My two new guinea pigs are about 4-6 weeks old. We've had them since Wednesday and all they eat are pellets. I've given fresh veggies and some fruit everyday-twice a day and they will not eat any of it. I've tried hand feeding and they won't hardly even sniff it!! I'm getting really worried about their vitamin C consumption. Is there anything I can do to get them to eat their fresh food or is there something I can do to make sure they're getting vit. C?

Try cutting back on the pellets a little- if you give them a set amount, like 1/4 cup of pellets per piggy per day, they will have to eat other things once thier pellets are gone.
For veggies, parsley is a good source of vit C. They should get used to their veggies soon, since they probably werent offered at the pet store (or where ever you got them from)
Make sure they have LOTS of hay too! Hay should make up most of their diet, followed by veggies, and pellets should be the least.

Babies this young should not have their pellets rationed -- they need unlimited pellets and hay for them to grow. Their pellets also contain calcium and other nutrients they especially need at this time in their life (including vitamin C).

Just keep putting vegetables in their enclosure, and try with small amounts, 2-3 times a day. Rotate out through things that have a lot of odor, especially things like cilantro, parsley, basil, watermelon, cantelope, and strawberries. With stalky vegetables like cilantro and parsley, you can handfeed them by poking the stalk into the side of their mouth past their teeth to get them to start chewing.

Oh, sorry... Im not used to having baby piggers! Thanks for correcting me Jennicat.

Thanks both of you for answering!! I tried cilantro and red leaf lettuce and/or romaine, and oranges. So far they just kinda play with the cilantro, but have ignored everything else. I am so worried about the vitamin C thing!!! I'll try to "poke" some cilantro in their mouth later. Squeakers is really warming up to us, but Bugsy is such a scaredy pig!!!

I am so excited!!! I poked some food into their mouths and they took right to it!! Still didn't eat any except what I fed them, so I did it again tonight. When I put them back in the pen, they started munching on the cilantro and green pepper on their own!! Thank you so much for the suggestion!!! They both seemed happier tonight than they have since I got them!! I hope they are starting to settle in!!

Don't the pellets for GP's contain Vit. C? I've never had a guinea pig before, but I remember reading that one of the main differences between rabbit pellets and piggie pellets is that the GP pellets have added vit. C.

Glad you got them to start eating their veggies though!

The pellets have some Vit. C, but everything I've read says not to rely solely on pellets for all their vit. C consumption.
They seem so happy tonight!! I'm so excited!!!

The vitamin C in the pellets doesn stay good for very long after you open the bag, so you need more than one source of it!

Vitamin C is a highly unstable compound that breaks down both due to light and temperature. Though the higher quality pellets like Oxbow have stabilized sources of Vitamin C, it does still eventually go bad, and guinea pigs really love their veggies too -- it's a great source of enrichment.

I noticed to day that they had eaten all the cilantro, munched some on the leaf lettuce and green peppers. They are just kind of chewing on the oranges though, getting the juice out, but not eating it really. Is that okay? Also, I read that the orange peel is really the best part for vit. C.

Definitely ok -- orange is very sugary, it's basically like candy. I only feed it very occasionally. I tend to do primarily leafy greens like red and green leaf lettuce, endive, escarole, parsley, cilantro, etc, and a selection of bell peppers and then one of the leafies that are higher in calcium which they shouldn't have in such great quantities, like kale or bok choi.

Squeakers is eating more of the veggies, but I don't think Bugsy is eating any yet. He's quite a bit more nervous than Squeakers though, so maybe he's munching behind my back! LOL They both have come a long way in a week though!! My daughter and I held them for about a half hour tonight and they were just as content as they could be!!

Thank you soooo much for the tip!! It seems to have done the trick! They have eaten a good bit of veggies today!! A couple more days of this and I think I'll slowly start introducing new things!! Thanks again!!!

Congrats on the new pigs! I notice PT is beggining to pick up again, the way it used to be. Its good to be back!