Higher calorie veg for piggy in recovery

[sazmatazz]

Hi all, Poppy has just had her check up with the vet following the procedure to sort out her teeth. She is getting on fine nd healing ok. As a result of it being painful for her to eat she wont touch her pellets and is sticking to leaves at the moment. The vet has suggested we carry on syringe feeding her some pellet mash but has also suggested higher calorie veg like peas and beans whilst she is healing as she has lost some weight. Can anyone suggest any other fruit or veg with a higher calorie content?

Thanks

 

[piggyfan]

I wonder why the vet said to give her beans. Guinea pigs are not meant to eat beans.

 

[sazmatazz]

He said not to feed them long term as pigs will pick them over other food and can become overweight. But he said as she's lost weight she needs higher calories than whst green leafy veg provides.
The vets (Holly House Leeds) are piggy specialists which is why we took her there.

 

[Poppy'sMum]

What about making some pearl barley mash for her? Peter Gurney recommended it for pigs with cystitis etc but it can be easily chewed as it's so soft & most piggies love it

http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/cystitis.htm

 

[Salt n Peppers mum]

You could add warm water to her pellets and try to encourage her eating them from a bowl on her own too.
I recommend the Burgess Blackcurrant & Oregano as they are a small nugget food, as dental piggies do start to eat these quicker than the larger nuggets such as Burgess Excel.

I do occasionally feed fine green beans to the piggies, these type of beans are OK. Also try the mini sweetcorn they are high calorie. Not only should you be looking to up Poppy's weight but the major thing here is to make sure she starts to use her teeth again to grind down her food as they are continuously growing, its getting that line between syringe feeding and encouraging more self feeding of course foods.

Could you cut some grass from the garden, this is a fantastic food for teeth and piggies cant resist it - a great appetizer!

 

[sazmatazz]

She seems to be persevering with her leaves, tomato, few grapes, grass and hay but she doesnt seem interested in nuggets. I've put her a little bowl of wet nuggets in and seen the other piggy Dora eating them! Naughty greedy Dora!
She is clearly still hungry and interested in food but we've been taking her out of the cage every so often to feed her veg as otherwise Dora eats it all before poppy can chew it!