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Archive for January 1st, 2009

Your pet guinea pig depends on you completely for it’s food and nourishment. To ensure your furry little friends is as happy and healthy as he possibly can be you have to make certain he’s eating the suitable varieties of guinea pig food and getting every one of the necessary nutrients and vitamins. This information will make it easier to learn all you need to know to become a knowledgeable and loving guinea pig keeper.

The main food for your guinea pigs are going to be pellets. Young guinea pigs, under 10 months old, should be fed alfalfa hay-layered pellets. However, right after they reach 10 months of age you’ll want to switch them to timothy hay-layered pellets because alfalfa hay has elevated levels of calcium and high doses of calcium usually aren’t good for adult guinea pigs. A superb guinea pig pellet also needs to be hard and firm, making it necessary for your pigs to bite, chew and gnaw through it. Guinea pigs naturally enjoy chewing and gnawing on things so your little piggies will definitely love eating their hard pellets.

Ensure that you get pellets which are specifically formulated for guinea pigs and it is therefore a complete food, meaning it has each of the right nutrients in it. This includes an additional dose of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) which happens to be an important supplement to your guinea pig’s health. As in humans, ascorbic acid will not be naturally produced in guinea pigs. Deficiencies in vitamin C might cause your pet to develop scurvy. Should the pellet food that you’re feeding your guinea pig not be fortified with ascorbic acid, supplements can be bought in pet stores and can be put into their drinking water. Make sure you give your furry friend guinea pig approximately 20mg of ascorbic acid supplements every single day.

Guinea pigs also love to eat fresh vegetables, and vegetables are an essential supply of nutrients and vitamins. Leafy green vegetables help provide your pig with additional vitamin C. A summary of healthful vegetables that your guinea pig will like comprise watercress, turnip greens, swiss chard, spinach, mustard spinach, kale, dill weed, dandelion greens, cabbage, beet greens, cilantro, collards, and chicory greens.

I have discovered that the best food bowl for your pet is a heavy ceramic bowl for the reason that it’s hard to tip over while eating, and also the sides of the bowl needs to be high enough to hold back all dirty and contaminated bedding. Your guinea pigs needs a constant source of clean, fresh water, and the best way to make water available is by using a water bottle equipped with a “sipper” tube. Take care to always keep your guinea pig’s water bottle clean for the reason that can have a tendency to become contaminated and blocked as the guinea pig chews on the end of the sipper tube which often can backwash food particles up the tube.

This should be almost everything you might want to know about guinea pig food and feeding your furry and friendly companions. For anyone who is new to caring for guinea pigs then there are a lot of things you’ll want to understand about guinea pig care. So, click here now to pick up even more tips to ensure excellent guinea pig health.