GUINEA PIGS OR CAVIES

We recently got Israel his first pet. We have a boxer and 6 chooks but these piggies are his (and boy does he know it I am not allowed to hold one of them as the whole world could probably hear him chucking a tanty over it!) I have been looking for a while and have been tossing up between a rabbit or guinea pigs. We chose guinea pigs as they are a little more resilient compared to rabbit and are better for young toddlers to hold and handle, they also stay friendlier for longer. Hubby wasn't too impressed at all with my choice but when he saw these cute little guys he was converted! We picked a couple of long haired boys as they are so much cuter than standard guinea pigs, we have a texel and a abyssinian guinea pig.

This is Israel's favourite. We originally called him twista but considering changing his name to wombie as he looks like a miniaturised version of a wombat. This is abyssinian breed of guinea pig.

This one I named fuzz button and is a texel breed of guinea pig. This one was a lot more shy than his mate and was a little jumpy and shy. He has come out of his shell heaps over the last few days.

I am trying to feed them as little dry food as possibly, mainly because I don't think they need it. Pellets don't come from the wild. Their natural diet is straw and grass and these should be given in abundance, with supplement feeding of veggies and some fruit.

FEED DAILY
grass
straw/hay (non alfalfa as this can be too high in calcium for adults and cause health problems)
greens (red and green leaf lettuce [not ice-berg]
parsley
silverbeet
capsicum
cucumber
strawberries
tomatoes

FEED A COUPLE OF TIMES A WEEK
apples
oranges
banana
berries
broccoli
carrots
celery
corn including the husk
dark greens (kale and spinach)
grapes
melons

AVOID
cabbage
bok choy
ice berg lettuce
mushrooms
nuts and seeds
onion
potatoes
raw beans and lentils