Delicious diet?

[picklesthepiggle44]

Hello everyone!
New here and looking forward to conversing and gaining more knowledge!
I have one 5yo boar - Pickles (yes, only one for the moment...he's been an "only-pig" for the majority of his life but I'm working on adopting a companion).
I've had him for almost a year now. As far as I know, he has not had any health problems *knock on wood!*. He has an extensive cage with lots of room to run around, and he gets floor-time every other night.

*He is on an unlimited mix of timothy (1st or 2nd cut) and orchard hay. He gets 1/8c of Garden Select pellets daily, 1 Oxbow Vit C treat per day and 3-5 pea flakes as treats. He is also getting 50g of fresh veggies per day.

What I need help/suggestions with is:
On a daily basis he is getting:
- Green leaf lettuce (1-2 leaves am/pm)
- Zucchini (1-2 small slices am/pm)
- Cilantro (2-4 stems am/pm)
- Green and/or yellow bell peppers (1-2 slices am/pm)
On a weekly basis, I rotate in:
- Celery & celery leaves (2-3 small slices per feeding, once or twice per week)
- Red or orange bell peppers (1-2 slices per feeding once or twice per week)
- Baby carrots (1-2 per feeding once or twice per week)

Question 1: Does this seem like a healthy plan for him? Am I over or under feeding in any areas?
Question 2: Should I be cautious about feeding certain high sugar, high calcium items at the same time, or back-to-back feedings? If so, please guide me!
Question 3: What other foods can I use to add variety? I can tell he's getting a little bored with the current daily foods. (List of items I currently have in my fridge below - if you could recommend based on those, that would be awesome, but I'm willing to pick up other items during my next grocery trip).


Daily/ weekly veggie and fruit regimen has been my biggest frustration point, so any help would be very appreciated!
Currently in my fridge, I have:
- Radicchio and Romaine mix
- Kale
- Green leaf lettuce
- Celery
- Carrots
- Green beans
- Cilantro
- Bell peppers (green, yellow, red, orange)
- Zucchini
- Pears
- Cherries
- Apples
- Bananas
- Green grapes

There is an extensive amount of varying information out there and I've dug myself into a bit of a rabbit hole.

Thanks in advance!
~ Holly and Pickles; from the US

Notes: Not sure how to change my avatar picture!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

He can have bell pepper, cucumber, lettuce and coriander/cilantro every day. These four provide a food mix nutrients without being too high in calcium or sugars. There are many owners who only feed those safe daily and nothing else.
Everything else is in moderation and rotation.

Fruit and carrot ideally is not in the diet at all due to the sugars. However is you do want to give some then it is a very small piece of one type, once a week ie don’t feed carrot and apple in the same week.
I personally would not give 1-2 baby carrots per time. 1 or even half of one is fine once a week.

He can have a green bean once or twice a week.

Kale, spinach, parsley (along with a few others) are high calcium so should not be fed more than once a week. Too much calcium can lead to bladder stones, although most calcium comes into the diet via pellets and drinking water (pellets should be limited to one tablespoon per day and water should ideally be filtered).

He does not need the vitamin c treat at all. They get all their vit c needs from a healthy diet and supplementing with additional vit c on top of veg can actually be detrimental to their health.

I would not feed that many peaflakes per day. I would either give them 1-2 peaflakes once or twice a week or give 1-2 per day and then reduce the amount of pellets you give.

I hope that helps

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum