Ask a Guinea Pig: Can Guinea Pigs Have Juice?

Myshala Forster asks: "hi, what juice can my lil piggy Topdeck [have], [he's] starting to get a little bored of his water, even if it just something I can water down just to give him a taste in his water, thanks xx"

Fruit in our water bottle? What an intriguing idea!

Answer: Under a very specific set of conditions, you can give us juice. We were surprised that we can have juice at all, given the high sugar content.

Guinea pig can have unsweetened apple juice and unsweetened cranberry juice. We really need to emphasize the unsweetened part because fruit juices are already naturally sweet, and you don't want to give your piggy too much sugar. In fact, even unsweetened juices need to be diluted before you let them drink it. Their bottle should have no more than half juice, and the rest should be clean water.

You should let them have this no more than once a week because of the sugar, even when watered down like this. Make sure you give your piggies less fruit if you're going to give them juice that week. In addition, you should refrigerate any remaining juice overnight at the end of the first day, and discard any remaining juice after the second day to avoid bacteria.

Cranberry juice may actually help prevent urinary tract infections, so it's probably the better choice if your guinea pig likes it (not to mention the recent study finding trace amounts of arsenic in many brands of apple juice!). Just make sure the label says 100% cranberry juice on it. If it just says "100% juice", it may be juice from a variety of different fruits, and if it uses words like fruit "beverage," "drink," or "cocktail," it's probably not 100% juice.

Even with this in mind, deciphering labels can be complicated, so you should probably buy the juice from a health food store like Whole Foods to be on the safe side. Lakewood Organic appears to be a good brand.

Happy Guinea Pig New Year!

It's been a great year here at Cavy Savvy, which has been thanks to you! We love our readers and hope our piggie rantings have helped you understand us a little bit better. We're excited for a new year of trying new foods, more givesways, and new product reviews! Happy 2013, everyone!

What's in our glass, you ask? It's not champagne...

It's organic salad mix with carrots slices! That's our kind of party!

From the three of us here at Cavy Savvy, happy new year to all our loyal readers!

Ask A Guinea Pig: Is Floor Time Necessary?

Katrina VanZandt asks: "How necessary is the floor time you mention? Every time we take Sugar and Cinnamon out they poo on the carpet."

Floor time fun! 

Answer: As we've mentioned before in our floor time post, floor time is lots of fun, although you need to keep an eye on us to make sure so we don't eat anything we shouldn't. Floor time provides mental stimulation and exercise for your piggies, so we'd say it's pretty important. If you have a small cage (less than 10.5 square feet), floor time is even more important. Even if you have a large cage, it's still better to give us regular opportunities to explore new environments and run around, and shouldn't be treated as optional.

If you are concerned about your piggies using your carpet as a bathroom, you can put down newspapers or bath mats for easy cleanup. If you have additional concerns about your piggies running loose in your home (pooping under furniture where it's difficult to clean, areas where your piggies could get stuck or hurt, etc.), you might consider getting the largest pet exercise pens you can find and use it for floor time. Alternatively, you might consider using a room of your house that does not have carpet, such as your kitchen or bathroom, for floor time.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Romanesco Cauliflower?

Have you ever heard of fractals? They are these math things where humans use numbers to generate pretty pictures. (I know that's not a very good explanation, but I'm a guinea pig, not a mathematician.) The humans recently brought us back a type of food that looks like a fractal. So, in this post, we're going to eat the vegetable version of a fractal.

Romanesco cauliflower, also known as romanesco broccoli, is safe for guinea pigs to eat. It is a type of cauliflower, which should only be fed to us sparingly 1-2 times per week because it's a very gassy food.

Look at that thing! 

It's delicious!

Romanesco cauliflower is really good, and it gets 5/5 stars!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Bok Choy?

Bok choy (AKA Chinese cabbage, bok choi, pak-choi, etc.) can be safely fed to guinea pigs. Bok choy can be fed to us 1-2 times a week, but should be fed sparingly because it's a gassy food.

Munch, munch, munch...

Broccoli, it looks like you've got a green beard! (I'm sure that won't last long.)

Leave me alone, Lola! Stop trying to steal the last piece of bok choy from my mouth!

Bok choy is delicious, although because it's such a gassy food, the portion sizes left a bit to be desired. We'll give bok choy 4/5 stars!

Guinea Pig Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! We're going to let our recent contest winner, Poko, be the main feature on this holiday post. We hope Santa was as kind to you this year as he was to Poko! 

Poko is one happy pig this Christmas!

How did you celebrate the holidays with your humans this year? Tell us in the comments section below :)

Ask A Guinea Pig: Portion Sizes

Katrina VanZandt asks: "How much is the 'small portion' you mention in some of your food reviews?"

How much more can you feed us? Hopefully, a lot more than this!

Answer: Our favorite food chart says that all foods that they list are in 100 gram portions unless otherwise noted. Examples of these exceptions to the rule include, but are not limited to: Basil (25 grams), Parsley (25 grams), and strawberries (5 small ones). Guinea pigs should get about a cup of veggies per day total, with their diet breaking down roughly into the following proportions: 50% hay, 40% veggies, 10% pellets. If your guinea pigs are eating more veggies than hay, then they are not having a balanced diet.

So what about those foods where we say "small portions" or "feed sparingly?" Obviously, you're going to want to give far less than the 100 gram portion, and probably even less than the 25 gram portion. For most fruits (which have a lot of sugar), you'll only want to feed about 1 cubic inch. For a food like banana that you have to be very careful with, you should only feed about a 1/4" inch cube to be on the safe side.