Hay is an important part of guinea pig diets and plays an essential role in maintaining their teeth’s health. Furthermore, it serves as bedding material.
Some guinea pig owners like to leave piles of hay around the habitat as foraging material, to reduce waste while keeping their pet happy and reduce mess. It is still essential that regularly check and replace soiled hay.
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Grass Hay
Adult guinea pigs benefit most from eating grass-based food. Hay was designed specifically for them and provides them with enough fiber, helping prevent their back teeth from growing too long (which could potentially lead to painful issues like tongue entrapment).
Timothy hay is a popular choice for guinea pigs. Available in different cuts and varieties, second cut is often recommended due to its optimal combination of stems and leaves providing greater nutritional benefits.
Orchard hay offers another alternative that’s similar to timothy hay but with slightly more leaves and stems and lower calcium content; making it ideal for long term feeding needs.
Orchard Hay
Oat hay may not be top of mind for most pet owners, but it can be great for guinea pigs. As an abrasive type of hay, it helps wear down their constantly expanding teeth while giving their digestive tract time to breathe!
It also contains high levels of fibers which are essential to maintaining their health, along with protein, fat and calories to provide sufficient nutrition without over-exerting calcium levels that could lead to bladder stones in guinea pigs.
Avoid clover and alfalfa hay as these contain too much calcium and protein, which could potentially lead to health issues for your guinea pig. Only give occasional treats from these sources with reduced levels of sugar as too much can cause obesity and other serious health conditions in guinea pigs.
Timothy Hay
Grass hay should make up 80% of your pet’s daily food intake and keeps them entertained while providing natural mechanical wear-and-tear benefit for healthy teeth and gums.
Guinea pigs cannot produce vitamin C on their own and therefore require it in their daily diet, making wholesome grass hay essential to their wellbeing. Therefore, offering them different options of hay varieties is crucial.
Timothy hay is recommended as it contains less calcium than alfalfa, making it suitable for adult guinea pigs with lower calcium needs, but alfalfa should be given to young (0-6 month) and pregnant or nursing mother guinea pigs, since its higher calcium levels help protect them from stress during gestation or lactation.
Meadow Hay
Grass should form part of your guinea pig’s diet as it plays an integral part in maintaining good dental hygiene. Their back molars grow constantly and need to be ground down by chewing on hay to prevent them from growing too long and leading to serious health issues like tongue entrapment or malocclusion.
Hay is essential in supporting guinea pig digestive health as it provides them with a steady source of high fiber food, helping prevent serious digestive health problems like bloat and gut stasis that could prove fatal if left untreated quickly.
When purchasing hay for small animals, always ensure it has been specifically marketed for this use. This will ensure it contains no pathogens which could potentially be harmful and should also have a pleasant green hue rather than being brown or dry.
Bermuda Hay
Grass hay provides more than just sustenance to guinea pigs – it plays an integral part of their behavior and habitat. Wild guinea pigs enjoy burrowing through long grass, so by providing grass hay as a food source we recreate their natural environment for them.
Hay-chewing can also play an essential part in their dental health – as their teeth continue to erupt, chewing on hay helps wear down their dentition and keep it from becoming overgrown, which could potentially lead to issues like tongue entrapment or malocclusion.
Guinea pigs need access to hay at all times as it assists their digestion and helps prevent gut stasis. When selecting the ideal type of hay for them, look for vitamin C-fortified pellets – these will be easier for them to digest; otherwise they risk developing scurvy.
