killing them with kindness?

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ts1

ts1

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not literally but i'm a new piggie mummy and just adore my girls, the problem is every time I open the fridge they wheeeeeek like crazy for veggies and look at me with such adorable faces. :)).

so I end up giving them a little something nearly every time :{.

they do also have big bowl of veggies for breakfast and dinner as well as all these treats (mid morning snack, little something before lunch, little something after lunch, afternoon tea and so on!) and unlimited hay and pellets.

am I making a mistake here for their health or is this ok?
 
They make you feel so guilty, don't they. :(|)

My pigs breakfast veg, lunchtime cucumber, dinner veg and bedtime tidbit (carrot or fruit maybe) and the occasional laptime parsley. However, I make sure that overall they are getting just about a cup of veg each per day, so all the extra bits are included in the overall amount.

If they keep wheeking at me (if I open the fridge to get a drink the sound of piggies is deafening), then I give them a fresh handful of hay and that normally does the trick. :)
 
The hay idea is a good ploy rolleyes can't say it would have fooled one of mine though lol :)) The joys of keeping them indoors, the wheeks are the things I miss most, our oldie left us for the Bridge 4 weeks ago & I miss her terribly. Now I am pigless 8...

What about the dry food? I always left mine dry food all the time so they could nibble during the day, that & hay. Was that okay? :)
 
Haha so I am not alone! I leave the dry food for them all the time and they refuse nuggets so it is museli. They will not eat all of it and I have to throw it out and top it up with fresh each day. I give them a slice of cucumber with vitamin C on it for breakfast. Once they eat their piece they have the rest of it. For the evening they have a whole romaine lettuce or something else. At about two Peronel will start wheeking for food and I usually give them a grap or apple slice. She asks for food from then until I feed them at four and after that she may ask again. yesterday they had me sitting next to the cage feeding them the pieces of hay with the heads on as they love them so much. Haha! I know I am a slave and my boyfriend always tells me off. He uses the food ball to feed them but they do not like it and I feel sorry for them so give them the vegetables myself. :(|)
 
Mine have huge amounts of hay all the time. I use farm hay mainly but they get the odd handful of oat hay or readigrass to encourage foraging.

I give them dry food in the morning after breakfast and then again when I go to bed. They only get a handful between 5 of them so it's eaten fairly quickly. As long as they have hay all the time then they won't go hungry, whatever they may tell you. :(|) When they were growing I gave them unlimited pellets but now I give a smaller amount to encourage them to eat more hay.
 
thanks everyone for the feedback. good to know that i'm not the only slave that can't resist their adorable little faces. :red

Flips - when you say a cup full of veg per day per piggly - is this the american cup measurement?

Thanks
x
 
oh poppy's mum i'm so sorry to hear you lost yours. x
 
ts1 said:
thanks everyone for the feedback. good to know that i'm not the only slave that can't resist their adorable little faces. :red

Flips - when you say a cup full of veg per day per piggly - is this the american cup measurement?

Thanks
x
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I'm not that precise. I tend to think of a cup as a teacup. :)
 
Mine get plenty of hay to munch on. For breakfast they get a full bowl of fresh fruit and veg. If the weather is nice, they spend all day in the garden chewing on grass and clover. I also put the bowl with the remainder of breakfast in the pen. Lola goes back to the bowl constantly till it's empty. Once they go back in the hutch, they get a full bowl of guinea brunch to keep them topped up. You get 3 hairy faces banging heads as they all tuck in at the same time! :)
 
Rodney would get half a cup of veggies for breakfast, along with a top up of hay and dry food.

Then through the day he would get various bits of veggies - so if I was going out to work and leaving him I would hide various bits of veggie in his house for him to find through the day, then when I got back I would give him another little bit of veg. I would hide little bits all round the lounge and kitchen, so when he was out and about there was always something for him to go looking for, didnt want him to get bored as he was on his own :(

I reckon in total he got a full cup of veggies, unlimited hay and a small scoop of dry museli mix. He was always a big boy, so I know he never went hungry!
 
I use these piggy dishes in my hutches:
26641.jpg


Each pair of boys has two dishes, one filled with excel nuggets
(unlimited amount) and then I fill the other dish up with fresh veggies every night.

They only have veggies once a day now, instead of twice.

They always have fresh Timothy hay in their hay balls, I'm currently using Alfalfa King.

Each pair usually has a mix of 3 of 4 veggies to share each night.
 
It's horrible at first but we had to ignore the wheeks and stick to our boys' feeding times with fresh veggies.

It's really important that fresh food only makes up 10% of a healthy piggy diet. Any more than that and you can start down a slippy path to a whole host of problems from fatty-eye and obesity to digestion and motility and even diabetes, stones and other health problems.

The problem is that if you let them, they will walk all over you. They will associate wheeking to getting food and they'll just wheek more and more. Our two only week twice a day to remind us it's veggy time but they know they won't get any at any other time.

Hope this helps
 
i think you confirmed what i was thinking really anyway, if 80% of the diet is meant to be hay they really can't have veggies every time i open the fridge. mallethead

Will be strict (maybe stricter :))) mummy from now on and reduce veggies to breakfast and evening only with ocasional little treats from the fridge!
 
Occasional treats are fine. Especially if you're using them for training/positive reinforcement or rewards, or if your piggy is poorly :(

I would definitely recommend veg or fresh leaves as a treat over things like yoghurt drops or veggies biscuits etc. which are pretty much just junk food.

