To keep your guinea pig healthy and happy, it’s important to give them a healthy diet that includes endless amounts of hay, high quality pellets and fresh, clean and preferably filtered water.

Guinea pigs also need daily vitamin C (which they can’t make on their own) and small snacks of dark leafy greens for essential vitamins and minerals.

For hay, HappyCavy uses orchard and timothy grass hay, which is sourced through a local farm or purchased from Small Pet Select. We provide constant access for all our guinea pigs to this fresh hay mixture, as well as Oxbow pellets and a water bottle filled with clean, filtered water.

In addition, the HappyCavy Herd enjoys one snack per day of dark leafy greens. Occasionally, the Herd snacks on an additional vegetable treat, which may be cucumber, carrot, parsley, cilantro, tomatoes, apple, banana, wheat grass or other guinea-pig-friendly fruits and veggies.

Vitamin C Requirements

To prevent illnesses like scurvy, supplement your guinea pig’s diet with vitamin C at about 20mg per day per cavy. This is important to do because guinea pigs, like humans, don’t create vitamin C in their bodies.

The HappyCavies receive daily supplements of pure vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid). The powder is sprinkled onto a favorite small treat: cucumber.

Avoid adding vitamin C to water since it isn’t stable in water and will degrade. And since guinea pigs drink varying amounts of water throughout the day, it’s difficult to judge the amount of vitamin C that any one guinea pig may receive this way.

Fresh Water, Hay and High-Quality Pellets

The HappyCavy guinea pig family receives a constant supply of fresh quality hay and Timothy hay-based pellets. The high calcium profile of alfalfa makes this hay the perfect choice for growing babies and pregnant mothers, but you should avoid feeding alfalfa to adults, as the high calcium content can lead to kidney and bladder stones.

When it comes to “high-quality” pellets, this simply means that they should be indicated as “guinea pig specific” and should not contain soy, corn, soybean meal, sugars, artificial colors and flavors, seeds, etc.

Occasional Dark Greens

Guinea pigs shouldn’t need to rely on supplements as their main source of vitamin C. A diet made-up of fresh, high-quality hay and pellets, along with an occasional snack of dark greens or other guinea pig-friendly treats, should provide an adequate amount of vitamins for your guinea pig. A little extra vitamin C in the diet isn’t harmful, but it can help compensate for any dietary shortcomings.

Guinea Pig Safe Snacks

Occasionally (about once every day), the HappyCavy Herd receives a special snack. This usually comes from whatever the Humans are preparing for dinner. The snacks can be cucumber, green pepper, carrots or parsley. But be careful not to feed your guinea pigs too much of any one snack, as it may be high in sugar or other nutrients and potentially disruptive to their gastrointestinal tracts. Anytime your cavy gets a snack that is new to it, just feed it a very small amount, since its digestive system is not used to that particular food. Over time, you can feed it a larger portion of the snack, once it’s had time to adjust and you’ve had time to observe how it handles the food.

You can refer to our List of Dangerous Foods for Guinea Pigs to learn what foods SHOULD NOT be fed to your cavy. If you are ever unsure if a food is guinea pig-safe, it is best to err on the side of caution and NOT feed it to your piggy.

Click the Guinea Pig Food Pyramid for a larger version.