Hay is an essential element in your pet’s diet. It helps maintain their teeth and digestive tract while providing essential fiber.
Owners typically give their guinea pigs timothy hay to satisfy all of their nutritional requirements. Some mixes also contain stems, seeds and dried flowers for variety; avoid mixes high in calcium to prevent digestive issues.
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Orchard Grass
Orchard grass hays are perfect for adult guinea pigs as they offer the right mix of stems, leaves and seed heads for variety. Similar to second cut timothy, but softer with higher fiber content and lower calcium levels than other similar timothy hays.
Like all mammals, guinea pigs cannot produce vitamin C on their own and therefore must consume foods rich in this nutrient every day to remain healthy. Insufficient intake may cause scurvy – an illness marked by weak immune systems, abnormal tooth and bone development and digestive problems – in guinea pigs.
As you shop for hay, make sure to select only fresh and clean products with pleasant scents that do not contain mold, plastic bits, or other potentially toxic plants. Do not feed your guinea pigs any old or soiled hay as this could make them sick!
Timothy Hay
Adult guinea pigs require a mix of Timothy and orchard hays for proper care. Avoid alfalfa hay, as its higher calcium levels could potentially lead to bladder stones.
Timothy hay is an ideal diet choice for guinea pigs as it provides plenty of dietary fiber that aids their digestive health and essential minerals and vitamins such as magnesium, potassium and zinc.
Timothy hay comes in three cuts; its third cut is soft with sweet green leaves and contains minimal fiber but compensates with higher protein and fat contents, making it ideal for guinea pigs needing to gain weight or having difficulty eating hard-textured hay. Furthermore, foraging with Timothy Hay can keep them active which in turn helps them manage their overall weight more effectively.
Meadow Hay
Hay is an essential staple in a guinea pigs diet. It promotes regular chewing patterns which reduce dental disease risk, and offers daily vitamin C supplements. With their teeth never stopping growing, chewing hay helps wear down their jawbones so they do not become overgrown, abscessed, or cause any other issues which could potentially cause gastro-intestinal issues.
Timothy hay and Orchard grass hays are perfect for adult non-breeding guinea pigs, while leguminous hays such as alfalfa provide more calorically dense nutrition and higher calcium intake than grass varieties, so these should only be fed to infants or pregnant/nursing guinea pigs. Meadow hay is an interesting mixture of various grasses combined with flowers, leaves and seeds which encourage foraging behavior in small herbivorous pets like guinea pigs or small herbivorous pets alike.
Botanical Hay
Guinea pigs (commonly referred to as cavies) require hay in their diet for roughage and fiber, and its abrasive properties help wear down their continuously expanding teeth which would otherwise become overgrown and abscessed.
Orchard grass hay offers a mildly sweeter scent and soft texture, which many pet parents have discovered their guinea pigs find particularly appetizing. Like Timothy hay, orchard grass has low protein levels but provides high fiber levels.
This type of hay is composed of long strands of grass, flowers, and seed heads from meadow plants that can make an interesting addition to a cavie’s diet when mixed in with other types of hays to encourage foraging behavior and provide variety. Furthermore, it contains high amounts of vitamin C – something cavies must consume regularly in order to avoid deficiency that leads to scurvy.
Alfalfa Hay
Guinea Pig diets consist primarily of grass hay. Guinea pigs require access to this vital forage in order to promote normal chewing patterns that lower risk for dental disease while helping the cavy digest its food more easily.
Hay is digested in the caecum of a guinea pig’s intestinal tract, producing volatile fatty acids and vitamins essential for overall health. Pellets provide additional nutritional support but should never take the place of real hay!
Grass hay should be the basis of every small animal diet, as it promotes foraging behavior and provides the optimal source of fiber for your guinea pig. Other varieties can be offered occasionally as treats or to supplement its diet but these should not be seen as necessities by your pet.
