It is very important to give your guinea pig the correct diet.  The most important food is large amounts of good quality hay to be available day and night.

Secondly, good quality vegetables and fruit (a good sized mugful of veg and fruit a day for two guinea pigs) and

Thirdly dried guinea pig pellets.

It is important for your guinea pig to have fresh water ever day, making sure the bottle and nozzle is kept clean.

HAY

Hay should be soft and as dust free as possible.  There are a wide variety of hays to choose from and can be difficult to know which one to buy.  There are many companies supplying good quality hay online, one I particularly recommend is Healthy Herby and in general I would always go for meadow hay so they can next in it too.  The other hays are very good but as most of them are very course I would probably put those either in a hay rack or bowl.

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

When feeding vegetables and fruit, it should be good quality and fit for humans to eat.  Do not feed vegetables that have yellow leaves, are mouldy or been hanging around too long and are soft and bendy.  These will have very little goodness left in them.  Guinea pigs need vitamin C from the fresh vegetables and fruit fed daily.  Never feed veg or fruit that has been frozen.

Guinea pigs cannot eat all veg and fruit as some can be harmful to them.  Here is a list of suitable and unsuitable veg and fruit to help you.

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

Apples (not too often as they can cause mouth sores)
Bananas (skin as well)
Beetroot (uncooked)
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots and Carrot Tops
Cauliflower (particularly the leaves - not a lot of goodness in the centres)
Celeriac
Celery
Chicory
Choi Sum
Cucumber
Fine Beans
Grapes
Kale
Lettuce (not iceberg) (but only a small amount as a treat now and then)
Melon (with skin)
Parsnips
Pak Choi
Peapods and tops
Rocket (only limited amount)
Spinach (not too often or too much)
Swede
Sweetcorn (feed the leaves too)
Tomatoes (not too often as they can cause mouth sores)
Turnips
Watercress

HERBS

Basil
Coriander
Dill
Mint
Parsley
Sage
Thyme
Oregano

WILD PLANTS

Blackberry leaves
Chickweed
Cleavers
Clover
Dandelion leaves and flowers
Grass
Plantain

DO NOT FEED

Grass cuttings from lawn mower
Iceberg lettuce
Leeks
Onions
Potatoes
Rhubarb or the leaves
Spring Onions
Tomato leaves

DRIED FOOD

There is a large choice of dried foods available on the market.  When choosing please do not buy rabbit food instead as this will not be the correct diet for your guinea pig.

There are two types, one is pellets and the other looks like a muesli mix.  The pellets stop them being selective eaters as each piece will have all the goodness in it.  With a muesli mix some guinea pigs will pick out the bits they like and leave the rest, which means they have not had a balanced diet.  If this is not the case with your guinea pigs then muesli is absolutely fine.

When choosing which one to buy make sure you read the ingredients on the back of the packet.  Some will have nasty E numbers and colours added which are banned from our food so please do not feed it to your pets.

The pellets we recommend are Twitch by Wagg, Harringtons Optimum, Burgess Excel, Cavy Cuisine and Supreme Petfoods.

It is recommended that you read on the pack how much to feed your guinea pig each day as this can be very fattening if overfed and also be careful not to substitute pellets for hay and fresh vegetables.