We recently bought a guinea pig and want to make sure she gets the right amount of vitamin c in her diet. We are currently giving her carrot and broccoli on top of her normal food and hay. What other foods can we give her as we have heard that lettuce isn't a good idea for them. And how much should we be giving her on a daily basis? Thanks in advance. :)

Hello! You can give them just about anything really. ICEBERG lettuce isn't that good, its more water than anything.

I'll pm you a link of everything they can eat.

Did you know piggies are social animals though and should really be kept in pairs?

The best advice on diet I have found is on a site called guinea pig cages. I can post the link (don't have enough posts myself) but the site is called

www guineapigcages com/forum (you'll need to replace the spaces with dots).

Go to the diet and nutrition section and then at the bottom of the sticky threads in that section is a chart of vegetables and how often you can feed them. It's worth browsing through the whole of the diet section (actually the whole forum's really good!).

Hi, hay should make up at least 80% of the piggies diet with a good complimentary pellet/nugget. Stay away from muesli as they can selectively feed. For fruit and veg, broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, cauliflower carrot and apple. Although we always add red pepper as it is one of the highest things in vit c you can get. They love it too....nice and sweet :)

If you're worried, something you can also do is to get some effervescent vit c tablets from your supermarket or boots and dissolve one in their drinking water a couple of times per week. Perfectly safe in case you wondered.
:)

my 12 guniea pigs adore cabbage and spring onions(strange i know) they also enjoy weetabix every now and again, there absolute favorite is cucumber.. I think its trail and error as different piggys like different things my friends piggy didnt like carrots !!!.

your not meant to feed piggies onions....

Like i say different piggys like different things, my piggys or 3 yr old and have eaten spring onions for that length of time, they are healthy and fit never needed to go to the vets and produce beautiful litters. I dont think any pet owner would feed their pets any food that would upset them do you??

On advive of breeders who have kept piggies for 30 odd years I was advised not to feed onions of any sort. Do as you wish to your pigs thats your look out darl, I am just giving my advice to a new piggy owner

Yes It Is My Look Out Darling And Im Just Informing You As A Responsible Piggy Owner My Piggys Love Onions And It Hasnt Done Them Any Harm At All.

All I am doing is giving advice to the OP, not looking for a slanging match

then stop having a comment on eveyones elses advice, when some ones opnion is different to yours it doesnt mean that it is wrong, you need to understand that and learn from it.

feeding certain foods can harm piggies. I was simply suggesting that onions are not a food advised my piggy breeders/carers or RSPCA

Hi, hay should make up at least 80% of the piggies diet with a good complimentary pellet/nugget. Stay away from muesli as they can selectively feed. For fruit and veg, broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, cauliflower carrot and apple. Although we always add red pepper as it is one of the highest things in vit c you can get. They love it too....nice and sweet :)

If you're worried, something you can also do is to get some effervescent vit c tablets from your supermarket or boots and dissolve one in their drinking water a couple of times per week. Perfectly safe in case you wondered.
:)

Yup, our old neighbours used to do that too and it worked for them (the vitamin C tablet thing) xK

some breeders I know use the vit c drops in water and feed veg twice a week

I've just read on the blue cross website that you shouldn't feed lettuce to guinea pigs as it gives them diarrhoea!

http://www.rspcasa.asn.au/page?pg=401&stypen=htmlprint

Here you go BM. This backs you up. The RSPCA says don't feed them onions! :thumbsup:

Onions give me indigestion, so I dread to think what they'd do to a GP's constitution. Mind you, critters develop all kinds of strange tastes - one of our old cats, Felix, used to love doughnuts and whenever we went to the seaside for the day, we always brought one back home for her. Knew it wasnt a healthy diet option, but it was her treat - she had a thing about steamed broccolli too.

I know when I had bunnies I was advised to steer clear of lettuce as it can give em diarrhoea.

You can give rabbits dark green lettuce but not light green, as that does give them the runs.

Under no circumstances should you ever, ever ever ever give a rabbit onions. Poisonous. Wouldn't like to contend with that vets bill :rolleyes:

beg to differ there.....

Some lettuce is ok but pigs cant have iceberg. But too much of any lettuce can give them diarrhoea as it has a high water content.

I feed lettuce about 1-2 times a week and havnt had any problems, they have about 2 leaves each, 1 if they are huge. I have about 20 growing in the garden so it makes it cheaper than buying them.

Piggies also like chard which you could grow in the garden too.

For their morning feeds they have carrot, broccoli, tomatos, they also love corn on the cob or baby corn, celery, cucumber, parsley and apple but they only get apple once a week as its bad for them in large ammounts.

beg to differ there.....

