• PLEASE NOTE - the TEAS facebook page has been hacked, take extreme care when visiting the page, for further information visit here

New Green and Veggie Ideas Wanted 😊

Tlong

New Born Pup
Joined
Jun 15, 2020
Messages
44
Reaction score
19
Points
125
Location
United States
I am a relatively new guinea pig owner (6mos) and wanted to see if anyone had any different greens to try that my boys may like. Right now I am giving them mostly romaine and cilantro and adding in different colored peppers and occasionally carrots (which is their favorite). I have tried kale, parsley, basil all of which they turned their nose up to. I think they are starting to get bored of their current greens because lately they look around like "mom do you anything else" lol before they will eat it. Just wanted to see what others favorites are to give me some new ideas! Thanks!
 
They are picky even with fruit that they get as a treat every once in a while. They will only eat the peel of an apple and when I gave them each a cherry And blueberry they will only eat it if I cut it in half for them lol!
 
Meg loves aubergine (egg plant) so you could try that. You could try a different lettuce (not Iceberg). Do you have Bistro salad where you are? (Mixed salad leaves with a grated beetroot) that goes down well. Mine have just discovered they like watercress after turning their noses up at it. Remember to introduce new foods gradually along with what they are used to.
 
This is the list of all the foods they can and can’t have.

Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading

Daily my boys have lettuce (various varieties), peppers, cucumber and coriander. Anything else gets added in in rotation, small amounts, and paying attention to not give the high calcium veggies (kale, spinach, parsley) too often.
Otherwise, they like small amounts of - celery, the odd green bean, spring greens, baby corn, watercress, rocket, herbs (dill, basil and coriander mostly), beansprouts. They will not even look at courgette though!
 
Mine will only eat courgette if it's peeled but won't touch cucumber if it is peeled. :doh:

Mine eat the skin off cucumber first and only seems to go back for the middle part once all other veg is gone! Courgette can’t be trusted apparently but you’ve got me wondering whether peeling it for them might make it less scary...might give it a go!
 
I am a relatively new guinea pig owner (6mos) and wanted to see if anyone had any different greens to try that my boys may like. Right now I am giving them mostly romaine and cilantro and adding in different colored peppers and occasionally carrots (which is their favorite). I have tried kale, parsley, basil all of which they turned their nose up to. I think they are starting to get bored of their current greens because lately they look around like "mom do you anything else" lol before they will eat it. Just wanted to see what others favorites are to give me some new ideas! Thanks!

Hi!

Please have a look at our comprehensive diet guide, which looks at all food groups in detail. While piggies can eat a wide range of veg not everything is equally good for them. Carrot for instance is like eating a bar of chocolate for guinea pigs - no wonder do most piggies like it!

Guinea pigs learn from their elders what is safe to eat and what not in the nursing period and the formative 'school weeks' in between weaning and teenage during which they learn to master their environment and the intricacies of their complex social interaction by shadowing elders and picking foods from their mouths. Like all rodents, guinea pigs don't have a vomit reflex; so what has gone down has to come out at the other end. They have however double the number of taste buds of humans and five times as many as cats to help them to not swallow anything that doesn't taste safe/right.
If your piggies come from a place that offers no veg or only a very limited selection, then introducing a wider variety can be hard work and takes patience and persistence because as only piggies in a home they lack the piggy guide that they'd normally imitate and follow.

Here is our diet guide: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
I have had my 2 boys now for about 14 months they were 10 weeks old when they came to us. Up until about 2 months ago they only ate lettuce, peppers, cucumber and coriander.

I have slowly started to introduce new food hoping that they would like something else and now that they are older would be less fussy and I am surprised they now eat a lot of different things my boys all like the stuff named below so you could try your piggies with some of these it’s all down to trial and error.

dandelion leaves
Broccoli
Parsley
Coriander
Spring greens
Spinach
All types of lettuce but not iceberg
Beetroot
Corn on the corn ( they love the husk part)
Apple
Banana
Grapes
carrot
Cherries but not the pips

hope this helps
 
Herbs always go down well with my boys. They like basil, mint, thyme, coriander (can be fed everyday) and parsley so I grow my own in pots in the garden. You can probably buy pots from the supermarket so you always have fresh herbs 🙂
 
Hi!

