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Summer is lots of fun for humans and guinea pigs alike! Beautiful flowers and yummy vegetable gardens, summer vacation(!), warmer temperatures, and beautiful clear skies are just a few things we enjoy about the summer season.
And, depending on where you live, it can also bring SizZLiNg H–O–T temperatures. Higher temperatures mean that extra precautions should be taken to ensure that your guinea pig friend remains cool and comfortable during the hot days of summer.
In addition to using frozen ice blocks wrapped in towels to help keep the HappyCavies cool, the humans use a small air conditioning unit in the guinea pig room. They also provide plenty of outdoor time during the cool of the late afternoon.
And sometime around June or July the humans break out their DIY (do-it-yourself) skills to whip up a cool and refreshing frozen guinea pig veggie treat. It’s the perfect summer snack and the HappyCavies go crazy for it!
Read along for the recipe!
Two different types of frozen snacks are made – one with cucumber and another with kale.
Due to Bitsy’s atonic bladder, she gets the cucumber snack while Hammy, Feebee, and Buttercup enjoy the kale version (though they frequently help themselves to Bitsy’s snack, too). In fact, it seems like the cucumber snack is the most popular so far this year.
Jump to the recipe or watch Bitsy’s snack get stolen right in front of her pretty little nose.
The humans make 1 tray(14 cubes) of each kind of frozen treat – it lasts the entire summer! Cheap and easy, that’s what we like 😀
We hope you enjoy this treat as much as we do!
Enjoy, fellow piggers! 😀
Carrot & Cucumber Iced Guinea Pig Snack
Recipe Yield:
Approx. 1 ice cube tray (14 cubes)
Ingredients:
2 medium carrots
3/4 medium sized cucumber OR 2 large kale leaves
1 cup water
1 small slice apple
Directions:
1. Wash and chop the vegetables.
2. Place the veggies in a blender and set to “blend”.
3. Blend until the mixture is smooth with no clumps. If the consistency is clumpy, add more water. Be careful not to add too much water which may cause the mixture to separate and freeze too hard.
4. Spoon the blended mixture into an ice cube tray. The water may separate from the vegetable mixture, so give the mixture a good stir each time before you spoon it into the cubes.
5. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and place in your freezer.
6. Once the treats have frozen, run under warm to hot water for 15-20 seconds before serving. This will help to soften the treat and prevent teeth chipping.
NOTE OF CAUTION: Be very careful when feeding frozen treats to your guinea pig! Any frozen treat should be run under water that is warm to hot in temperature or thawed for several hours before feeding to your guinea pig. Doing so can prevent your guinea pig from chipping or cracking their teeth on rock-hard ice. We cannot stress enough how important it is to soften the treat before serving it to your pig.
Bitsy and the Case of the Stolen Summer Snack
What a great idea! Your pigs are lookin’ mighty fabulous as well!
cute should you only use these in the warmer months? because its winter right now and my guinea pig dies a couple of weeks ago because he was to cold, so?
Did you get a chance to make them? Did your piggies like them?
So sorry to hear about your little friend, that is so hard to say goodbye :*(
I don’t see how it would hurt to give a piggie a cold treat in the winter, as long as they are indoor piggies who are kept warm, it should be OK. But our humans give us the frozen treats only in the summer.
That was a very good point, thanks for asking, Jorja 😀
Wow, nice recipe and awesome idea, I’ve never thought about it 🙂
We used a Fuji apple, but any kind should work just fine. It’s just used to add a little sweetness to the snack.
I can’t think of any other recipes off the top of my head. I’ll try to think of some – maybe there will be a new recipe post in the near future 😀
~ xx Hammy
Guinea pigs usually like things at room temperature. They shouldn’t have foods that are heated. But here’s our suggestion: After you run the cube under warm water, let it sit out for a while to allow it to thaw and become softer…and perhaps warm enough for your piggie’s liking 🙂
[…] are applied. Ice can chip teeth so you have to be very sure. I got the idea from this blog: DIY Guinea Pig Snack: Frozen Veggie Cubes Having a fan is nice, but it only circulates air. It doesn't cool it. How hot does it get in their […]
Hi Nikki, I’d love to have a link on your blog. Let me know where it’s at so I can check it out 🙂
IT’S AWESOME! I LOVE YOUR IDEA!!!! <3 <3
Thanks for the compliment. I’m glad you like the recipe. 🙂
Are you sure guinea pigs can eat ice ? I don’t want to take chances.
We advise that you run the frozen cubes under water that is WARM to HOT in temperature for 15 to 20 seconds to thaw the frozen treat. If the treat is too hard, your guinea pig can damage his or her teeth, so just be sure that it’s on the softer-side and not ice-hard.
Thank you! So glad you found us! Say “hi” more often, we’d love to hear from you 😉
I love this idea. I had always given my piggie frozen grapes. She loved them! And it was easy on her humans.
That’s actually not a bad idea! Does the fruit get really hard like ice?
It doesn’t get as hard as ice but it does harden up since the juices freeze. It was actually a summer treat I enjoyed as a kid so when we had a few really hot days this summer that even the AC couldn’t keep us cool I threw some in the freezer to give it a try. Loa loved it.
That sounds so yummy! Thanks for the tip!
i would love to make these for my piggies, but i dont have a blender. is there any other way to make it without a blender?
Without a blending or food processing device, it would be difficult to make this. You could try mashing up some of the veggies, but ugh. 🙂
Hi! I’m going to try this snack for my guinea pigs, but one question, how long should you have it in the freezer? 🙂
Have a nice day!
Hi, Jun! We left the instructions purposely vague, since freezers all freeze in different times. It’s best to check them after several hours, and to ensure they don’t get too hard. Run them under warm water if they freeze hard, because you don’t want your guinea pigs hurting their teeth. Hope this answers your question!
Ah, I understand.
Thank you very much for the answer 🙂