I'd love to tell you that the majority rules here - and we like to look after our animals. We take the advice we are given and just like everyone else we love to fight for our cause.

As you already said, an opinion is an opinion but not when it comes to feeding animals things which could poison them. Just because it hasn't hurt your piggies yet doesn't mean it won't.

Thanks for all the advcie guys :thumbsup: Have bought her some vitamin C drops for her water and I have just given her a slice of apple which she is happily munching on! Just one quick question, she is often jumping around in her cage, is this a sign that she's happy or not?

She is most likely popcorning, they do it when they are happy or excited. Mine do it when they hear the hay bag or when they hear the fridge door and they know veggies are coming.

Yes It Is My Look Out Darling And Im Just Informing You As A Responsible Piggy Owner My Piggys Love Onions And It Hasnt Done Them Any Harm At All.
Well what a very childish response! 'Poppypopstar', if you take the time to do a little t'interweb research before banging out a rude response - you will find onions are not at all recommended due to their causing gastric problems at the least. Just because you've always done it doesn't mean you are right. ;)

Anyway - OP - if you feed a good quality pellet specifically for pigs, and give them a nice variety of fresh veg, its not necessary to supplement their water with vit C, so don't worry too much about that. Sometimes it can make the water taste a bit odd causing the pigs to not drink as much as they perhaps should do. :)

.

Just one quick question, she is often jumping around in her cage, is this a sign that she's happy or not?

My three do this all the time, normally whilst making squeaking noises, it is very funny to watch :hihi:. Mine normally do it when it is food time, hay time, veg time, fuss time, ermmm, they are always at it :rolleyes:

This is the explanation on NOT giving onions here

Like all of that family, including garlic they contain allacin which can destroy red blood cells and cause anaemia.

Thanks for all the advcie guys :thumbsup: Have bought her some vitamin C drops for her water and I have just given her a slice of apple which she is happily munching on! Just one quick question, she is often jumping around in her cage, is this a sign that she's happy or not?

Thats most definately popcorning, its lovely to see them so happy. Can I just say, be careful if you are giving vit C drops not to over load her with veggies :)

I've started growing my own veg in pots in my garden, had some pretty amazing results so far :thumbsup:

My daughter has grown some veg for the piggies in pots too. All three of them go mad over parsley, it's the only thing they fight over unless you put tons in! I have to spread it all around the hut to split them up :loopy:

I'd never heard it called popcorning before, but what an apt description! Its a long long time since Ive owned any GPs but most of the rabbits weve had did this, sually just prior to a thunderstorm

Just a quick update, we have just been given her sister! My friend has discovered her daughter is allergic so she could no longer keep her guinea pig. At the minute, Sandie (our original) and Buttons (the new one) are about to be introduced, we are going to let them into the run together and see how they get on before putting them together in the cage.And once they are both happily settled, I'll post you a pic!

Does anyone know if you can feed radish greens to guinea pigs? I have been growing radishs and was unsure the other day so chucked them away. Could they have eaten it?

I'm not entirely sure, can I ask and get back to you?

I think they can http://www.cavyland.org.uk/care.html

and here http://www.mgpr.org/MGPR/Guinea%20Pig%20Diet.htm

although I have seen many of them say the tops and leaves but not the radish itself?

Its cos raddishes are bulbous I think thats why I wasn't sure

Thanks for that, theres no chance of them having the radishes anyway. They are grown especially for human consumtion.

:hihi:

Mine go nuts for the tops of carrots. If I give carrots with tops on they eat the top and not the carrots!

Have similar problems with horses in winter, did you know that horses and guinea pigs make vitamin C whenever the sun shines on their skin? So thats why you should get them into the sun at every opportunity and why winters tend to be worse.

Nowadays horses have big weather proof rugs in winter, but it means the sun cant get to their skin. I used to feed mine effervescent vitamin C tablets but now I've found a special horse supplement with it in, so he has that.

Weirdly horse wee and guinea pig wee smell very similar too! Bet you didnt want to know that though.

good luck with them, they are great fun, no good at jumping or pulling carts but much easier to cuddle on the sofa.

Like i say different piggys like different things, my piggys or 3 yr old and have eaten spring onions for that length of time, they are healthy and fit never needed to go to the vets and produce beautiful litters. I dont think any pet owner would feed their pets any food that would upset them do you??

Much as I love them, unfortunately guinea pigs aren't that bright. Mine will eat anything in sight, whether or not it is good for them. Yes all guinea pigs like different things but just because they like something does not mean it isn't bad for them or toxic.

Three years old is still fairly young for a guinea pig and long term health problems caused by eating onions may not necessarily have become apparent. They may not develop any problems from eating the onions, but that doesn't change the fact that it is inadvisable to feed guinea pigs any type of onion.