How Long Can Guinea Pigs Go Without Hay? Get Pets Active All Day!
How long can guinea pigs go without hay? Guinea pigs can go only 12 hours without hay, requiring a continuous hay supply to get essential nutrients, maintain digestive health, and prevent teeth growth.
Guinea pig’s digestive system requires a constant hay supply to keep the system active. Otherwise, it can collapse quickly and cause issues like stasis that lead to severe health risks. Besides, hay helps to digest their food correctly and provides essential fiber. Also, it is a great way to file down the pig’s teeth and maintain shape.
Still confused about the Guinea’s feed? Go through our detailed guide to pick the best hay and ensure a proper diet to keep pigs active and healthy!
How Long Can Guinea Pigs Go Without Hay?
Due to the continuous digestive system, these herbivores require constant hay supply throughout the day to run the system properly. If you don’t feed hay for a few hours, it may create several health hazards. Even a lack of hay in the pig’s diet can cause severe bladder stones.
On top of that, the digestive system can slow down and even stop working. As a result, Guinea becomes sick quickly, leading to death within 12 hours. Besides, teeth grow so fast that they require chewing to prevent overgrowing. Otherwise, the overgrown teeth may hurt their gums and cause severe mouth injuries.
Do Guinea Pigs Need Regular Supply Of Hay?
Yes, Guinea pigs need a constant supply of hay to maintain their digestion. Besides, high-quality grass like Meadow and Timothy prevent dental disease, obesity, diarrhea, and boredom. It is better to provide moderately fresh hay daily for improving Guinea pigs’ health.
According to the Ownyourpet, hay is essential for pregnant, nursing, and baby pigs to provide extra calcium. It is better to mix different hay with the other grasses in quantity to boost the calcium content in the diet. Hence, these guinea pigs require unlimited access to hay daily to keep the digestive system active.
However, keep the pig’s cage clean to ensure excellent health. If the excess wet hay gets decomposed, it can increase the risk of microbial infections. So, use a non-poisonous cleaner to wipe the cage at the end of each day.
What Happens If I Don’t Feed My Guinea Pig Hay?
When you don’t keep hay in a guinea pig’s daily diet, the digestive system collapses and develops various health issues. Due to the absence of hay in the food chart, they get dehydrated quickly and lose their strength.
Moreover, large stones may form in the bladder without proper fiber in their diet. In fact, these stone cause severe issues and requires surgery to remove. Also, guinea lose the good teeth shape, which creates eating problems and causes mouth injuries. If they regularly chew hay, their teeth get small and beautifully shaped.
How To Choose The Right Hay For Guinea Pig
Before picking hay for guinea pigs, check the fiber and sugar content. As per GuineaDad, Timothy hay comes with high fiber and low sugar content, which is excellent for your guinea pigs. Besides, the proper amount of vitamins and minerals enrich the pet’s diet and keep them healthy in the long run.
On top of that, the color of the hay describes the freshness and quality. If the hay is green and dustless, it is fresh enough to improve digestion. Sometimes, picking the blend can work great to ensure better growth for the guinea pigs. In fact, the mixture of Timothy Hay and Orchard Grass meets the requirements of fiber, protein, calcium, and vitamins.
Further, different types of hay cycles in the diet can mimic natural eating behaviors. Hence, pick the hay with rich nutrient content and fresh one for guinea pigs to keep them healthy and active.
Why Guinea Pigs Need Hay Every Day?
Guinea pigs need hay daily to maintain digestive health and prevent teeth growth. Let’s have a look into the details.
Maintain Digestive Health
Guinea pigs are herbivores grazing animals with a continuous digestive system and require constant hay supply throughout the day. Otherwise, the system can collapse and cause issues like stasis that lead to severe health risks. To keep the digestive system active, these guinea pigs require unlimited access to hay daily.
Prevent Teeth Growth
Guinea loses the proper shape of the teeth as their teeth never stop growing. Even the overgrown teeth cause issues while eating and raise health risks. If the guinea pig chews hay daily, its teeth remain in size and beautifully shaped.
What Can Replace Hay For Guinea Pigs?
Based on the Tinypetcares, fresh grass is an excellent alternative to feed Guinea pigs for a day or two days. But carefully check and remove the poisonous plants and ensure the grass is chemical-free. To avoid health issues, prevent feeding clippings or infected grass from the lawnmower.
In addition, feeding moderate amounts of healthy fruits is excellent for Guinea pig’s health. Fruit like apples, grapes, bananas, tomatoes, oranges, and pineapple is suitable for pigs. We suggest giving a small amount of fruits but not as an alternative for more than 2 days.
Again, food pellets provide pets with vitamin C, fiber, and other health nutrients. Even some guinea pig owners feed their pets pellets by following the package’s instructions. However, always take the vet’s advice before giving them pellets.
Further, vegetables are a good diet option for the pigs. It provides vitamins and minerals and saves the pigs from falling sick. But only give a moderate amount of cabbage, radish, carrots, and broccoli to improve the pig’s health. We suggest to return hay on the pig’s diet as soon as possible.
Warp Up
Guinea pigs can go only 12 hours as hay provides essential nutrients, maintains digestive health, and prevents teeth growth. High-quality hay like Meadow and Timothy prevents dental disease, obesity, diarrhea, and boredom.
If you don’t keep hay in their daily diet, their digestive mechanism collapses quickly and develops various health issues. But check hay’s fiber and sugar content to enrich the pet’s diet. So, keep enough hay in Guinea’s food chart daily to keep them healthy!