Is My Piggies Diet Okay?

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Wafflez

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So I'm going to include my two boars diet and I'd like for you guys to tell me what I can fix and what to stop feeding them.

Every day I'll give them, green leaf lettuce, kale, romaine leaves, half of a baby carrot to each pig, chopped up celery/ celery leaves, bell peppers and I'm started to feed them daily cilantro.

A couple times a week, I'll give them a small portion of red cabbage (Since I can't seem to get a hold of redicio) Broccoli stems, cauliflower stems, and baby carrots.

Feel free to suggest any changes.
 
I would cut back a bit on the kale, it can be very acidic. Use it more for treats or pop in their feed once a once a week :)
Everything else is fine though, good and healthy!

If you want to change it up, baby sweet corn goes down well, and a couple of blueberries once or twice a week is good for a vitamin C boost :)

Have you got them on pellets too?
 
I would advise having a good search of this section of the forum for lots of example diets

Your diet has lots of variety in, I would advise cuttign the kale down to once/twice a week as it is high in calcium. Maybe try a little cucumber too - piggies tend to love it.
 
Parsley is another great one! I bought a small potted one last week and I'm currently cultivating it. Once it's established and producing a nice ample crop of leaves, I'll be popping them in with my little one's dinner, they love it!

Potted herbs are great for a bit of variety and fresh forage, especially in the winter.
 
Celine298 said:
Parsley is another great one! I bought a small potted one last week and I'm currently cultivating it. Once it's established and producing a nice ample crop of leaves, I'll be popping them in with my little one's dinner, they love it!

Potted herbs are great for a bit of variety and fresh forage, especially in the winter.
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Parsley is really loved by piggies,, it is high in calcium too though so a couple of times a week is a good idea. Our girls love the flat leaf stuff a little more than curly variety - What about yours?
 
Wafflez said:
So I'm going to include my two boars diet and I'd like for you guys to tell me what I can fix and what to stop feeding them.

Every day I'll give them, green leaf lettuce, kale, romaine leaves, half of a baby carrot to each pig, chopped up celery/ celery leaves, bell peppers and I'm started to feed them daily cilantro.

A couple times a week, I'll give them a small portion of red cabbage (Since I can't seem to get a hold of redicio) Broccoli stems, cauliflower stems, and baby carrots.

Feel free to suggest any changes.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome

I recommend to cut down on kale, the amount of lettuce (it is nutritionally pretty low) and the frequency of fatty/high sugar carrot you feed. Cilantro you can feed a litte daily.

You may find our diet guide helpful; we have included a sample diet, which you can use as the base of what you feed on a daily basis. Most of our long term members are feeding a variation of that.
How high you want to go in calcium rich veg depends on how hard your local water is and the brand and amount of pellets you feed - those two are actually the two main offenders when it comes to diet induced bladder stones. Ideally over 80% of the daily food intake should be hay.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diet

You can find more helpful advice for new owners on a wide range of subjects via our special collection in which we address the areas we get the most enquiries about. Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides

You can find lots more guides on all kinds of issues via the guides shortcut on the top boar or look them up at the top our various Care sections, but you are of course always welcome to ask any questions you may have.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diet
 
I feed a hay and grass diet, with a tiny amount of veg (all sorts of veg, sometimes feeding the ones that are high calcium on a regular basis) Nuggets are fed as a treat, rather than a main food and are scattered in the hay rather than fed from a bowl. Whilst eating this diet, the piggies have had no bladder issues and ones that have come to TEAS due to bladder problems, have had those issues resolve almost immediately.
 
Mine need to go on a diet, I cut mine down to half of there veggies. Weighed them last night the 3 big ones had put on a gram, one of mine was steady. One of my little ones had put on 60g the other 110g. Wonder if they jump out of the cage at night & raid the fridge. @furryfriends (TEAS) if you take them off nuggets do you need to give them addition vitamins?
 
Tiamolly123 said:
Mine need to go on a diet, I cut mine down to half of there veggies. Weighed them last night the 3 big ones had put on a gram, one of mine was steady. One of my little ones had put on 60g the other 110g. Wonder if they jump out of the cage at night & raid the fridge. @furryfriends (TEAS) if you take them off nuggets do you need to give them addition vitamins?
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No, they don’t need nuggets and it’s actually the nuggets that cause most bladder issues.
 
