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Time for a Guinea-Pig Food Thread. We have lots of new piggies joining the Super Furry Animal Team

90 replies

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 25/04/2014 10:49

As all Guinea-Pig Slaves know, these little furries are very particular when it comes to their food.

Yes, they need their Vitamin C
Yes they have things they cannot eat
Yes they have things that they shouldn't eat alot of.

Mine use this information to be very judgey about what I give them. And sometimes I buy parsley from Supermarket S that they hoover up. But buy it from Supermarket M , they turn their noses up.

So.....are we sitting comfortably. We'll begin.

We have GP1, smooth boar 3.6yo
GP3, Rex boar 10 months
We did have GP2 (brother of the smooth ) Abby type (now RIP)

GP2 loved watermelon,grapes,strawberries,sweetcorn (especially with the leaves) beetroot,sprouts, leaves from the willow tree. He also had terrible gas Envy vom , and if he had a day eating grass he had to have hay and pellets for supper , no veg .

GP1 loves grass, dandelions but not clover. Leaves from the pear tree.Parsley, he'd sell his mother for parsley. Carrots but only the ones with leaves, normal ones get left, leaf ones get devoured.
Watermelon, sweetcorn, spinach/rocket/watercress salad
Red /yellow/orange pepper but not green (so much that his pee went peach )
Banana

GP3 loves grass, yellow pepper, brocilli, dandelions, green beans,rocket, celery leaves but not the stalks.
Apple

GP1 has a liking for Cornetto cones

The aren't allowed coriander , it makes them narky.
They don't like mint, basil,

So, add to the list, the more the merrier (and I know there are pigs with eccentric tastes out there)

OP posts:
StarDustInTheWind · 02/05/2014 12:47

Hi

I have 2 girlie pigs... Sparks and Piggly - have kept piggies for about 30 years now and have found they all like different things...

my current girlies are 5 and a half and enjoy corn on the cob, silks and all... as well as Broccoli stems, cauli leaves and carrot greenery/peelings and trimmings... (they ARE the compost bin as far as our veg trimmings and peelings go ) and the usual grass, hay and dandelions with a dried food once a day too to ensure they are getting the right amounts of vit C etc. We don't give fruit due to the high sugar/low tooth wearing content, though they do enjoy a twig or 2 cut from the apple tree to gnaw on too...

Ours are outdoor in a hutch type piggies as I and eldest DD are both allergic to them- these will be the last pair I have as my allergies have worsened over the years. It is their spit I am allergic to, so have to get gloved/aproned up and put a towel over their heads to clip nails etc......

but they are fit and healthy (I presume - as we have never had to visit a vet with them) and seem to enjoy life with their chatter every time we or the dog go near....

I was surprised they enjoy the company of our Westie so much... he "tolerates" them scampering round (he is only 2 so has grown up with them being top "dogs")....

PacificDogwood · 06/05/2014 18:12

V urgent and highly important GP food question:

Can I give them a small piece of pine apple for a treat?? Or will that induce GP diarrhoea?
They had apple peal for the first time today. They approved

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 06/05/2014 18:22

Pineapple is a guinea safe food but only small amounts- small pieces (similar to apple) that won't irritate their mouths, no rind

I don't think my boys would eat it, they don't like the texture of celery (but love the leaves so it's a flavour they enjoy)

Actually, I have some fresh pineapple in the fridge, I'll try them tonight.

Good Luck (ours were scoffing strawberries and watermelon this weekend)

OP posts:
PacificDogwood · 06/05/2014 18:27

Ah, thanks again, 70 - I shall see what they make of it Grin

I fear that my GP will never get to try strawberries because the DSs scoff them lightening quick Hmm. Watermelon might have a better chance of actually getting to them...

FernieB · 06/05/2014 18:54

Mine are not fruit pigs - I think they are doing the sugar-free dietWink. They have rejected strawberries, all kinds of melon and pineapple. No surprise from Scruffy 'I only eat green food' pig but Smooth also reacts as though I'm trying to poison him if I offer him that evil fruit muck. He has occasionally taken a small piece of apple but usually leaves it in a corner.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 06/05/2014 22:31

DD did the boars supper- piece of pineapple each on the plate. I bet they'll ignore it

Can't be worse than the banana that they hide in their bed and I'm Shock WTAF, till I think oh yes. Banana

OP posts:
PacificDogwood · 06/05/2014 23:03

Well, the pineapple was rejected - I feel chastised Grin

Must do better tomorrow, must do better tomorrow, must do better tomorrow…

I ran out of Burgess Excel pellets and had not chance to make it to the pet shop, so bought cheap supermarket food.
Well.
I have been judged and found wanting Sad.

10kg sack of preferred food on its way - t'interweb is a wonderful thing.

