Ask A Guinea Pig: Best Hay For A 10 Month Old Pig?

In today's installment of "Ask A Guinea Pig", human Bella asks,

Great question, Bella. We guinea pigs need unlimited amounts of timothy hay (or another grass hay) past the age of 6 months. Other types of grass hays include:

• Barley
• Bermudagrass
• Bromegrass
• Fescue
• Oat hay
• Orchard grass
• Praire grass
• Quackgrass
• Rye
• Wheat

Alfalfa hay is a legume hay, not a grass hay. Only give alfalfa hay to pregnant, nursing, or young guinea pigs under 6 months old. Alfalfa hay is too rich for adult guinea pigs because it contains high levels of calcium, and in excess can lead to health problems, such as bladder or kidney stones. Even if you have a young, pregnant or nursing guinea pig, certain piggies who are prone to stones or other medical conditions should not be given alfalfa hay. All of this goes for other legume hays, too. Other types of legume hay include:

• Clover, Red
• Clover, White
• Lespedeza, Common

In addition, make sure you choose quality hay. Quality hay should look green, not brown. It should also have a fragrant, clean smell; avoid hays that smell musty or burnt. Also avoid hay with clumps that seem "welded" together, since this means they've probably been exposed to mold. There are many good suppliers of hay out there, but we recommend Small Pet Select. They've always provided us with quality hay, and their customer service seems excellent.

The reason hay is important to feed your guinea pig is because the fiber helps keep our intestines healthy by promoting gut mobility. Also, the chewing promotes healthy wear on our teeth; otherwise, they can grow too long. Pellets, treats and chew toys are nice, but are no substitute for a regular supply of good hay!

Quality timothy hay! This is the life. Definitely better than running around in the wild!

Got any more questions for us? Be sure to leave a comment, and we may feature your question in our next installment of Ask A Guinea Pig!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Sunberries (Wonderberries)?

Sunberries, also known as wonderberries, were created in Santa Rosa, California in 1905. They have a rather mild flavor compared to other berries, which is perhaps why they are not as popular. Sunberries are related to huckleberries, which you can give 1-2 berries per pig 1-2 times per week. Since sunberries are smaller than huckleberries, our humans assumed 3-4 berries would be okay.

That looks like blueberries! We like blueberries!

It looks like blueberries, but it tastes more like tomatoes.

Lola and Broccoli are crowding each other's personal space. I think they're still fighting for dominance. I'm just going to eat my sunberries quietly in the background!

Sunberries might be hard to find, but if you do find them, do your guinea pig a favor and pick some up for them! 5/5 stars!

Water Bottle Warning For Guinea Pigs

We have a horror story to share with you. It's summer time, and as our loyal readers know, that means you've got to make sure that your piggy doesn't get too hot and has plenty of water. Our humans recently refilled the water bottle, and try as we might, we couldn't get any liquid to come out. We started to get really thirsty, and I started to wheek loudly in complaint. The humans can be a little slow, though. I got lots of hay and some treats in response, which I ordinarily would love, but what good is that stuff without water to wash it down. I wheeked some more, and the humans were confused as to what I could want. Finally, they noticed that the water level in our bottle hadn't gone down at all since they last refilled it. They flipped the water bottle upside-down and poked the little metal ball, and finally it started dispensing water again.

Relief at last! So thirsty! Wait your turn, you two!

Don't get too comfortable at that nozzle, Buffy. I'll probably want more soon.

So, if your piggy starts wheeking uncontrollably, make sure you check their water bottle!

Product Review: Sushi Chews All Natural

We've been thinking about the toys we've tried, and we had a revelation: there are really only a few general categories of guinea pig toys:

• There are toys that hold your hay, like socks and toilet paper rolls. 
• There are also toys you can run through, like oatmeal containers and crinkle tunnels. 
• Then there are toys that you can chew on, like music chews and Snak Shak logs. (Although the Snak Shak log was a toy you can run through and one you can chew on, so I guess it really falls into two categories.) 

Today we're reviewing a toy that definitely falls into the chewing toy category: Ware Manufacturing brand Sushi Chews.

Sushi for guinea pigs? Well, I hear everyone on Instragram loves sushi...

Anyone interested in trying this new chew toy?

Okay, I'll bite. (Literally!)

That's a boring toy. I much prefer chewing on this Snak Shak log!

In fairness, the package advertises that this toy fits onto a "Treat-K-Bob", which apparently allows you to hang several treats on a hook. Honestly, I can't imagine us liking this chew toy any more if it was hanging versus on the floor. I gave it a try, and we're just not that into it. We'll give Ware Manufacturing Sushi Chews 1.5/5 stars.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Cherry Tomatoes?

We've reviewed vine-ripened tomatoes before, but never cherry tomatoes. You can feed your guinea pig 1-2 cherry tomatoes per day. Cherry tomatoes are not a hybrid food like pluots; they're just cherry-sized tomatoes.

In our last post, Broccoli was challenging my dominance, so now I need to show that I'm in control of the plate.

I want everyone to see that the last cherry tomato is mine.

Don't even think about it, Broccoli!

Cherry tomatoes get 5/5 stars! The red food pattern continues!

Product Review: Oxbow Simple Rewards Cranberry-Rosemary Medley

We love Oxbow Simple Rewards! We've tried several kinds at this point, including: Timothy Treats, Veggie Treats, Lavender-Chamomile Medley, and Papaya Medley. All of them were good, so we have high hopes for the one we're trying today: Oxbow Simple Rewards Cranberry-Rosemary Medley.

Yay! Oxbow Simple Rewards treats!

This is nice! We're all gathered around, enjoying the new treats...

Hey! How dare you challenge my dominance! My treats!

The humans clearly need to cut back on the amount of treats Broccoli is getting. He's getting so big that he's challenging my dominance! I don't like that!

Anyway, these treats get 4.5/5 stars. We generally loved them, although we were more excited to eat the pellets than the cranberry bits.

Product Review: All Living Things Paper Pet Bedding

Humans are really obsessed with this money stuff. They're always talking about it, and finding ways to save it. It's a concept we have trouble relating to. We can just wheek loudly and usually get what we want, but we understand that if a human went into a store and did the same thing, it wouldn't work. Today we're going to review All Living Things Paper Pet Bedding, which the humans got because it was a little cheaper than the Carefresh brand bedding. It's always nice to hear the humans complain about money less, but does this stuff have anything else going for it?

That's not Carefresh.

It's almost as good as Carefresh, though. Almost.

This bedding is a dull gray color, which means that unlike the Carefresh Ultra we tried a while back, poops camouflage in this bedding. The bedding seemed a little harder than the Carefresh, so we didn't spend as much time on it as we would with the Carefresh. One the plus side, it kept odors under control so we didn't have to hear our humans complain about smells, which humans like to complain about almost as much as money. We'll give this bedding 4/5 stars!