my guinea pigs are fat any guinea diet tips?

Answer 1

Well, you have to define fat. Piggies are supposed to have round tummies. Then you have to define what their diet is. Do you feed them junk food? Or do they have the proper guinea pig diet? Do they get exercise? Or are they "turtle" pigs and hide in their house all day long?

Guinea pigs need more than pellets. They need to have timothy hay every day. If you are feeding them alfalfa hay, that could lead to obesity and other health concerns later in life. Only feed timothy or another type of grass hay and make sure it is always available. Piggies are like horses in the sense they always need to graze on roughage to keep their guts working properly.

Next, your piggy needs to eat fresh fruits and veggies. Not iceberg lettuce or the scraps of what you don't use like carrot peels or apple cores either. They need to eat the same sort of things you eat and they need that every day in order for their metabolism to work properly. If they don't get this, their metabolism fails, they don't get the proper nutrition and they come down with a disease called scurvy which makes their joints lock up, their teeth loosen, causes lethargy, among many other things.

Finally, your pig needs to be exercising. Your pig needs to have a big enough cage where it has room to exercise in. If it doesn't then you need to have a playpen of sorts and take the pig out everyday and make a "jungle gym" on the floor (cover the floor with towels). Put tubes on the floor for them to run through, hide some treats in the tubes, make it a little adventure and soon they will be running and popcorning like crazy. If your pig does hide in his house all the time, TAKE THE HOUSE AWAY! The pig is a house addict and needs an intervention. Give him a tube instead or something that he can't sit in and be lazy.

Oh and when it comes to a pelleted diet, go for plain, green pellets. You don't need a fancy mix with all the extra crap in it. All the extra puffy pieces are sugary and high in calories and have no real nutritional value. Stay away from mixes with sunflower seeds because they can choke on the seed hulls, they aren't birds and can't crack open seeds. They can eat corn, that's ok but should only be a treat. So plain, quality, GREEN, pellets.

Good luck!
Lisa and the Wheeks and Squeaks Guinea Pig Rescue

Answer 2

Here are some top things to feed him/her instead of what you may be feeding. Try these at least two daily.

Vegetables:

Alfalfa, radish & clover sprouts
Basil
Beet greens (tops)*
Bok choy
Broccoli (mostly leaves/stems)* - 1 FLORET & STEM
Brussels Sprouts - 1 Sprout
Brussels sprouts – 1 SPROUT
Carrot & carrot tops* - 1 CARROT
Celery – 2 INCHES, cut in 1 inch pieces
Chard (red or green)* - 1 LEAF
Cilantro – 6 - 8 STEMS AND LEAVES
Clover – 10
Collard greens* - 1 LEAF
Cucumber – 1 SLICE
Dandelion greens and flowers (no pesticides)* - 6 LARGE OR 10 SMALL
Endive*
Escarole
Green peppers – 1 SLICE
Kale (!)* - 1 LEAF
Mint
Mustard greens* - 1 LEAF
Parsley* - 6 - 8 STEMS AND LEAVES
Pea pods (the flat edible kind)*
Peppermint leaves
Radichio – ½ CUP
Radish tops – 3 LEAVES
Raspberry leaves
Romaine lettuce (no iceberg or light colored leaf) or red/green leaf - 2 LEAVES
Watercress*
Wheat grass
Fruits - 1 CUBIC INCH:

Apple
Blueberries
Papaya
Peach
Pear
Pineapple
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries Melon
Orange (including peel)
Tomato

Answer 3

Guinea Pigs love to eat. A few things you could try is giving Timothy hay over Alfalfa hay. It has less fat in it and calcium.
Try switching over to a Guinea pig food that doesn't have corn or other color treats in it. Those foods are fatting. Its like us having a big mac with fries. Try Timothy Complete for Guinea Pigs. It just has Timothy in it and its less fatting and less in Cali ***.

Say away from those treats that they have in the pet store. Again its like having a bag of chips. Give your pigs fresh veggies. You can give them fruit but not too much, its high in sugar and carbs.

I hope I've helped you. :)

Answer 4

guinea pigs are supposed to be fat. Feed your guinea pig the stuff you get from the pet store, and supplement it with fresh vegetables like green leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, etc. They also like corn tortillas, and sometimes a piece of whole grain bread.
Don't worry about it being fat, they will pace themselves.

Answer 5

I have one, and It is fat, there supposed to be. It is how they live!
Be sure to feed it lots of veggies and fruits, sometimes even crackers, toast crust and crutons. But JUST DONT FEED THEM SEEDS or NUTS! They can choke.

Answer 6

Do they get enough exercise? They normally don't eat that much.