A Slave to the Pigs

Mazuri is our pellet of choice. They seem to like the taste and size, whereas we love the fact that it comes in 25 lb. bags, contains Vitamin C and has the bagging date stamped on the bottom. The Mazuri Guinea Pig Diet #5664 is a product of PMI Feeds, Inc. Nutritional information on the Mazuri diet can be found here.

In addition to their pellets, the herd gets parsley twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Six guinea pigs go through just under one large bunch of parsley in a day, working out to just over $3 a week at the grocery store (we get some pretty strange looks from the checkout people). Other fruits and vegetables, including apples, cucumber, romaine lettuce, broccoli and green bell peppers are given as treats as our supply allows.

Their bedding is Crown Animal Bedding, topped with timothy hay. We change the hay once every one or two days, depending on how soiled it is, and the Crown every week. We've found Crown to be the best, both at odor control and cost effectiveness. It comes in 50 lb. bags that sell for $9.95, each. Each bag of Crown will last two changes of the cage (and the extra bin), plus several changings of their litter pans.

Pictures of the litter pans can be found in the photo album, or rather, pictures of the guinea pigs in them. The litter pans are triangular, high-backed litter pans by Super Pet, which we purchased at PetsMart in the ferret section. They like to play in, sleep in, push around and, of course, go to the bathroom in them. The first one was so popular that we had to buy three of them to spread around the room, to prevent "altercations".