I didn’t know that nuggets caused most bladder issues. Mine aren’t overly fond of nuggets and will only eat nuggets with mint.
I might try scattering a handful in their hay in future.
Thanks for the advice.
 
Merab's Slave said:
I didn’t know that nuggets caused most bladder issues. Mine aren’t overly fond of nuggets and will only eat nuggets with mint.
I might try scattering a handful in their hay in future.
Thanks for the advice.
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Our vet, Simon, tells anyone who has had a piggy with a bladder stone to stop feeding the nuggets. If the piggy struggles to hold weight without them, he suggests feeding porridge oats instead. If you are going to feed nuggets then feeding a timothy hay based nugget is the better option.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I feed a hay and grass diet, with a tiny amount of veg (all sorts of veg, sometimes feeding the ones that are high calcium on a regular basis) Nuggets are fed as a treat, rather than a main food and are scattered in the hay rather than fed from a bowl. Whilst eating this diet, the piggies have had no bladder issues and ones that have come to TEAS due to bladder problems, have had those issues resolve almost immediately.
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Could you give an idea of the diet you feed Debbie? Quantity wise?
 
I didn't know you could feed porridge oats. Can this be a regular thing? I currently give mine about a small handful of nuggets each, fed by hand, and a few scattered around the cage, but it would be nice to try something different as a change for them.
 
Hey, I forgot to mention I'll give them cucumber a couple times a week and their being fed on oxbow adult pellets with oxbow orchard grass hay. I'll try to cut down the kale as well. Thx for all of your suggestions!
 
sport_billy said:
Parsley is really loved by piggies,, it is high in calcium too though so a couple of times a week is a good idea. Our girls love the flat leaf stuff a little more than curly variety - What about yours?
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I feed my piggies cilantro instead of parsley because it's higher in vitamin C and doesn't contain high amounts of calcium. But regarding your question, I would say that my cavies love both varieties of parsley. They love it when I give them herbs!
 
I feed my boars Oxbow pellets with Oxbow Orchard grass hay with the veggies that I mentioned. Since they have Oxbow, All of the vitamins and minerals they're getting from there hay and pellets, what veggies could they eat so that they can get a full stable diet.
 
Thanks furry friends, I'll get the weight off the little horrors, as soon as I've fed them I'll lock myself in the kitchen so they don't attack. Lol
 
Wafflez said:
So I'm going to include my two boars diet and I'd like for you guys to tell me what I can fix and what to stop feeding them.

Every day I'll give them, green leaf lettuce, kale, romaine leaves, half of a baby carrot to each pig, chopped up celery/ celery leaves, bell peppers and I'm started to feed them daily cilantro.

A couple times a week, I'll give them a small portion of red cabbage (Since I can't seem to get a hold of redicio) Broccoli stems, cauliflower stems, and baby carrots.

Feel free to suggest any changes.
Click to expand...
I give my piggies daily grass and herbs, it is a very good source of nutrition. I give them lots of other vegis, red peppers, lettuce, etc. Ofc I give them hay and pellets though.
Your lists of things you give your piggies are a very good diet, make sure to give them hay and pellets daily though! :luv:
 
winniethepooh said:
I give my piggies daily grass and herbs, it is a very good source of nutrition. I give them lots of other veggies, red peppers, lettuce, etc. Ofc I give them hay and pellets though.
Your lists of things you give your piggies are a very good diet, make sure to give them hay and pellets daily though! :luv:
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I do, I was just mentioning the greens that I give them.
 
sport_billy said:
Parsley is really loved by piggies,, it is high in calcium too though so a couple of times a week is a good idea. Our girls love the flat leaf stuff a little more than curly variety - What about yours?
Click to expand...

Well to avoid killing the plant, I only pick a couple of sprigs once or twice a week :)
My guys love the curly stuff, tried them on the flat leaf parsley and they just didn't like it as much.
They had their first half an hour out on the lawn yesterday so at the moment, they are screaming for grass every time they hear the back door opening :P
 
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