Feeding To Much Or Too Little Veg And Weight Question.

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Davey-cavy

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I have three 5 month old boars weighing around 900g each. They get unlimited hay and are still on unlimited pellets for now. I share between them 1 regular sized carrot or 2 small ones on a morning and then on an evening when they are having floor time I share between them 1/2 of a pepper(red,green or yellow) and roughly a 2 inch length of cucumber. They also get a grape each or half a cherry tomato and 1 to 1 and a half romain or little gem lettuce leaves. Is this too much or too little and is 900g too heavy for boys of this age?
 
You can start to slowly reduce the amount of pellets you feed. Your boys will have now reached the end of their quick growth phase and an excess will start to lead less to growth and increasingly to overweight.

Be careful not to put fruit and tomato on the menu more than twice weekly; it can lead to cheilitis (fungal or bacterial lip infection). it would be good if you didn't give carrot every day (high in vitamin A, which can build up in the liver), but included a veg or fresh herb high in vitamin C every day. This becomes more important as they get less vitamin C from less pellets.
You can find more tips for what to feed how often in this thread here: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
You can find more information
 
Thanks for your reply. What do you reccomend I could alternate with the carrots and replace the fruit with? I tried them on kale, broccoli and spring greens and even small amounts of either made them windy or made there stools smelly.
 
Have you tried slices of pepper (any colour) or fresh coriander, parsley, dill, mint or basil for vitamin C? The latter you can even grow yourself in windowsill boxes and in summer in pots. Coriander is the only herb that can be fed daily. I often get my herbs from the market. Parsley can also cause more smelly poos than the other herbs.

You can also feed French beans, raw beetroot (makes pink pees and purple poos, but washes out of fleece with no problems!), sweet potato, fennel, celery (in chunks), sweet corn (mini or whole cobs).
More edible veg is in this thread here:
 
They share half a big pepper every day. I buy a pack of 3(orange, green, red) and they have half of one every day plus a romaine lettuce leaf or two each and about two inches of cucumber to share.
 
They won't eat mint or corn on the cobs. I will look out for a live coriander plant to feed them
 
You have to try and if necessary keep repeating serving it up. piggies are a bit like children; it is getting them used to eating veg...
Good that you are feeding pepper! That is the bit that I was worried about.
 
I am indeed. To clarify it is 1 carrot to share between 3 on a morning.
Evening is 1/2 a pepper between 3. 1 or two romain or little gem leafs per pig depending on size and then 2inch length of cucumber to share. Grapes one day tomatoes next.
 
Davey-cavy said:
I am indeed. To clarify it is 1 carrot to share between 3 on a morning.
Evening is 1/2 a pepper between 3. 1 or two romain or little gem leafs per pig depending on size and then 2inch length of cucumber to share. Grapes one day tomatoes next.
Click to expand...

Just find a replacement for the tomatoes and grapes and give each just once weekly.
 
Will do. I will try the coriander. Thank you. Are there weights ok?
 
Celery is a watery daily veg, as long as you chop up a stick.
 
My boars are about 18 weeks, so not much younger than yours, one weighs 900g and the other is 800g. They have been gaining about 40g a week since we got them 8 weeks ago.

Mine have 30g of pellets each a day (and sometimes a bit topped up in the evening if they have cleaned out their bowls), they get cucumber, pepper and celery in the mornings, carrot instead of the celery 2 days a week and a tomato each once a week. In the evenings I give them leafy stuff so a bit of spring green most days and then a combination of two other veg like romaine, cos or little gem lettuce, a herb (coriander 4 or 5 days a week then parsley or mint 2 or 3 times), kale, spinach, broccoli stalks or sweet potato. They get a bit of fruit every third day or so, pear, apple and melon go down well and they are partial to a strawberry! They have had orange once which they liked and they have tried a slice of banana complete with skin.

My two are not at all fussy, I think the only thing they turned their noses up at is broccoli florets but they love the stalks!
 
My 5 month old boars get unlimited pellets still (one is about steady on weight but not the other) and a couple handfuls of curly make each day. They also get red or orange pepper, choigga beetroot (white and pink striped, doesn't stain or make pee red), cucumber and sometimes sprouts and watercress. They only get Apple or carrot once or twice a week and sometimes broccoli but they tend to leave it
 
That should have said kale not make! They also get a handful of fresh grass most evenings
 
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