Can Guinea Pigs Eat Collard Greens?

Guinea pigs can eat collard greens, but only small quantities and only occasionally. According to the chart at guineapigcages.com, you should only feed it to us 1-2 times per week. They also give the following warning: "High in Ca, A and oxalates, feed small portions." The humans fed us a small portion of collard greens because of this.

Can I eat with you girls? Please?

That Lola is mean! At least I grabbed a little bit before she chased me off.

Hmm... It's okay. Not my favorite. I'll leave it for the girls. Maybe I'll  win them over with a gift!

The girls seemed to like collard greens, but I wasn't crazy about it. And, of course, there is the fact that you have to feed it to us in moderation. For these reasons, collard greens are only getting 3/5 stars.

Product Review: Oxbow Essentials Cavy Cuisine Adult Guinea Pig Food

I understand that breakfast is considered an important meal for humans, too. Our breakfast consists of pellets from either Carefresh or Oxbow, and it's very important to us to start the day right with these pellets. Today, we're going to review the pellets from Oxbow.

We seriously love these things. Even though you're only supposed to feed us 1/8 of a cup daily, we'll still wheek for more. We'll also wheek if you don't wake up early enough and serve us our breakfast pellets. (Well, mainly it's Lola who does that. But we all love them, so we don't mind reaping the benefits of her annoying the humans.) They're also really healthy; their product page mentions an "optimal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio" and all that good stuff.

Look for this bag at the pet store.

Yum! Most important meal of the day.

Broccoli likes it, too.

For being delicious and healthy, Oxbow Essentials Cavy Cuisine Adult Guinea Pig Food gets 5/5 stars!

Toys for Guinea Pigs: Towels

As we've mentioned before, at Guineapigcages.com, you can find lots of great guinea pig toy ideas. The other day, the humans were washing our fleece bedding, when I came accross an old towel. I remembered that Guineapigcages.com mentioned towel tents as a potential toy for guinea pigs, so I decided to give it a try, even though it wasn't pinned up as a tent.

You can't see me, can you Broccoli?

Here I am!

After I was done hiding, Buffy discovered towels are also fun to sit on.

So towels are definitely a fun way to pass some time while you're waiting for your fleece bedding to be cleaned. Maybe the humans will pin it up for us sometime so we can try towel tents as well. Towels get 5/5 stars!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Frisée?

Frisée, also known as curly endive, is a slightly bitter green that humans like to use in their salads. It's light green and very curly. Frisée can be fed to us almost daily.

Let's eat it all quickly before Broccoli figures out his cage door is open!

Buffy, you didn't eat fast enough! I blame you for this.

Hey Buffy, giving me the last of the frisée would be a great way to apologize. No? Let me rephrase, then: Give me! Now!

Frisée is both delicious and healthy. 5/5 stars!

Announcing the Winner of Our Anniversary Giveaway

Today is the one year anniversary of Cavy Savvy! To celebrate, we are giving away a guinea pig shaped soap (generously donated by Cuddly Cavies Creations) to one lucky winner! We placed all the names of eligible contestants into a hat and drew a winner.

So without further ado, the winner is... SPECIAL McSPECIAL! Please email me your mailing address to cavysavvyaguineapigblog@gmail.com and I will send mail you your prize.

Thank you to everyone who entered. If you didn't win this time, don't worry, we have plenty more giveaways planned. Be sure that you are a follower of Cavy Savvy if you want to be considered for future giveaways. To follow us, just click the "join this site" button on the right.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Horned Melon?

Horned melon, also known as kiwano, is not something you'll find listed on most guinea pig food lists. They're on the Guinea Pig Hutch list under "question foods" that they don't know enough about. People on forums have pointed out that they are high in vitamin C, which is good, but there's been some concern about the seeds in it. It turns out the seeds are soft like cucumber seeds, so we decided to proceed with caution. The humans only fed us the interior part, of course.

Where do you keep finding these strange fruits to feed us?

Yum!

Oh, no. Here comes trouble...

Broccoli, as usual, displayed more interest in us than in the new food. Don't you ever get bored of sniffing us while we eat, Broccoli? Don't you realize that you're missing out on new experiences just to bother us? Silly piggy. Anyway, the kiwano is very soft and mushy, and the seeds didn't pose a problem. They were pretty tasty. 5/5 stars.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Celery?

We realized recently that there's a very common food we still haven't evaluated yet: celery! Celery is a food you can feel good about feeding to your guinea pig two to four times a week. Just be sure to cut the stalks up first because celery can be really stringy.

We love celery- both the stalk and the leafy parts on top. When the humans cook with celery, we wheek excitedly because we know that means they'll give us some. Lola and I give it 5 stars.

As for Broccoli, we realized that he can't objectively rate food when he's eating with Lola and I. We've seen him eat celery in his cage and enjoy it, but you'd never know from the way he acts when the three of us share food. He pays no attention to the food on the plate. All he is interested in is us- puffing up his coat, butt swaggering, wheeking excitedly, running around us in circles. Why are you so excited all the time? The humans had you neutered! 

Anyway, celery is a great treat for your guinea pig. 5/5 stars.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Cherimoya?

Sometimes the humans find fruits too exotic for the guineapigcages.com chart to list; this was the case with cherimoya. We were sure it was safe to eat since someone on their forum fed it to their piggy, and Happy Cavy lists it as safe to eat. It's a somewhat sweet food, so it's probably best fed in moderation. The large black seeds and skin should be removed before feeding cherimoya to your piggy.

What the heck is that thing?

It's delicious. Keep your distance, Broccoli! I'm trying to enjoy myself.

Is he sneaking up behind me?

I said stay back!

Buffy and I both loved the cherimoya. Broccoli seemed to like it at first, but then lost interest and decided to bother us while we ate instead. He doesn't upset us as badly as he used to, but his behavior is still pretty annoying. We'll give cherimoya 4/5 stars since most of us liked it.