Going pellet free?

Charlielotty

Charlielotty

New Born Pup
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Hi, I’m wondering how many on here have their piggies on a pellet free diet? Mine already get mountains of unlimited hay and 1 cup fresh veggies each per day, alongside small amounts of dried forage. We have already moved away from commercial treats and instead give pea flakes and dried beetroot. I just have a few questions to help me think this through.
- How would I ensure they get the correct nutrients?
- Any specific veg to give? (They get pepper, sweet gem and cucumber daily, coriander x3 week and spring greens x2-3 week)
- Do certain forages provide certain nutrients? Should I encourage them to eat any others alongside what they already enjoy (dandelion, nettle, plantain, marigolds)
- And is readi grass a good thing to give, the friendship estates horse-sized bales say 0.55% calcium so not as high as I thought?
 
I am almost pellet free. Mine get five pellets each twice a week (on a Wednesday and a Sunday) handfed as a treat.

You share they get nutrients by providing a wider variety of veg.
Mine get lettuce, cucumber, coriander and bell pepper every day as the basis but I add in other veggies also. I also find being pellet free has given me leeway in being able to feed higher calcium veg a bit more.

I feed dried forage several times a week.
Dried forage sits alongside pellets in terms of proportion in the diet. So I feed a little dried forage instead of the pellets.
Mine also get fresh grass and forage pretty much every day in summer.

I may buy a bag of readigrass once or twice a year and it will get shared between them all in small handfuls a few times a week until the bag is gone. It is not something I bother giving regularly.
 
Piggies&buns said:
I am almost pellet free. Mine get five pellets each twice a week (on a Wednesday and a Sunday) handfed as a treat.

You share they get nutrients by providing a wider variety of veg.
Mine get lettuce, cucumber, coriander and bell pepper every day as the basis but I add in other veggies also. I also find being pellet free has given me leeway in being able to feed higher calcium veg a bit more.

I feed dried forage several times a week.
Dried forage sits alongside pellets in terms of proportion in the diet. So I feed a little dried forage instead of the pellets.
Mine also get fresh grass and forage pretty much every day in summer.

I may buy a bag of readigrass once or twice a year and it will get shared between them all in small handfuls a few times a week until the bag is gone. It is not something I bother giving regularly.
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Thank you this is really helpful. I’ve always wondered if there’s certain health benefits to different dried forages? Like I’ve read some are anti inflammatory, some are beneficial for the bladder?
 
I buy my forage from Piggie Parcels. This is a small business run by a member of this forum. When she is next online, @Guineautopia may be able to give you more insight.

I personally just feed the varieties that mine like with not much regard to any other properties they may have! Mine particularly like the leaves such as nettle, birch, raspberry, dandelion, plantain.
 
Charlielotty said:
Hi, I’m wondering how many on here have their piggies on a pellet free diet? Mine already get mountains of unlimited hay and 1 cup fresh veggies each per day, alongside small amounts of dried forage. We have already moved away from commercial treats and instead give pea flakes and dried beetroot. I just have a few questions to help me think this through.
- How would I ensure they get the correct nutrients?
- Any specific veg to give? (They get pepper, sweet gem and cucumber daily, coriander x3 week and spring greens x2-3 week)
- Do certain forages provide certain nutrients? Should I encourage them to eat any others alongside what they already enjoy (dandelion, nettle, plantain, marigolds)
- And is readi grass a good thing to give, the friendship estates horse-sized bales say 0.55% calcium so not as high as I thought?
Click to expand...
Don't have piggies anymore, but the last 10-15 years I had them I didn't feed any pellets, and I had some real healthy long-livers in that time so I assume they were getting the correct nutrients from hay, grass, weeds aka wild herbs, veg and fruit. At that time my piggies were often in the garden and the 'lawn' contained a lot more than just grass and dandelions. I would note what they enjoyed eating when given the choice, as it were, grazing among the various plants, and sometimes dry it for the winter too. I assume forage (as a noun) means wild herbs? Of course they have nutrients and some medicinal properties too. I presume human foraging websites will give you lists of nutrients for these plants? Then you just need to check that the plants are non-poisonous for guineas too, which will be on some other list. I know quite a lot in my head which is why I don't have a link for you.

You can certainly offer them other non-poisonous wild herbs including flowers, if that's what you mean by 'encourage'. The piggies will take them, or not, depending on individual taste and/or what they learn from their cage mates. I also found it depends on time of year - my piggies preferred dandelions in spring to early summer and weren't interested later in the year when they were in the garden and had a choice. I agree - dandelion leaves taste better imo before they flower! The flower tastes much better before it goes to seed and the stalk tastes best after the plant has gone completely to seed (because the 'milk' disappears). Foraging / wild herbs - a fascinating subject and I learnt a lot when I was doing it! Collected lots for my piggies and myself. You really have to learn the plant too, to make sure you never pick a poisonous look-alike.
 
We do indeed have a guide for fresh wild UK forage.

Abi_nurse

Thread 'Safe wild weeds/plants you can feed your piggies'

This thread is designed to give you some more ideas of a more natural diet for your piggies. As always hays and grasses should make up 80-90% of your piggies food intake but as we all know we also often feed restricted amounts of pellets and vegetables.

A great way to mix up your piggies diet and keep things interesting and enriching (and much more natural) is to add in wild weeds and plants in place of supermarket bought vegetables. Of course this is obviously not always viable for everyone to do depending on your circumstances or living arrangements. And a good variety of veg is...
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I have not fed pellets to my piggies until recently. One of my boys has a painful jaw and I soften 1tbsp pellets in water which helps him maintain a healthy weight. My other piggy ( a bar buddy) and previous piggies have not been fed pellets, but instead have had more veggies or fresh/dried forage/grass, as well as unlimited hay.
 
@Piggies&buns

One wild herb that is not on the list is: ground elder, Aegopodium podograria. I fed it to my guineas, all of them, for years and it didn't seem to do any harm! It's certainly not poisonous. They especially liked the little tender shoots with tiny bright green leaves - that kind of 'spring green' you get on tree leaves in May. My guineas didn't want the bigger, older leaves which humans tend to cook like spinach. I let the guineas dictate that kind of thing.

I see a bunch of 'yes you can (feed it)' / 'no you can't' on the forum, on threads that are closed, in case you want to add it. I'm not offended if you don't. Different countries have different ideas on what plants are mildly poisonous and what are not (you'd be surprised!). I eat it myself too as a lettuce, it's actually very mild-flavoured so long as it's small, not bitter. It grows all year too (outside freezing temperature), so almost always available. Don't plant it in your garden though, it's a terrible weed, you'll never get rid of it!
 
Betsy said:
@teddymouse is the Forage Queen of the Forum and should be able to give you good insights of what is good and what is not.
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It's actually good, I would continue using it, if I had piggies anyway. It's more that if British guinea people say you shouldn't use ground elder then a Mod should remove my post and no hard feelings. Like in English-speaking countries people eat raw spinach, in Germany they don't, they say it should be at least blanched before you eat. There are all these kinds of little differences in what you feed guineas as well. Like no spinach for guineas because you shouldn't eat it raw. (I used to eat it in salads myself, but don't anymore.) That's just to illustrate my point, not to argue.

Ground elder is completely different to elder as in elderflower, elderberry.
 
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