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Lettuce as a treat

Bourbon

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 11, 2020
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Greece
How much lettuce can i give to my piggies as a treat for stuff like training or rewarding? As far as i know its empty food with like 0 nutritions ,how bad would be an extra 10-20gr of lettuce per piggy
 
The only "empty calorie" lettuce is iceberg lettuce, which shouldn't be fed to guinea pigs at all. Other forms of lettuce (red/green, sweet gem, little gem, romaine, lambs lettuce) are fine as part of a varied diet, but not daily. If you want to give them something as a reward, something like cucumber or bell pepper would work much better.
 
As per your other post, the recommended amount of veg is a cup/50 grams per piggy per day.
Take any treats out of this recommended daily amount.
Dont be tempted to overfed veg, as you then risk causing tummy upsets. They need lots of hay to keep their system functioning healthily. Veg and pellets are merely snacks and don’t form a huge part of their diet - veg only making Up approx 15% of their daily food intake.
 
I give the piggies a lettuce leaf every day. I don’t give them treats much. I will occasionally buy a bag of parsley which lasts around a month or even more...they may also get carrot shavings or a pea flake, again not that often. You could pick a veg from ones they don’t get regularly - like baby corn or celery or...something similar - my mind has gone blank as I don’t usually give them much in the way of variety. Herbs are also good, occasional of course.
 
My piggies get a leaf each of little gem lettuce daily
As a treat or included in their 50gr diet? 1 big leaf (just the leaf) is roughly 4gr so i guess its not a problem giving them an extra 4-5gr per day
 
It’s incredibly rare that I give any veg as treats during the day but if I go and see my boys and take them a sprig of coriander or something then it comes out of their daily veg so I will give them a little less when they get their veg in the evening
I have a small jug which I fill the majority with leafy veg and herbs (not tightly packed, just loosely put in the jug), then add a couple of slices of bell pepper and cucumber, perhaps a small piece of celery or a green bean every now and then, and I know that that makes roughly a portion each. I then scatter it around their hutch, so one day one piggy may get more than the other and vice versa. Veg is not a main part of the diet, so as long as you don’t overfeed it and as long as they eat more hay than anything else, then try not to overthink it
 
Same as above, it’s included. They get the lettuce leaf in the morning. Then a slice of pepper and cucumber, a green bean and a sprig of coriander if I have any in. I always make sure to have peppers in the fridge.
 
I think I've been overfeeding them their veg. I have cut down alot and only give them fruit as an occasional treat. I always used to use Saskia's video (L.A guinea pig rescue) as a guide to portion control and during the video I think she shows you the portion for one guinea pig and she gives one pig a big half a carrot, a good chunk of bell pepper, a stick of celery and a good chunk of cucumber probably around 1/5th to 1/4 of cucumber and then she gives him about 4 big leaves of romaine lettuce and all this is one portion for one guinea pig so if you x this by 5 (for 5 guinea pigs) it's a great deal of food. So I have cut down since I've started hearing/reading advice on the forum more so this last week (cutting out the treats). My boyfriend came downstairs yesterday telling me the guinea pigs were squeaking at him for food and that they were starving. (Even though about an half an hour before that I have them a whole salad bag of mixed lettuce (not iceberg) and had been fed various other vegetables earlier on in the day. So it's been difficult to manage portions when they're crying for food!
Many thanks
 
They will cry for it because that’s what they’re used to. As long as they have plenty of hay in the cage then you can just ignore them.
 
Will do. I do think Saskia's video is misleading but perhaps there's different advice in america regarding portion size etc,
Many thanks :)
 
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