are both willing to find both of our piggies compatible cage mates.

We have both done plenty of research but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Piggies&buns]

The only thing he needs to chew on to keep his teeth worn down is hay and grass. Toys and chew toys are usually a waste of money as most piggies will ignore them. Such chew toys don’t do anything to keep the back teeth down anyway - it’s eating hay and grass which goes that.

It’s not just the reasserting dominance, it’s the stress the constant meeting and separating causes through the fact they never properly bond and never form a hierarchy - that’s something which you might not be able to see. Piggies who cannot live together should not be being put together for play dates, it’s simply not how they function and both piggies should have a permanent live in friend. They are herd animals who should never be alone.

Single Guinea Pigs - Challenges and Responsibilities
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Companionship

 

[Little Ones]

I feel like you’re viewing the play dates from a very human perspective rather than a guinea pig perspective. The advice you’ve read saying that play dates are bad is written with the social and welfare needs of a guinea pig in mind, and like I said those differ greatly from humans.
Guinea pigs live in a strict hierarchy, that’s the only way they are happily friends with another guinea pig. When guinea pigs don’t have a hierarchy determined, this is quite stressful as each guinea pig has to ‘fight’ for their place. Even if you can’t see dominance, they are still dealing with quite a stressful situation in trying to determine where they stand, if they need to be on guard, becoming familiar with the other piggy, etc.
But also, if they do get along well, it’s very cruel to take that friend away from them. I recently had to separate two of mine after they’d been together about a month due to quite a bad bullying situation. From this separation, the pig that was doing the bullying essentially went into acute pining. Acute pining is what happens when a piggy loses their friend to death, they stop eating, they sort of just give up on life. Even though the bond between my two wasn’t the most functional, the social needs of a guinea pig is so great that one of them just didn’t see the point in living really.
Every time the two piggies will meet, they will go back to square one. Guinea pigs don’t view play dates as play dates, when two guinea pigs interact they’re trying to work out if they can be together forever. To have that process stopped and started over and over is stressful and also cruel. Whilst we shouldn’t view this in human terms, it is kind of like meeting someone and saying “hi, how are you? The weathers terrible, isn’t it? Oh, you got rained on? Well, okay bye!” Just on a constant loop, you never get further than that point any time you meet them. They aren’t your friend, in fact you barely even know them and it’s probably a bit uncomfortable. Especially if the conversation never goes beyond that point every time you meet. That’s kind of what happens between two guinea pigs that are given play dates except with a lot more stress. Like I said, they live in a hierarchy and every time they meet they have to be ready to determine that hierarchy.
If both you and your friend are able to each get a permanent friend for each of your single piggies, then you should. I’m not sure why you’d go against advice you’ve read to give each of your piggies play dates together when you both seem in a position to find suitable friends for each boy. The reason play dates are advised against is because they don’t cater to the actual needs or feelings of the guinea pigs involved, they only seem like a good idea to humans because the way we socialise is vastly different to guinea pigs

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, I recently got a new guinea pig, he is currently getting fed a blend of timothy hay, as well as pellets in a bowl along with vegetables every day. He has plenty of toys ranging from wood sticks to compact hay, but he doesn't seem to gnaw on any of them. Is this a new guinea pig behavior, or do I need to try and find different toys for him? I'm mainly concerned that his teeth will become too long if he isn't gnawing on anything other than his food. I'm more than willing to try a variety of toys with him, but I would like to avoid having to bring him to the vet to have his teeth clipped/filed every so often.

Hay, hay and more hay. And fresh grass when you have got access to to safe dog pee free grass. Guinea pig teeth have specifically evolved against the very abrasive silica in grass and hay, so about 80% of what they eat in a day needs to contain grass fibre. Unfortunately veg and pellets (which are mainly fillers and contain surprisingly little fibre) are too soft and turn into mush in the mouth so they do not grind down the teeth. What many people are not aware of is that fresh grass is high in vitamin C (hence the reason why guinea pigs never had the need to make their own in the first place). Good quality hay still contains enough vitamin C that we have never seen a piggy on a good hay based diet with scurvy in nearly 15 years of existence; only in those cases whether vitamin C has been long term overdosed and any little dip in the abnormally high levels would cause symptoms of scurvy even though those guinea pigs still got levels that were above the normal ones.

Ca. 50g of preferably green veg (on very small bowl) and 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day max are more like supplementing the main diet in the way that wild forage would in the wild ancestor species. The closer you can keep the diet to their natural one, the better. The correct diet will also support a perfectly balanced gut microbiome and extend a normal healthy life span for another 1-2 years from the lower end of the average life span to the upper and even beyond.

Please take the time to have a careful read of our diet guide; it looks at diet as a whole and at all the various food groups in practical detail.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets