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Fresh Food Problem

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Bliss

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi there,

I've got a problem with my piggy. He's eating really well, he's always at his food bowl. I feed him pellets to prevent selective feeding and I give him hay every day. The problem I have is that he's not really touching his fresh food. He ate it at first but now wont eat much other than cucumber which he loves.

Any suggestions?
 
Just keep offering him little pieces of different veg daily, and he should get used to it and start to enjoy it in time :)
 
OK. I'm thinking maybe he's just got bored with what I'm offering so I'm going to buy a variety to try him with and see how I get on.
 
This is one of the problems of having a lone guinea pig. I know you are considering getting a companion for you guinea pig in the future...
Guinea pigs in groups /pairs tend to have a " I'm having that" attitude and will be more willing to eat .
 
I've tried him with cucumber, carrot, broccoli and green and red pepper. I think he may have just been getting bored with it. I've just brought him watercress, parsley, tomato and peas and he's tucked right into the watercress and green pepper. I think I just need to know his favourites. I also feed him veg twice a day so should I try only feeding a bit more once a day instead?

This is one of the problems of having a lone guinea pig. I know you are considering getting a companion for you guinea pig in the future...
Guinea pigs in groups /pairs tend to have a " I'm having that" attitude and will be more willing to eat .

He eats everything else I give him, pellets and hay. It's just the veggies he's fussy with. He will eat them but tends to eat his favourites first and then leaves the rest. Would taking the veg away after an hour teach him that he has to eat now or it goes away?
 
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I've tried him with cucumber, carrot, broccoli and green and red pepper. I think he may have just been getting bored with it. I've just brought him watercress, parsley, tomato and peas and he's tucked right into the watercress and green pepper. I think I just need to know his favourites. I also feed him veg twice a day so should I try only feeding a bit more once a day instead?



He eats everything else I give him, pellets and hay. It's just the veggies he's fussy with. He will eat them but tends to eat his favourites first and then leaves the rest. Would taking the veg away after an hour teach him that he has to eat now or it goes away?
I think you are looking after him very well. As long as you are happy he is eating enough vitC -I would carry on as you are
 
He has the vitamin C drops in his water and he's drinking fine so yeah hopefully he should be getting enough vitC. I'll carry on just trying different veg one and a time then and figure out his favourites.
 
It's good he's getting vitamin C drops whilst he's off his veggies but I wouldn't put them in his water bottle - it can put them off drinking the water plus you can't be sure how much they are getting, better to give the vit C separate :)
 
You're doing fine, just keep trying with different veggies. :)

I do second the above poster about the Vitamin C in the water, but he is getting green pepper and pellets so that should be fine for his daily Vitamin C intake. The great thing about green pepper is it's lower in sugar than red pepper, not quite as high in Vitamin C but still high.

If you are worried about his Vitamin C intake, you can feed him some liquid Vitamin C through a syringe every day, or as a tablet. A lot of piggies love the taste. Be careful not to overdose though. Read here for more info: http://www.guinealynx.info/scurvy.html
 
vit c.jpg

Thank you for the info on vitC. I have the Beaphar vitamin solution for guinea pigs but it doesn't say anything about giving it to them neat, is this definitely ok to do with the brand I have? I'll attach a photo. As I'm syringe feeding him the antibiotics at the moment he's used to a syringe but the vitamin solution seems so strong :S
 
Sometimes piggies need time to get used to different veg especially if they haven't had it before. When I took in Buddy he wasn't used to fresh veg and I just used to leave it in his cage as long as possible and generally he would eat it. The first time he had pepper it was a bit dried out and soft lol but he tucked straight in the next time he was offered. Some people say guinea pigs are fussy eaters but I have never seen it with the 6 I have had, a couple have taken time to adjust to some veggies but they would always eat what was offered
 
You can dilute it in water still, before syringing it - unsure what the water/drops ratio should be though, sorry!
 
Hmm... I'll keep trying with the veg then, I have only had him 2 weeks and he's a young guinea pig. Might just be worrying about nothing. :) If anyone else uses the vitamin solution I use and syringe it please let me know what the drop/water ratio is. Thank you for all the replies :)
 
If anyone else uses the vitamin solution I use and syringe it please let me know what the drop/water ratio is :)
Can't you just make up a water bottle with it in as you usually would and then just extract some into a syringe from that? You should have the right strength then - particularly because, as others have said, he will be getting vitC from the pellets and any veg you can persuade him to eat which has it in.

Our piggies refused point blank to eat any peppers at all for the first 5 months we had them. They started to eat them when it got too wet/cold for lawn time and now they are their first choice. They've retained their love of them (any colour) even with lawn time being back as part of the routine now the weather is better.
 
Can't you just make up a water bottle with it in as you usually would and then just extract some into a syringe from that? You should have the right strength then - particularly because, as others have said, he will be getting vitC from the pellets and any veg you can persuade him to eat which has it in.

Our piggies refused point blank to eat any peppers at all for the first 5 months we had them. They started to eat them when it got too wet/cold for lawn time and now they are their first choice. They've retained their love of them (any colour) even with lawn time being back as part of the routine now the weather is better.

I don't think that would be the same though. I might be wrong but if I gave a small dose in one go surely it would need to be less dilute than the one in a water bottle. I'm not sure though. Maths was never my strong point at school. Might it be worth making a new thread about the vitamin solution and see if any other members do this? I don't want to flood the board with posts so I want to ask before I make another.
 
I don't think that would be the same though. I might be wrong but if I gave a small dose in one go surely it would need to be less dilute than the one in a water bottle. I'm not sure though. Maths was never my strong point at school. Might it be worth making a new thread about the vitamin solution and see if any other members do this? I don't want to flood the board with posts so I want to ask before I make another.
I agree but was just thinking that you probably don't really need the vitC drops much if at all anyway given the pellets have it.
 
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