Only with full and proper nutrition your pet will be healthy and able to bear offspring. Consider the basic rules regarding what to feed the guinea pig.
What can not feed guinea pigs?
These little animals are incredibly voracious and can eat very much, do not even doubt. But there is a list of products that can not be given to the pet in any case, if you do not want the animal's death. Here is a list of what can not be fed guinea pigs:
- canned food, salted or fried dishes. Avoid spices and sweet;
- do not give guinea pig to potatoes, beans and onions;
- meat products, milk and bread;
- this animal is a vegetarian, so food from your table is also unsuitable for it.
How correctly to feed a guinea pig?
First, let's define what can be fed the guinea pig without risk to the health of the animal. Guinea pigs are rodents, so the basis of the diet should be solid food. Your pet's approximate diet consists of 60% of hay, 20% of juicy feed and 20% of solid food.
Let us consider in more detail how and how many times a guinea pig can be fed. Take care that the hay and animal feed are always in the cage. But the juicy food can be offered to the pet during the walk, it is allowed to offer it twice a day, but at the same time. If too often give piggy a juicy feed, it can badly affect the teeth. In the pet store they sell treats in the form of grain sticks, crackers and biscuits. From succulent feeds you can offer:
- fruits: pears, apples, bananas;
- greens: lettuce, parsley with dill, leaves of dandelion and plantain;
- vegetables: beets, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes with cucumbers, sweet peppers and corn.
There are several features of the feeding of guinea pigs in some cases (pregnancy, feeding of newborns). We will dwell on each case separately and learn how to feed the guinea pig properly, since this is directly related to the life of the pet.
What to feed a pregnant guinea pig?
In addition to the constant rest of the future mother, proper nutrition is also necessary. Food should be rich in vitamins and protein. For the first time, the portion should be increased by one third. By the second half of pregnancy the amount of food consumed should double. Take care of the female's constant access to the liquid.
Shade part of the cage and put a drinking bowl with water and diluted milk. A couple of days before the birth, the female is constantly thirsty, so you should change your water more often. During pregnancy, the female needs feeds with vitamins. Offer her a carrot, alfalfa, wheat germ and beetroot. To drink it is better tomato juice or an extract of a dogrose. If in the usual period you feed your pet twice a day, then the pregnant female should eat three to four times.
What to feed the small guinea pigs?
After birth, it happens that the female does not have milk and then the question arises as to what to feed the newborn guinea pigs. In this case, you take on the role of mother. For feeding, you will need 10% cream, Linex and kitchen scales.
Feed the baby cream every hour for 1 ml. Sometimes it is allowed to feed every two hours, but then there is a need for night feeding at least two times. In a syringe (without a needle) for insulin, we collect cream and add a tenth of the powder of the capsule to Linex. Further very carefully squeezed out a drop of food and watch that the baby licked it. Before feeding, the cream is warmed to room temperature.
After a week, you can gradually add a dairy-free soluble cream for children. In the cage you can put a bowl with oatmeal, carrots and apples. Also pour dry fodder and hay.