The hf is at home waiting for a little biped to decide when she wants to be born. So she has a lot of time in her hands, a large part being dedicated to us. And she gets to do the groceries in slow motion… Today she went to the supermarket to buy veggies. Passing by the pet department, she took a look at the products for the guinea pigs hoping to find some nice treats but she was really disappointed. And she came home and told us all about it and made me decide to write about what we should be fed along with the hay and the veggies. So this is serious, again.

In the beginning, Spock and Kirk were fed with the normal food that you find in the pet shops labelled as proper for guinea pigs. It was cheap, recommended by the guys working there and the human believed they knew their job. Moreover, from time to time they were getting some treats bought also from the pet shop – sticks with cereals. But something changed… Kirk’s weight, if you are wondering. And the hf realized the pet shops couldn’t be trusted when it comes to good advice for raising the guinea pigs.

A proper dry food for us should not contain cereals. Yes, they may be tasty; we can even have them from time to time, but not every day in considerable quantities. Why?! Because they get us fat. If you don’t believe me, ask Kirk! He is the reason why our hf started to search all over the Internet for some pellets that were more natural and suitable to some piggies than the ones found in the pet shops. The more processed is a food (you see the nice looking shapes that you can find in the dry food?!), the further away is from it natural state.

Now we are using “Versele-Laga Complete Cavia”, which has very little cereals and no sugar, is suitable for adult guinea pigs and contains also a supplement of vitamin C, among others. It is not perfect, but it’s what she found best in Belgium. Trust me, they are also tasty: I would eat a full bowl of them, but the hf is unyielding in her decision of giving us only around 30g/day. We only get more if we are celebrating something.

The cereal bars were completely eliminated from our diet also. Not because of the cereals, but because of the large amount of sugar syrup used to stick them together. Any other unhealthy treats are out of question. Just Kirk gets to lick from time to time some chocolate leftovers from the hf’s fingers. The thing is we’ve got so used with a healthy diet that even when we get presents from other humans visiting, we don’t touch them if they are not healthy green stuff. That’s why the human friends prefer to bring us veggies and not to buy “trets” from the super market.

Of course, we have a balanced veggie diet and we get plenty of hay which keeps us healthy and in shape. We also get to exercise: Data lives with Spock, who is very active and never lets the first one to rest for long, and I live now with Kirk and we have a huge room so we need to move around to get to the hay and the food.

This is me asking for more pellets…

… and this is also me digging in the bowl.