feeding advice

Question
I'm really confused as i thought i was giving my guinea pigs the best care ever, but from doing research on the Internet i keep reading things that concern me.can you help? Should you remove pellets from a pregnant sow to stop her from getting too big and restrict her to fresh veggies and hay. Also my pigs love spinach leaves  and have several hand fulls a day. I've read that this will cause stomach upsets.Hope you can advise on these issues, many thanks.

Answer
Claire,

The internet is a good place for info but unless it is a site that is only 5 years or younger the info is useless as it is to old and new information has been found.

First off, you treat a pregnant Guinea Pig like any other Guinea Pig. Only difference is that the pregnant Guinea Pig needs extra vitamin C and calcium in their diet. Which is easy to provide, through small amounts of fresh foods 3 times as day and unlimited amount of alfalfa hay to provide  the calcium. Guinea Pigs aren't big pellet eaters normally and a pregnant Guinea Pigs just happen to eat a little extra. As long as a Pregnant Guinea Pig has some toys to play with there is no worry of her getting to big as she'll be kept more active and less likely to eat out of boredom. So she'll only be eating out of hunger.

Spinach is a great food for Guinea Pigs as it is full of vitamin C and there is no cause of upset stomachs from spinach. If your still worried about it cut back on the the spinach a little and mix in some veggies. It is great for Guinea Pigs to get fresh foods every day. My girls get a "salad" every night and they are fine with out a case of upset stomachs or anything else for that matter.

So you are doing fine and it does sound like they are getting the best care.

I hope this helps and clears things up for you.
          Take care,
             Jules