I gave my piggies spinach, because it being a leafy green, something the vet recommended. I just found out that it can cause stones due to being high in calcium. I fed it to them everyday what do I do now?
Hi!
It depends on the age and genetic makeup of your piggies, whether you live in a hard water area or filter your water/use bottled low calcium water and what else you feed, like how much and what quality pellets as your piggy can take on more calcium by water and pellets than by veg.
The problem with a high calcium : phosphorus ratio diet is that it is very good for piggies, but that it is also extremely easy to get the calcium ratio exactly wrong and end up with bladder stones because there are a lot of factors to calculate in from the individual water hardness and intake and pellet quality/amount (which everybody promoting the ph : ca diet seems to blend out!) to the correct balance of veg to the individual calcium absorption of every piggy, which can also vary as much as the daily water intake...
Since stones is what has happened to a number of forum members trying the ph : ca diet with so far only one member getting it exactly right in the long term that we have heard back from, we prefer to promote a balanced low calcium diet (you still need a certain amount of calcium in the diet). It may not be as ideal for piggies, but at least they can still live to a good healthy old age without getting bladder stones.
You can feed high calcium greens the more often the less high sugar veg like carrots, fruit/tomato etc. and the less pellets you feed and the softer the water is that your piggies drink. At this time of year, the more fresh and dog-pee free grass that your piggies eat, the better, but be careful with the introduction. The same also goes for any brassicas, which should be fed only small amounts and as part of a mix (rocket, greens, kale, cabbage, broccoli in cluding leaves). Get your piggies used to a very small amount first before you start feeding regularly and more often. But the more high calcium veg you feed, the higher the risk of ending up with bladder stones if you get the balance wrong.
Stones don't form that quickly; diet related ones tend to take a few months or even a year down the line.
