I don't want to feed them pellets

Question

I don't want to pay a ton of money for my guinea pigs food. I want to give them fresh all day. (they will get the right vitamin c like every other piggie.) Does anyone know how much to give them and what to give them for a days worth of nutrition

Answer 1

Feeding veggies only is going to be way more expensive than buying pellets.

You can do a pellet free diet but you need to plan it carefully, feed veggies throughout the day and unlimited grass hay. They still will need plenty of hay.

But keep in mind, they do need the minerals and vitamins in high quality plain pellets. You may be facing a vet bill down the line if their diet is not sufficient.  

Answer 2

Pellets are essential to any small animal's health. They provide fiber and nutrition that is just not easy to obtain from fresh fruits and veggies. If you feed your guinea pigs fresh food, they will get diarrhea and possible digestive problems.

Guinea pig food is not that expensive; don't compromise your guinea pig's health! Props to you for asking first, but just stick to the tested and true pellets.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I really recommend having pellets. It is something everyone should have. I give my piggies some fresh food ing the morning and night. Then I give them a treat in mid- day.

Here is a REALLY good website I always use:

http://www.jackiesguineapiggies.com/pigg...

Answer 4

You should have pellets, they are necessary! Try Fiesta! Brand pellets. They are at a medium price for about 6 dollars. My guinea pigs love them and I only have to buy a new bag once a month or later!

http://www.epinions.com/review/Kaytee_Ka...

Answer 5

I have heard of people that do a pellet-less diet, but you have to be extremely diligent with tracking the types of foods and the nutritional values each food carries to pull this off. I don't know about you, but I don't have the wherewithal to do this. I guess maybe its because the size of my herd and my family.

Go to http://www.guinealynx.info/ and search the forums for this topic. I remember reading about this quite awhile back.

You know, if you only have a couple of piggies and you buy in bulk, the cost is minimal. A 50lb. bag of Oxbow or KM's pellets will last a VERY long time.  In fact, it is less than the cost of supplying their *entire* diet with veggies.  And, your piggies will be receiving the best nutrition there is. I have found with my own herd that feeding too many veggies causes soft stools, due to the high water content.

Bottom line.....try it if you're up to it, but make sure you do due research first.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Well, okay, first - guinea pigs, if older than 6 months, need only 1/8 cup of timothy based pellets daily. Though they do need unlimited hay as well, and at least a cup of veggies a day. If younger than 6 months, you should feed them still timothy based pellets, but unlimited, and an unlimited amount of alfalfa hay.

The veggies will supply them with their Vit C just fine. For the veggies you can use any variety of fresh green leaves, such as Romaine lettuce, a baby carrot, and 1/10 of a green bell pepper. They will need a cup of that daily. You can give them some other foods, but fruits should only be feed as treats because they are high in sugars. Here is a food chart you should go by, it gives all the foods and veggies a pig can eat, and it tells them how much a week they should eat it as well. If you scroll down, it gives a list of other types of foods/treats you should avoid, and also a list of poisonous plants. It's really handy, you can even print it out and hang it on your fridge!

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/diet...

Oh, and don't use the pellets that have any extra added seeds or other junk. That's harmfull for their digestive system and bad for their diet. Actually, you should be feeding them a good pellet too. If you can order offline, both KMs and Oxbow have very excellent pellets and hay.

http://kmshayloft.com/

http://www.oxbowhay.com/index.sp?page=in...

Answer 7

Hello.

I do recommend pellets cause it is a better healthy guinea pig food, there is also another kind of food called Alfalfa and Fruits Mix for guinea pigs and rabbits, its not as healthy but it will do, pellets give vitamins, zinc and iron for guinea pigs so if you don't really want to give pellets you can give them Alfalfa and Fruits.