Good luck with trying to be a bit stricter - it's hard I know :)
 
thanks again, yes I am using it as positive reward as they were so terrified at the beginning and now slowly slowly they are coming right to the end of the cage to take veggies from my hand (and i'm managing the odd sneaky stroke too :)))

when i say treats I mean fresh veggies, I don't give them anything else other than pellets, hay and veggies.

Just gave them some fresh hay, they were wheeeking like crazy after I opened the fridge for a drink, they didn't look too impressed! :(|)

Tracey
x
 
ts1 said:
thanks again, yes I am using it as positive reward as they were so terrified at the beginning and now slowly slowly they are coming right to the end of the cage to take veggies from my hand (and i'm managing the odd sneaky stroke too :)))

when i say treats I mean fresh veggies, I don't give them anything else other than pellets, hay and veggies.

Just gave them some fresh hay, they were wheeeking like crazy after I opened the fridge for a drink, they didn't look too impressed! :(|)

Tracey
x
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Lol that's what mine were like! :)) Missing it so much now though :(
 
poppy's mum - do you think you will get some more at some point?
 
mikulinek said:
It's really important that fresh food only makes up 10% of a healthy piggy diet. Any more than that and you can start down a slippy path to a whole host of problems from fatty-eye and obesity to digestion and motility and even diabetes, stones and other health problems.
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I am horrified to realise that what I learned from my first boyfriend who had a guinea pig and got me into it, is all wrong! I thought that fresh fruit and veg everyday was healthy, crunchies everyday ensured their teeth were worked on enough, cucumbers everyday brought them a good water balance etc etc etc

grrrr:0
 
Ananda said:
I am horrified to realise that what I learned from my first boyfriend who had a guinea pig and got me into it, is all wrong! I thought that fresh fruit and veg everyday was healthy, crunchies everyday ensured their teeth were worked on enough, cucumbers everyday brought them a good water balance etc etc etc

grrrr:0
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Well I feed mine fresh vegetables everyday and they are very healthy. I think they need it to ensure they get vitamin C. My three have a cucumber between them for breakfast.
 
I think it's all about balance. I leave a bowl full of dry food in there at all times, ensure the hay rack is always stocked and they have a small handfull of veg each morning and sometimes an extra handful at night if the veg is close to going off, just so it isnt wasted

Occasionally they miss a day or two in the week when I've ran out but they always have a hay rack and apparently hay should be 80% of their diet so i don't worry too much.
 
ts1 said:
poppy's mum - do you think you will get some more at some point?
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I would love to, have been looking at rescue ones recently but I don't live very near any rescues so it's difficult. I am not sure any other piggy would steal my heart like my last one did :(
 
Poppy'sMum said:
I would love to, have been looking at rescue ones recently but I don't live very near any rescues so it's difficult. I am not sure any other piggy would steal my heart like my last one did :(
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I can totally relate to that feeling :( I would love some more but not right now, the loss of Rodney still too fresh for me too x
 
I completely understand you guys, I lost my cat that I had for 18 years. I was so heartbroken and it has taken me time to consider another pet of any kind.
 
I must admit if we hadn't already had a holiday booked I would have been tempted to piggy sit for you, a holiday in Greece & a few piggies to look after would be my idea of heaven lol :))
 
Ananda said:
I am horrified to realise that what I learned from my first boyfriend who had a guinea pig and got me into it, is all wrong! I thought that fresh fruit and veg everyday was healthy, crunchies everyday ensured their teeth were worked on enough, cucumbers everyday brought them a good water balance etc etc etc

grrrr:0
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There is a misconception about dried food/biscuits etc and that it helps their teeth. It doesn't really. The best thing for healthy and well worn down teeth is hay and lots of it. This is also the best thing for their digestion and generally wellbeing. I'm sorry your boyfriend taught you some bad habits.

The truth is that so many people - owners, petshop staff and even some vets, just don't know. Like carrots, so many guinea pig and rabbit owners go on feeding carrots all the time without knowing that it's really not good for their pet.

It's not their fault in my opinion. Whenever you see a bunny or piggy on tele/internet etc. they almost always have a carrot and/or tons of fresh food. I had to be told by a wiser, more experienced owner about carrots and the dangers and have had to read soooooo much stuff just to try to find the best things for our piggies (even some piggy books are misleading...).

I hope that helps and don't feel bad. Just try to stick to 10% fresh food. :)
 
poppy's mum, honestly if it had been someone I really liked on this forum I would have given the apartment for free but I didn't want to advertise that.

Nobody replied with interest unfortunately and now i'm considering various options including my greek mother in law who was checking with me last time she was here if they could eat potato skins and onion! :{.

to say i'm worried about them is an understatement!

Next year maybe? :))
 
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Oooo I may take you up on that, careful lol! It looks gorgeous..:))

I should have asked my niece to stop over for you, she is driving with her hubby & 4 kids under 10 to Khlos for 6 weeks rolleyes
 
definitely lets discuss it for next summer! :)). This area and the apartment are really lovely and close to the airport too, and of course the biggest selling feature - my pigs have the cutest wheeking little faces on opening the fridge! :(|)

Shame I didn't think about it earlier.

4 kids! wow, i struggle to cope with 1.....
 
Yep & two of them are 3 year old twins ;) She is a fab mum, so organised, her hubby is Greek & she's half Greek, all the kids go to Greek School & they are staying with his family for the summer. They didn't have room in the car for me lol :))
 
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