Guinea Pigs and weed and feed

[threekidsandcrazy]

Hi all,

I need some GP help!

We've had our three piggie girls for three weeks and we all love them to bits but it has so far been somewhat more complicated than we had anticipated. DH did a weed and feed on (most of) the lawn at the weekend (i.e. just over five days ago). It has rained since then and I've kept them to the part of the garden he didn't weed and feed at all but they have razed the grass completely and I am looking at the lush green-ness elsewhere in the garden. I was thinking to let them out on the weeded and feeded lawn after it has been mown (mowed?) twice (?) -- we've already had loads of rain. It was granular stuff and DH has thrown the bag away. I can't find anything on the interwebs that I'm finding helpful: one thread I found said to never let them on grass that had had weedkiller on it. That would be a major bummer if its the case ...

(At least) one of our girlies is pregnant (oh joy) as well, so am being ultra-cautious.

Any thoughts / advice / comments / knowledge most welcome. HEEELP!

I put this on my garden about this time last year without thinking about what I was doing and then wend and sat down with a cuppa and realised that I hadn't even thought about the pigs! I had a Google and it's a definite 'do not use' where grazing animals are concerned.

I went and hoovered it up

If I remember rightly I had to google the active ingredients to find out their safety. It dos say on the back of the tub but of course I hadn't bothered to read that..

It's a good six weeks before they can go out on it, I think. It takes a long time for it to be out of the grass properly.

I would wait a couple weeks, you can't put them straight on the grass anyway you need to build it up (giving them a handful of grass, 5 minutes out on grass, 10 minutes ect) until they don't binge on the grass and make themselves sick(grass is very sugary)!

jwww I did not know that - thank you!

When do people stop putting their pigs out? We've only had ours about 3 weeks and they haven't been outside yet but I think it will soon be too cold?

I'll keep it in mind for next year though. Thanks

As long is the ground is dry and the sun is shining I'll put mine out whenever :) they always seem to enjoy being outside and they're old pigs so we're obviously doing something right 🐀

Why haven't we got a Guinea emoji??

I have 🐹🐹 o n my phone tho.

Ours go out as long as the grass is dry and it feels warm . Sometimes only for 10 mins to stretch their legs. I put a pit of carpet in their run so that if they just sit (yes you Mollie) they don't get damp.
It is the damp that does for them more than the cold.
On days they don't get out I cut them a pile of grass to eat.

Mine will keep going out as long as it's at least 12 degrees outside. My garden wraps around the house so I can always find a sheltered bit. They get a couple of old towels down if it's a bit damp so they can lie down snugly.

Right -- for the record, in case anyone else wants to know, I phoned the weed and feed people to get their advice on weed and feed and guinea pigs and it's this: as long as it has rained it's ok for grazing livestock HOWEVER if you have ragwort or buttercups you need to ensure you keep your GPs off them. When they are fresh and alive they are unpalatable to GPs so they won't eat them anyway; but when they are dead / dying / freshly mowed they taste nice so they'll eat them but they are still poisonous. So we've had lots of rain and two mows since DH put the weed and feed down, and although we have patches of weedy grass, we've also got some lovely patches of nothing wrong with it at all grass, so I'll be putting my girls out on that from now on.

I've been putting a picnic blanket down for my girls to play on when the grass is too wet for them to be on it :)

Thanks for all comments, everyone.

Love the idea of piggies on a picnic blanket