Spring Grass Safety

The sun is shining and the weather is beginning to warm up and spring looks like it’s definitely on its way, which of course, means that we are raring to get our guinea pigs outside for some fresh air and to eat lots of fresh grass.

But there’s a warning here, too much fresh grass too soon can cause digestive problems for your piggies!

If your guinea pig hasn’t eaten grass before then they need to get used to the richness of it. It ferments quickly in their gut and can cause wind and too much wind can make the digestive system stop working altogether!

This can be avoided in one of two ways:

1. Give your piggies handfuls of grass for five days consecutively before letting them out on the grass.put them out for 5 minutes a day for 5 days and then increase their time by 5 minutes each day there after.

2. Put them out for 5 minutes a day for 5 days and then increase their time by 5 minutes each day after.

Either method allows for your guinea pigs’ stomach to get used to digesting fresh grass.

This seems like a lot of work but it is definitely worth it for your piggies sake. We all know first hand that guinea pigs eat like crazy when they first get on the grass and they can still eat a lot in just 5 minutes so please be vigilant with your timings!

Here, at NEPB, we do this method for all piggies, whether they’ve eaten grass before or not, just to be on the safe side, as our autumn and winters seem to be getting longer and longer, it can be many months between grass eating for most guinea pigs.

We also don’t recommend using chemicals on your grass to make it grow thicker for your piggies, their poop is enough of a fertiliser for it. Just remember to keep moving the guinea pigs run around the garden, to spread the fertiliser  😉