Guinea pig vitamin C dependency
Source: Merck Veterinary Manual (merckvetmanual.com), a copyrighted professional veterinary reference. Per COPYRIGHT_POLICY §3, the points below are paraphrased derived fact summaries: numerical values and proper nouns are preserved from the source, but sentences are rewritten and not quoted verbatim.
Claims
*[Paraphrased derived summary — non-Open-Access source.]* Guinea pigs lack the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase, which is needed to synthesise ascorbic acid (vitamin C) from glucose. *[Paraphrased derived summary — non-Open-Access source.]* They therefore need a regular dietary source of vitamin C. *[Paraphrased derived summary — non-Open-Access source.]* Their daily vitamin C requirement is typically 10–25 mg/kg of body weight. *[Paraphrased derived summary — non-Open-Access source.]* Adding vitamin C to drinking water is not advised: the water must be changed often and the vitamin can taint the flavour, reducing how much the animal drinks.