Please have a look at our comprehensive diet guide, which looks at all food groups in detail. While piggies can eat a wide range of veg not everything is equally good for them. Carrot for instance is like eating a bar of chocolate for guinea pigs - no wonder do most piggies like it!

Guinea pigs learn from their elders what is safe to eat and what not in the nursing period and the formative 'school weeks' in between weaning and teenage during which they learn to master their environment and the intricacies of their complex social interaction by shadowing elders and picking foods from their mouths. Like all rodents, guinea pigs don't have a vomit reflex; so what has gone down has to come out at the other end. They have however double the number of taste buds of humans and five times as many as cats to help them to not swallow anything that doesn't taste safe/right.
If your piggies come from a place that offers no veg or only a very limited selection, then introducing a wider variety can be hard work and takes patience and persistence because as only piggies in a home they lack the piggy guide that they'd normally imitate and follow.

Here is our diet guide: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
That is so helpful thank you!
 
I have had my 2 boys now for about 14 months they were 10 weeks old when they came to us. Up until about 2 months ago they only ate lettuce, peppers, cucumber and coriander.

I have slowly started to introduce new food hoping that they would like something else and now that they are older would be less fussy and I am surprised they now eat a lot of different things my boys all like the stuff named below so you could try your piggies with some of these it’s all down to trial and error.

dandelion leaves
Broccoli
Parsley
Coriander
Spring greens
Spinach
All types of lettuce but not iceberg
Beetroot
Corn on the corn ( they love the husk part)
Apple
Banana
Grapes
carrot
Cherries but not the pips

hope this helps
Of course thank you! My boys love the string like part of corn on the cob but I have seen a few people mention coriander so I will pick it up along with a few other things! They love dandelion, sow thistle and rye grass but in the US everything starts to get pretty dead in August so our weed and grass picking days are limited!
 
Herbs always go down well with my boys. They like basil, mint, thyme, coriander (can be fed everyday) and parsley so I grow my own in pots in the garden. You can probably buy pots from the supermarket so you always have fresh herbs 🙂
Thank you! I bought the potted parsley cilantro and basil! Of course the basil is doing the best and is the one they like the least! I will pick a couple more up! Do you know if they do ok inside during the winter months?
 
Meg loves aubergine (egg plant) so you could try that. You could try a different lettuce (not Iceberg). Do you have Bistro salad where you are? (Mixed salad leaves with a grated beetroot) that goes down well. Mine have just discovered they like watercress after turning their noses up at it. Remember to introduce new foods gradually along with what they are used to.
We actually grew egg plant this year in the garden so I will have to give it a try. We have quite a bit of variety at our store so I will have to take a look I tried red romaine and they both really liked that. I loved foraging for them this summer and learning more than I have ever known in my life about weeds. I found a great app on my phone that allows you to take to a photo of the plant and it identifies for you and looking up to see if they can eat it! Unfortunately for us in August most everything is dying so I wanted to get some new ideas of what other piggies love!
 
Mine eat the skin off cucumber first and only seems to go back for the middle part once all other veg is gone! Courgette can’t be trusted apparently but you’ve got me wondering whether peeling it for them might make it less scary...might give it a go!
Lol mine do the same they eat the skin and will only come back to it once they realize the food truck isn't coming back to give them anything else
 
Thank you! I bought the potted parsley cilantro and basil! Of course the basil is doing the best and is the one they like the least! I will pick a couple more up! Do you know if they do ok inside during the winter months?
Yes they should do fine I had mine inside on the window sill at first but then I got so many they didn't all fit anymore so got moved outside 🤣🤣 Though I will say my mint got little grey bugs on it when it was inside but I'm sure there's an easy way to sort that that I don't know about 🙂
 
My boys would just like me to put in a good word for curly kale and cavalo nero, both are massive favourites here 🙂
 
Back
Top