What kind of fruits and vegetables are safe for an adult guinea pig?

Question

I have an adult male guinea pig that loves extra treats and snacks in addition to his regular food. I'm curious as to which vegetables or fruits are safe to give, and which ones I should stay away from.

Answer 1

Guinea pigs should get a variety of fresh veggies every day, about a cupful per pig. Fruit is fine as a treat - but no more than twice a week as it is high in sugar.

The ones I would strongly suggest you completely avoid are potatoes, onions, iceburg lettuce and banana.

Most other fresh foods are fine, but they do vary in how often they should be given.

You may want to read some of the info here:

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

For the BEST list available check out this chart:

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

Answer 2

Yes you should give carrots brocoli apple and lettuce. It i actually very healthy for them. You can also five peanuts wich they love.

Guinea Pigs like humans do not produce Vitamin C and need to be given it daily to ensure good health. Lack of vitamin C will cause scurvy. To maintain a good diet each Guinea Pig should be given 10mgs of vitamin C per day to 1kg body weight.

Pets Stores and Super Markets sell Guinea Pig food that has a vitamin C supplement. However this is not recommended as the only source of vitamin C for your piggie's.

Fig. 1 was brought as Gerty Guinea Pig. However since finding out about Gerty Guinea Pig food I have noticed that a lot of pet stores call random Guinea Pig food gerty. However in Super Markets and Chain Pet Stores they sell the pre-bagged Gerty Guinea Pig food in sealed bags. Kornage and Millie prefer this Guinea Pig food to the others.

Fig.2 This is hard pellets of Guinea Pig food with added vitamin C. I thought I would buy this just to try them on it. They were not over keen. Nutmeg ate most of it but didn't tuck in to it like she does the food in fig. 3.

Fig.3 This is a no name Guinea Pig food with added vitamin C. This is Nutmeg's favourite dried food. However she doesn't like the seeds or the yellow flakes in it. None of my Piggie's seem to like seeds or yellow flakes.

They like the flat green flakes which I think are squashed peas? If I am wrong somebody please correct me. I did buy extra of these from a Pet store that had sacks of just Pea Flakes. I have since read online that these should not be fed to a Guinea Pig in large amounts. I do not know if this is correct or not.

Although all the different kinds of food I have mentioned are designed for Guinea Pig's, you can not really compensate giving Guinea Pigs fresh vegetables daily. Not only are they good for them due to being full of vitamins but they actually much prefer the fresh stuff. They don't get quite as excited when I put down a bowl of dry food as they do when I put them down a mixture of all their favourite veggies.

  Also - cucumber

           celery

           sweet peppers

parcley

            corn

           melon

           grapes

            

Answer 3

Apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, kiwi, cantolope, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, eggplant, mustard greens, squash, zucchini, and he LOVES watermelon. And every once in a while ill let him have some lettuce even though i know its not good to feed them on a regular basis. It has to be the dark green type though, because others can make it sick. I'll give it to them for a  treat if I cant find anything else.My guinea pigs also love the white part of a boiled egg. I'll let him munch on some grass as long as i know it has no pesticides on it etc. And i put alfalfa hay in his cage and he chows down on that.

Hope this helped=)

Answer 4

Most are fine, but most fruits are sugary.

When I had my four, I fed them vegetables daily (pellets fatten them up). I gave them a mixture of the following, one small handful of each twice a day, along with unlimited hay:

Leafy Greens:

Red or green leaf lettuce

Kale (good source of vitamin C)

Dandelion greens

Corn husks and silks (they LOVE these, and some supermarkets will let you collect them for free off of the stand)

The leaves of beats

The green, leafy parts of celery

The green, leafy parts of carrots

Other veggies:

Chopped up bell peppers (remove the seeds; another source of vitamin C)

Corn on the cob (4 pigges can pick one clean in about half an hour)

Chopped up Beats (one of their favorites)

Chopped up celery (they weren't crazy about these, but they ate them)

Chopped up carrots (low quantities)

A small tomato (include a piece for everybody)

Cucumber slices (not popular, but they ate them)

I tend to avoid parsley and cilantro; too much calcium.

It's expensive to dole out this many veggies each day, but these really make up a healthy diet. All my cavies ever had were their veggies and hay, and they never got sick.

But, I took each list, sliced them all up (except the tomatoes), and put each set of ingredients in a separate tupperware container in the fridge. I put a small handful of each on a plate in the morning and in the evening. Tomatoes were freshly-sliced and only given out in lieu of the nonleafy veggies. A single corn on the cob (with husks and silks) would count as a full meal.