Guinea Pigs

mirko

We've recently added two guinea pigs to our family (of 2 adults, 2 children and a cat).

Looking for the best places to source things such as hay, food and veg from - as obviously places like Pets at Home are a little bit pricier than alternatives.

Does anyone have any Money Saving tips with regards to Guinea Pigs?

(I would add that we can afford these GPs, we wouldn't have adopted them otherwise! This is more to do with ensuring we get the best deal on what we provide for them.)

annandale

You can get meadow hay from poundworld and Timothy hay from b and m.

GBNI

Have you good storage space? I buy my rabbit her hay from a farm feeds store (so a full bale, not the bagged stuff) it costs £5 for the organic or £3.50 for a normal bale. Huge amount cheaper than pet stores. Lasts ages too. I store mine in a hay bag (£15 off eBay) and then in my shed. I also buy woodshavings in the same place for her cage, although I'm not sure you can put guinea pigs on shavings? Although the ones I buy are dust extracted. Large bale of them is £7 and is bigger than the largest bale you'll get in a pet shop.


Food side, I actually get mine in Tesco! It's usually on offer. They sell guinea pig food too, but just make sure it has the added Vit C. Veg, I'd go to local green grocer and ask for scraps or the less pretty stuff that people don't like to buy. Our local grocer gives us bags of stuff he can't sell and it gets fed to the pigs! (actual pigs, not guinea pigs lol!)

clint_S

Zooplus is good online.
Veg check a supermarket out on Thursday night for yellow stickers, I can get bags of lettuce for 10p, almost a whole week of Veg food for £1 -£2.
B&M is good for Hay. meadow hay 1KG for 99p.


If you can buy in bulk speak to a farm or Farm suppliers. Although you can get good deals on Ebay if you're happy to take the risk.

Fosterdog

Rabbits rather than guinea pigs here but I get my hay from a local livery yard, a bale measures 1.5m x .5m x .3m and depending on the quality it is £3.50, £4 or £6 for the really good stuff. Storage can be a problem but as long as you can keep it dry it should be fine.

Savvy_Sue

We visited a local city farm last weekend with friends, and they went home with their boot full of hay for their GPs as it was a lot cheaper than what they usually pay!

mirko

Thanks for the really helpful comments guys. Coincidentally I passed a local farm today that had hay for sale. Time to start thinking about where to store it! Cheers, some really good advice here.

Lorian

Wilko usually beats pets at home when you need to make quick/tactical purchases.

krlyr

I used to buy my hay by the bale for my rabbits and guinea pigs. A good quality pellet food, Science Selective is what I fed (but recommendations may have changed now) on top of veg - guinea pigs can't make their own Vitamin C so a specific guinea pig food (as opposed to rabbit) is essential.

I had quite a few small furries so used to buy bulk bags of Megazorb and shredded cardboard bedding - woodshavings emit phenols which affect the liver, plus the dust can irritate the respiratory system, so best avoided. Guinea pigs can also be housed on fleece or Vetbed with just a littertray (don't use normal cat litter - paper-based litter only) which saves on the bedding you're throwing away, you just need to wash the Vetbed/fleece.

Read up on guinea-safe veg, you may be able to make use of your waste - my rabbits and guinea pigs got my cauli greens, for example, which would otherwise go in the bin, and they loved carrot tops (I'd have to specifically buy topped carrots, but at least the carrots got used for us so multi purpose!). I think greens are suitable, and cheap. You can also forage for weeds like dandelion leaves, though only pick from places you know are safe/pesticide-free.

http://www.guinealynx.info/ was a good site when I had my piggies

Pop_Up_Pirate

Hay from a farm is cheaper than shops.
Lots of veg or peelings.
Dandelion leaves, grass, clover, herbs

They will eat a lot of cuttings from your garden.

If they have enough of those things, they won't need bought food.

JIL

I have had many guinea pigs over the years, we always bought the big bales of hay from pets at home because it was dust extracted. We also bought large bags of redigrass from jollees, it was used for horses but great value for pigs You will need to always have hay, because guinea pigs chew constantly to keep their teeth especially the back ones in trim.
I would also suggest you don't use dry muesli, and use the nuggets to prevent selective feeding.
Look up Peter gurney. He died a few years ago but he gave some fab advice when it came to gps.

http://oginet.com/pgurney/index.php/the-guinea-pig-health-tips-library/dietary-needs-of-guinea-pigs/