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:17

Pacific - you will be in the doghouseShock. Have your GPs got the RSPCA on speed dial - 'she gave us pineapple and inferior dry food - we were starving'!

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:17

Pacific - you will be in the doghouseShock. Have your GPs got the RSPCA on speed dial - 'she gave us pineapple and inferior dry food - we were starving'!

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:18

Pacific - you will be in the doghouseShock. Have your GPs got the RSPCA on speed dial - 'she gave us pineapple and inferior dry food - we were starving'!

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:19

Pacific - you will be in the doghouseShock. Have your GPs got the RSPCA on speed dial - 'she gave us pineapple and inferior dry food - we were starving'!

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:19

Pacific - you will be in the doghouseShock. Have your GPs got the RSPCA on speed dial - 'she gave us pineapple and inferior dry food - we were starving'!

PacificDogwood · 07/05/2014 07:37

Good grief, Fernie, enough already - I feel bad enough as it is!Grin

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:51

Wonders of modern technology - apparently I needed to say that 3 times (that's what your GPs told me anyway Wink)!

FernieB · 07/05/2014 07:53

Sorry 5 times! What happened there? T'interweb thingy is beyond me - I'll go back to my slide rule, pencil and carrier pigeon.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 07/05/2014 10:09

Grin @ posting overdrive (must've been Smooths gin-orrrrrrmous rump blocking the waves or something)

The pineapple was gone this morning, Very impressed with my furbabies.

" Forrin muck and troppikall " they muttered,

OP posts:
Lancelottie · 07/05/2014 10:16

Two of ours won't eat cabbage in any shape or form.

The third one snatches it from under their disdainful noses and pelts off with it before they can change their minds.

All prefer eating newspaper as far as I can see.

PurplePunkPrincess · 07/05/2014 10:26

Pacific, I felt wheezy and was coughing from the moment I got in the car after purchasing my GPs (held them for 10 minutes or so in the store)

It got worse and wasn't sure if it was the GPs (apparently it's something in their wee that sets off the allergy not fur) the hay or bedding or something. I've never had any allergies but am asthmatic. And it was a lot worse when I was at home near them.

Within a week I felt fine and 2 years later I have been completely fine ever since. I've heard of this happening on other sites when I was googling about the reaction I was having!

dotty2 · 07/05/2014 10:39

My pigs eat just about anything - carrot being their mutual favourite. However, they are having their carrot rations cut at the moment (tiny bit and not every day) after a pig sitter commented that they were maybe a little on the lardy side. But how do you put grazing animals on a diet? They were on the grass for a good 2-3 hours yesterday and I could see them from my desk and they barely stopped chomping to draw breath.

They are in a C&C run inside at the moment and come and stand on their hind legs when they hear you coming into the room and take food from your hand. But if they think there's something tastier on offer they politely take the cucumber or whatever inferior offering comes first, deposit it on the floor and come back up for more.

FernieB · 07/05/2014 11:53

Dotty - at least yours are polite. Mine just give me hard stares and wheek louder until the good stuff arrives.

FernieB · 07/05/2014 11:55

Oh and my pig sitter also commented on the roly poly nature of my boys but only to say she loves a chubby pigGrin. So mine are off their diet although if Smooth is now so large he interferes with the wifi I may have think again.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 07/05/2014 12:01

There are few things as pitiful as a pair of rodents noses foraging through a pile of unsuitable (in their opinion) veg in the hope of parsley.

"I've waited all day for this , not like kale"

Cue the Good Cop/Bad Cop Routine - GP1 looks like Puss from Shrek, GP3 looks like the Tasmanian Devil.
Gets the scissors and bowl, cuts grass at 9pm, NDN on MadWomaninGarden alert.

OP posts:
PacificDogwood · 07/05/2014 19:56

Are GP not meant to be 'robust' - mine I filling in nicely. I weighed them today Grin

See, I get the DSs to cut grass with scissors in the garden to avoid the NDN looking at me like this -> Hmm when I go out.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 07/05/2014 20:03

Pleasantly plump I reckon (if you google any pictures of the original South American wild guinea, they are scrawny and turd coloured, mmmm ideal pet)

Our GP1 is a bit bony and arthritic now (getting middleaged) but has a pleasing set of chins on him - at least 2 last count- and a nice lardy rump.

OP posts:
PacificDogwood · 08/05/2014 09:07

I've just come back from the school run with a large fistful of dandelion. Now here's my question: do I rinse the soil off them? Or is it bad if they are wet?
I seem to remember from when we had rabbits as kids that we were not to give them wet dandelions. We used to collect carrier bags full of them in the surrounding fields = fat pleasantly plump rabbits in the summer Grin

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