Guinea pig nutrition — dietary vitamin C requirement
Verbatim first-hand facts from Merck Veterinary Manual (professional veterinary reference). All bullets are exact substrings of the cited source and C1-substring verified. Numeric nutrient values are NOT asserted (NRC 2006 quantitative data unavailable).
Nutritional facts
- Guinea pigs lack L -gulonolactone oxidase, which is involved in the synthesis of ascorbic acid from glucose.
- Because of this, they require a regular source of vitamin C , which typically ranges between 10 and 25 mg/kg daily for adults and 30 mg/kg or more for growing, pregnant, lactating, or ill individuals ( 1 ).
- Many commercial guinea pig pellets contain a stabilized form of vitamin C, which is more shelf-stable and resistant to breakdown by heat and light.