Guinea pigs need 20-50g of pellets per piggie per day; this can be unlimited for guinea pigs under six months. We feed one handful per piggie per day, as a guide. We have a lot of donated pellets, so we usually mix them meaning when piggies leave us, they are used to many types. These are generally Harringtons, Science Selective and Burgess. At the Nest, we feed dry food in the morning and fresh in the evening with unlimited hay all day, but you can get into your own routine.
Piggies need to eat mostly hay. If they aren’t, you might be feeding too much veg or pellets. Cut back for a couple of days and see if that helps. You can also sprinkle bagged dried forage or some fresh grass or herbs into the hay to encourage them to eat, or just try a different type of hay.
Piggies need a good size handful of chopped veg, per piggie per day. A list of our basic veg servings is below:
- We usually feed 3 different veg a day
- Any colour pepper is good, but otherwise green veg is best
- We recommend carrot and fruit once or twice a week
- The photo below shows a daily serving for 2 piggies, on a side plate:
Your piggies can be fed forage; it is natural and free! Only pick plants that you are sure of – for more information see our Forage article. We feed a lot of forage at the Nest so your piggie will be used to fresh grass for most of the year. There’s a great Facebook group you can join to learn more about forage and we have included photos of some that we feed in the Forage article. Fresh grass is included into the hay part of the diet, not veg.
You might see white spots on your piggies’ bedding; this is because piggies can’t process excess calcium so will excrete it in their urine. In spite of this, we don’t recommend following a low-calcium diet to prevent this. If your piggie suffers from regular urine infections, it is the time to consider reducing high calcium vegetables. The same applies if your vet thinks that they may have bladder stones/sludge.
