While hay should form the main bulk of the diet and should be in constant supply as it is needed to keep their digestive systems functioning correctly and to help keep their ever-growing teeth worn down, a guinea pig food should be fed alongside it to ensure that a complete and balanced diet is being provided. We recommend feeding a nugget based guinea pig food as these offer a nutritious diet in the form of extruded pellets, allowing your pet to take in all the necessary nutrients from the food, whereas muesli based foods tend to encourage selective feeding which can lead to nutrient deficiencies. If your pet isn’t finishing their food, then you could be giving them too much or they might just not like it. It’s worth trying a bit less food or a different type of food to see how they get on. If they leave food, make sure to remove it after a couple of hours so they don’t consume rotten or off food. If they’re leaving a lot of food and the changes don’t work, then make sure to call your vet, as there could be something more serious going on. How do I introduce new food into my guinea pig’s diet? Harringtons Optimum Guinea Pig Food is a pellet-based food consisting of 17% protein and 17% fibre, both of which are about reasonable for a guinea pig’s daily diet. The pellet-based food helps prevent selective eating, whereby a guinea pig eats its favorite ingredients and leaves the ingredients it doesn’t like. It is a very reasonably priced food that has been fortified with vitamin C, an essential ingredient in guinea pig food. It also includes vitamins A, D, and E. Vitamin D is especially important to indoor guinea pigs because they will not be getting any of these essential vitamins from the sun. This is a big bag of food, which means that you won’t have to buy it too often, but the weight of the food causes a lot of the pellets to crush, so expect some dust in the bottom of the bag when it arrives. You can effectively give an unlimited amount of natural hay each day without it leading to illness or overfeeding. If your guinea pig is putting on weight, it is more likely to be the pellets or the vegetables and treats that you are feeding. Vegetables

Our combination of vitamins A, C & E with carefully selected trace elements, help support a healthy immune system. Oat Fibre, Wheat Fibre, Sunflower Meal, Grass Meal, Carob Bean Meal, Apple Pomace (2%), Calcium Carbonate, Peas (1%), Linseed (1%), Vegetable Oil, Minerals, MOS (0.05%) A guinea pig should only be given fresh, clean water, and this should be always available so they can drink whenever they want. Guinea pigs should not be given excess sugar, salt, or fat, and these are often found in soda, juice, and other drinks. Can a Guinea Pig Eat Bananas? Cucumbers are not toxic to guinea pigs and are, therefore, quite safe to feed. They are also low in sugar, which means that they should not cause your cavy to put on weight. However, they also have a high moisture content and are low in vitamin C. This means that while they can eat cucumber, most guinea pigs would benefit from being given better quality and more nutritionally beneficial foods instead. Feed no more than a slice or two, two or three times a week. ConclusionAt Wagg we use colours from a mineral source found in nature and we don’t add artificial flavours to any of our foods. They also need fresh fruit and veg to keep a healthy diet. Leafy greens like lettuce and cabbage are great options, plus herbs such as basil, rosemary and dill will go down a treat. Seedless chopped apple and mango are yummy additions to keep your guinea pig eating away. They’ll even munch on kale (which will probably make you feel a little guilty about your diet choices). Vitamin C is water-soluble, which means that small amounts of excess vitamin C pass through the kidneys and are safely expelled by the body as urine. It is very difficult to give a cavy too much vitamin C when feeding a combination of hay, pellets, and vegetables, although it is possible to do so if you give a liquid or powder supplement. By making sure that the food does have good vitamin C levels, you can avoid the possibility of giving too much. Hay Image Credit: Alexas_Fotos, Pixabay Combination of vitamins A, C and E with carefully selected trace elements help to support a healthy immune system.

Guinea pigs, like humans, are unable to create vitamin C themselves so it is important that their food also contains adequate levels of this essential vitamin. Look for those foods that contain around 400 milligrams of vitamin C per kilogram. Romaine lettuce, kale, cilantro, and parsley should make up the bulk of the vegetables and can be combined with bell peppers and broccoli. Carrot tops are another popular addition.

Enrichment toys for guinea Pig food:

Made with high quality ingredients that have been combined into single nuggets to promote a balanced diet and avoid selective eating, the food contains extra vitamin C to help keep your guinea pig health, and linseed to promote a healthy skin and coat. Wheat fibre, sunflower meal, oat fibre, grass meal, whole oats, whole wheat, lucerne meal, carob bean meal, calcium carbonate, linseed (1%), vegetable oil, mineral, yeast. As guinea pigs are grazing animals they require a high fibre diet consisting of hay, a good quality guinea pig food and fresh fruits and vegetables.