Alternative cavy pellets.. Please Help...

[Heyruthie]

This thread is pretty old, but I thought I'd post an update here, as I experimented with going pellet-free for quite a while, and during that time, I provided the following:

"On-demand unlimited, high-quality timothy hay, quite a bit of veggies each day, leafy greens, and also fresh, organic grass, dandelion and clover in season, or as I can gather it in cold months."

My update is that after several moths of trying, this was a FAILURE. All of my piggies lost weight, when I stopped feeding pellets. Even with unlimited, high-quality hay and lots of veggies/greens, all the piggies dropped at least a few grams, if not more, and I ended up adding the pellets back into their diet. After doing so, all the piggies regained the weight they had lots. However, during my experiment (as I mentioned above) I did lose one of my male piggies, and to this day, I wonder if it's because of the diet change. I'll never know, of course, but after an extensive trial, and lots of other good food options, I consider the experiment a failure.

[Lynx]

I tend to think your guinea pig did not die due to the diet change but I do not know. I trust you continued to weigh at least once a week to make sure they were eating enough?