Low calcium diet for stone piggy

[Azver]

Hi all,

My pig Aristotle is recovering well after an operation. Bladder stone was removed about 2 weeks ago. The key now is too keep him on the low calcium diet but I am struggling to identify what I can and cannot feed to him. The vet (cj hall vets) gave us a list of foods with calcium listed against each, but unfortunately the list does not cover every variety of salad available on the market.

Please share what you feed to your bladder piggies. It looks like their are a few owners of piggies with stones on the forum.

Aristotle still gets critical care food daily. Don’t want him to loose weight. He eats himself but not as much as in the past.

He also gets syringes of water - volvic. Pig does not drink water from bottle or bowl.

What pigs get at the moment (2 pigs):
- Cucumber large a day. If not eaten replaced with a new one.
- Excel hay dandelion and marigold. Vet recommended Excel brand.
- Bell pepper (we are in love with seeds). They mainly eat reproductive part of the pepper then other bits. Pepper is never finished.
- Carrots.
- berries as a treat: strawberry, cherry.

Salads: something I am not sure about:
- Romaine hearts. Before stones appeared I was giving a whole salad a day.
- chrisp & colourful mixed leaf salad from Sainsbury’s: red multileaf, green multileaf, green Batavia, radicchio.

 

[Veggies Galore]

This is a great thread

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

It lists recommended daily veg and has a picture of portion size

I would only give romaine occasionally as a treat if I were you.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

I follow the bladder pig diet on that thread mostly, using other low calcium treats to mix it up here and there like chard which they love! I’d definitely cut out carrot and fruits (especially cherry as it’s a stone fruit) and make romaine a rare treat, the guide on the food thread is a fab diet. In fact when it comes to strawberries my lot prefer the leaves and green tops

I would look into a different hay, dandelion is a forbidden fruit for bladder pigs. Very rare treat, my poor Iggy doesn’t really get any even in forage. www.timothyhay.co.uk has fabulous hay, timothy hay is also lower calcium than meadow

 

[annachristina_piggies]

Hi all,

My pig Aristotle is recovering well after an operation. Bladder stone was removed about 2 weeks ago. The key now is too keep him on the low calcium diet but I am struggling to identify what I can and cannot feed to him. The vet (cj hall vets) gave us a list of foods with calcium listed against each, but unfortunately the list does not cover every variety of salad available on the market.

Please share what you feed to your bladder piggies. It looks like their are a few owners of piggies with stones on the forum.

Aristotle still gets critical care food daily. Don’t want him to loose weight. He eats himself but not as much as in the past.

He also gets syringes of water - volvic. Pig does not drink water from bottle or bowl.

What pigs get at the moment (2 pigs):
- Cucumber large a day. If not eaten replaced with a new one.
- Excel hay dandelion and marigold. Vet recommended Excel brand.
- Bell pepper (we are in love with seeds). They mainly eat reproductive part of the pepper then other bits. Pepper is never finished.
- Carrots.
- berries as a treat: strawberry, cherry.

Salads: something I am not sure about:
- Romaine hearts. Before stones appeared I was giving a whole salad a day.
- chrisp & colourful mixed leaf salad from Sainsbury’s: red multileaf, green multileaf, green Batavia, radicchio.

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I just wondered if CJ Hall gave you any other advice on lowering calcium. My piggie has had three stones removed by them so far!

 

[YvonneBlue]

I know that @furryfriends (TEAS) gives a diet high in leafy veg (washed and given wet) and lots of grass. I believe they have a very low incidence of bladder stones. Take a look at the thread below.

Feeding the guinea pigs at TEAS

I now feed the same diet to my piggies and it has certainly helped my piggy that has bladder issues (not stones). She is now off Metacam completely. Coincidentally, they also started to eat more hay.

I am not a medical expert and this is just from my experience.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I just wondered if CJ Hall gave you any other advice on lowering calcium. My piggie has had three stones removed by them so far!

Ensuring pellets are kept limited to one tablespoon of pellets per day and drinking water is filtered will also help reduce calcium intake dramatically