Vitamins for Guinea Pigs

Guinea pigs, like humans, cannot produce their own vitamin C. As a result, we need to make sure they get enough in their daily diet to avoid health issues like scurvy.

Realistically, if you are feeding a balanced diet that includes:

- Fresh vegetables daily;

- Good quality guinea pig nuggets with added vitamin C;

- And, of course, fresh water and LOADS of good quality feeding hay;

then you shouldn’t need to provide additional vitamin C for your guinea pigs.

There may be occasions however, when you do need to provide a supplement. Guinea pigs that are pregnant, nursing, sick or recovering from injury or surgery will need a little extra boost to their daily vit C dose. In our experience, this extra vitamin C can make all the difference to a guinea pig that has been poorly or has just been through surgery, so do bear it in mind and have something on standby in the cupboard!

How to provide your guinea pigs with extra vitamin C, if they need it.

There are various options when providing a vitamin C supplement, but here’s what we’ve found works best.

- A vitamin C ‘treat’ such as Oxbow’s Natural Science Vitamin C Supplement. In our experience this is generally a very palatable treat that piggies are only too happy to munch on. It can be hand-fed during ‘cuddle time’ – bonus! (And then you know they are actually eating it too!)

- If you are support feeding a sick guinea pig with an additional recovery food and/or probiotic, many of these have good levels of vitamin C added. Check the product’s labelling for information.

There are options available to add vitamin C to water bottles, however, it’s not something we’d recommend. Adding vitamin C to the water supply can change the taste of the water and may put some guinea pigs off drinking it all together. Vitamin C also degrades rapidly in water and you cannot tell how much they are getting, as different guinea pigs will drink different amounts of water.

Feeding

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