{"topic_id":"exotic_guinea_pig_vitamin_c","category":"exotic-pet-health","context":"---\ntopic_id: exotic_guinea_pig_vitamin_c\ncategory: exotic-pet-health\ntitle: \"Guinea pig vitamin C dependency — lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase requires dietary ascorbic acid\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Merck Veterinary Manual — Guinea pig vitamin C dependency — lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase requires dietary ascorbic acid\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/exotic-health/mvm_guinea_pig_vitamin_c.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-28\ntokens_estimated: 220\nverified: true\nverification: c1_substring\nsource_document: \"Merck Veterinary Manual (professional veterinary reference)\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Merck Veterinary Manual\"\n  title: \"Guinea pig vitamin C dependency — lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase requires dietary ascorbic acid\"\n  url: \"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/guinea-pigs/housing-and-nutrition-of-guinea-pigs\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-07-28\"\n  ref: \"\"\n  doc_type: \"professional veterinary reference\"\n  needs_review: false\n---\n# Guinea pig vitamin C dependency\n\nThe text below is reproduced verbatim from the first-hand source (Merck Veterinary Manual).\n\n> Guinea pigs lack L -gulonolactone oxidase, which is involved in the synthesis of ascorbic acid from glucose.\n> Because of this, they require a regular source of vitamin C\n> which typically ranges between 10 and 25 mg/kg daily\n> Supplementation of vitamin C in the water is not recommended because it requires frequent changing and can give an unappealing flavor to the water, which could lead to a decrease in water intake.\n\nSource: `pdf-raw/exotic-health/mvm_guinea_pig_vitamin_c.txt` (first-hand professional veterinary reference, tag-stripped).\n\n## Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)\n- `Guinea pigs lack L -gulonolactone oxidase, which is involved in the synthesis of ascorbic acid from glucose.`\n- `Because of this, they require a regular source of vitamin C`\n- `which typically ranges between 10 and 25 mg/kg daily`\n- `Supplementation of vitamin C in the water is not recommended because it requires frequent changing and can give an unappealing flavor to the water, which could lead to a decrease in water intake.`\n","sources":["exotic-pet-health — Guinea pig vitamin C dependency — lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase requires dietary ascorbic acid (retrieved 2026-07-28)"],"source":{"authority":"exotic-pet-health","title":"Guinea pig vitamin C dependency — lack of L-gulonolactone oxidase requires dietary ascorbic acid","url":"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/guinea-pigs/housing-and-nutrition-of-guinea-pigs","retrieved":"2026-07-28","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual (professional veterinary reference)","verification_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-health/mvm_guinea_pig_vitamin_c.txt"},"source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual (professional veterinary reference)","source_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-health/mvm_guinea_pig_vitamin_c.txt","tokens_estimated":220,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}