Guinea pigs need 20-50g of pellets per piggie per day; this can be unlimited for guinea pigs under six months. We feed one handful per piggie per day, as a guide. We have a lot of donated pellets, so we usually mix them, meaning when piggies leave us, they are used to many types. These are generally Harringtons, Science Selective and Burgess. At the Nest, we feed dry food in the morning and fresh in the evening with unlimited hay all day, but you can get into your own routine.
Piggies need to eat mostly hay, if they aren’t, you might be feeding too much veg or pellets, cut back for a couple of days and see if that helps. Any hay is fine for piggies, as long as they are eating lots. We use bales from farms as this is the best value, for our large numbers. To encourage piggies to eat more hay, try different varieties or sprinkle dried forage or some fresh herbs on to it so encourage them to forage. Piggies really like to lie in a pile of hay so a cardboard box or a large paper bag can work well for this.
At the Nest we use the ‘Vale Bale’. We find this is good quality, dust extracted hay! The bale only measures 60x40x25cm and the price is great. We buy 2 at a time, so the postage is best value!
If you’d like to donate a bale to the Nest, you can send a gift card to our usual email address.
Most commercial treats aren’t suitable for piggies, even though the packet might say otherwise. Piggies shouldn’t have seeds, dairy, egg or honey, which are often included. We like to feed fresh herbs, a small piece of apple or the green tops of strawberries with a small piece of fruit left on, as treats. We do sell a range of treats that are suitable for piggies, these are availble in small ‘trial size’ packs so you can see which your piggies prefer!
Your piggies can be fed forage; it is natural and free! Only pick plants that you are sure of – for more information see our Forage article. We feed a lot of forage at the Nest so your piggie will be used to fresh grass for most of the year. There’s a great Facebook group you can join to learn more about forage and we have included photos of some that we feed in the Forage article. Fresh grass is included into the hay part of the diet, not veg.
Piggies need a good size handful of chopped veg, per piggie per day. A list of our basic veg servings is below:
This is a list of veg that we recommend:
