Feeding Hay For Guinea Pigs

Good hay for guinea pigs plays an essential role in their health and wellbeing, providing all sorts of benefits.

• Essential fibre: Good feeding hay for guinea pigs is an excellent source of fibre, containing both digestible and indigestible fibre, which is essential for healthy digestion.
• Healthy teeth: Continual munching helps prevent dental disease.
• Emotional boost: Wild guinea pigs spend the majority of their time foraging on grasses and plants. Allowing your guinea pigs to forage and chew helps to keep them physically and emotionally stimulated, just like they would be in their natural habitat.
• Overall health: Ensuring a diet of high-quality guinea pig feeding hay, grass-based nuggets, a few fresh greensand some yummy healthy treats helps keep their skin, coat, eyes, teeth and digestion healthy.

There are all sorts of temptingly tasty dried grass and good feeding hay options for guinea pigs to enjoy, and individual piggies will no doubt have their favourites.

Our hay for guinea pigs comes in a choice of fully recyclable cardboard boxes or easy-open bags which are recyclable in large supermarkets. These keep your guinea pigs’ hay fresh until it’s all been eaten up. Why not mix and match the following to see what varieties your piggies like best?

• Timothy hay: A favourite with small animals, Timothy hay for guinea pigs boasts vitamin and mineral-rich elements.
• Meadow hay for guinea pigs:With natural ingredients, this high-fibre and dust-extracted hay is ideal for your piggies.
• Sweet-smelling Timothy hay with Dandelion & Marigold:If you want to buy hay for your guinea pigs that smells amazing, look no further. With dandelion and marigold (to aid urinary tract health and help build a healthy immune system), this Timothy hay for guinea pigs is popular with many small pet owners.

Guinea pigs are severely affected by dust, and dusty hay can cause serious respiratory problems. Always look for high-quality guinea pig hay that states it’s ‘dust-extracted’ to protect their respiratory health. Buying dust-free hay for your guinea pigs is just as important as ensuring it’s fresh and nutritious.

All our hay, including Timothy and meadow hay for guinea pigs, is dust-extracted, so you can be sure you’re buying only the best quality when you choose Burgess.

It’s not advisable to buy straw for guinea pigs as it’s too coarse and could injure their delicate eyes.

In fact, the wrong bedding for your piggies can harm their health. Wood shavings, sawdust and straw can often contain mites and cause fungal and mange conditions. Wood shavings or sawdust also absorb the natural oils that guinea pigs need to keep their coats and skin in good condition.

We recommend lining your guinea pigs’ enclosure with a thick layer of newspaper and completely covering it with paper-based, non-expanding litter. You can also add a good layer of fresh, sweet-smelling meadow hay suitable for guinea pigs. This will provide the ultimate cleanliness and comfort to help them enjoy the cosiest naptimes.

The Royal Veterinary College Exotics Services advises: “Good-quality hay or grass should make up the majority (at least 80%) of the diet. Do not feed alfalfa (lucerne) hays as these are high in calcium and could predispose your guinea pig to stones in the kidneys or bladder. Meadow, rye and Timothy hays [for guinea pigs] are great as an everyday feed.”

Yes, grazed grass or feeding hay should make up the majority of your guinea pigs‘ diets, but these should not be grass cuttings. Only fresh grass is safe for guinea pigs.

Make sure your guinea pigs eat the right type of grass to ensure they’re getting the most nutritional value and to avoid bloating and other digestive issues. Grass cuttings clump together quickly and can contain other unknown weeds or plant species that could be harmful to guinea pigs.

To ensure your guinea pigs get everything they need from their food, their diet should consist of:

• 85-90% unlimited grazed grass (not grass cuttings) or high-quality feeding hay: As a guide, provide each piggy with at least their own body size in fresh feeding hay for guinea pigs every day.
• A small handful of safe leafy greens, vegetables and herbs: Around a teacup-sized amount a day per guinea pig is ideal. Greens and veg high in vitamin C are especially good, such as a small bunch of parsley, half a curly kale leaf, one small floret of broccoli or 1/8th of a green bell pepper.
• Extruded guinea pig food (or guinea pig nuggets You should give around one egg cup a day per guinea pig of guinea pig nuggets. Guinea pig nuggets help them get all the vital vitamins (particularly vitamin C) and minerals they need. Guinea pigs can’t make their own vitamin C, so they need extra in their diet for healthy skin, joints and blood vessels. Avoid muesli-based diets as these encourage selective feeding, where guinea pigs eat some high starch/sugary components of the muesli mix while rejecting the more fibrous pellets, leading to an unbalanced diet.

You can also include some yummy, healthy guinea pig treats to add enrichment. These are great for hand feeding, helping you bond with your guinea pig pals.

Along with guinea pig hay and food, they must also have access to plenty of fresh water at all times, supplied in drinking bottles that feature a solid sipper tube.

• If you need to change your guinea pigs’ nuggets or introduce any new fresh greens, this has to be done carefully. Any sudden changes can result in digestive issues which can become serious if not treated. It takes time to get your piggies used to their new diet, so allow 14-28 days for a full and safe transition.

  Guinea pigs love to search out titbits and foraging is a natural guinea pig behaviour. So rather than putting their food in a bowl, place it around their enclosure, in their tunnels, in paper bags, cardboard loo rolls or under some hay to encourage their natural instincts.

The grass we use is grown on an estate that works in partnership with the local wildlife trust to reduce environmental impact and encourage biodiversity, and we know exactly which field each batch comes from as well as the date it was harvested. This means you can buy hay for guinea pigs with the knowledge that we’re using the best, natural ingredients.

We have hundreds of five-star reviews on Feefo, where customers have shared their glowing reviews about their hay for guinea pigs and other pet products.

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