Oxbow Vitamin C Supplement

Status
Not open for further replies.
Exxiilem

Exxiilem

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 30, 2013
Messages
52
Reaction score
14
Points
135
Location
Wheelwright, Kentucky UNITED STATES
I buy Oxbow Vitamin C Supplements for my guinea pigs. Pigmy, my oldest, loves them. As a matter of fact, he runs up tot he side of the cage, and begs for them. My girls, Ikaros and Nymph, will not have them, though.

I can drop them in the cage and when it is time to clean house, there they are laying in the bottom. I know my girls need a Vitamin C supplement, but Vitakraft doesn't have the recommended daily dosage, and are to be fed strictly as a treat.

Their food has some dosage of Vitamin C, but I fear it isn't enough. Recommendations anyone?
 
Why not crush a tablet and put it on a slice of cucumber for each piggy? That is how I give it to mine.
 
I am pleased to see this thread as this is one of the things I am unsure about. When I took my piggies for a check up recently, the vet (people who have seen some of my other threads are used to me referring back to the check up they had with the vet) recommended that I put Vitamin C in their drinking water. I was loathed to do this as my conversations with other piggie owners had confrmed my views that, as long as they were getting plenty of the right sorts of fresh food, they would be getting adequate vitamin C from their diet. The vet still advised a vit C suppplement. I looked at supplements in my local pet shop but was put off as they were either fruit based, contained sugars or had colouring in them. The one I plumped for looked the least artificial but when I added it to their water,it turned green! The other problem with adding Vit C to theri drinking water is that Vit C degrades when exposed to light so I have got their bottles covered with a black tea towel. I have ordered some Oxbow Vit C supplement and prefer the idea of adding this to a slice of cucumber to the stuff I am adding to their drinking water. Did we agree what dosage should be given?
 
I give one tablet each. I cannot understand why vitamin drops are even made. They are useless.
 
I believe that the recommended daily requirement of vitamin C for an adult pig is 10mg. In times of illness or stress (e.g. losing a cage mate), this requirement increases x10 to 100mg a day.

If you're feeding a varied diet, they should meet their daily requirements fine, but during illness or stressful times, you should supplement. Fresh veg will contain varying amounts of vitamin C, and a good quality dry feed will also contain some. Storage is important for dry food and retaining vitamin C levels - a good pellet type feed (burgess, oxbow, science selective etc.) will contain stabilised vitamin C and it's usually a good idea to keep it in an air tight container out of direct sunlight to preserve this, particularly if bought in large quantities. Cheaper supermarket type foods often don't retain their vitamin C content for very long.

One of my pigs has a daily oxbow vit. C tablet due to intermittent poor health, and just eats it from my hand! The others get offered one, and may or may not eat it depending on what mood they're in!
 
piggyfan said:
Lol! Funny piggies!
Click to expand...

Maggie is the one who has one daily, but Jeffrey will ALWAYS eat his (and usually Cameo's too!).

It's worth saying that you can't overdose them on vitamin C - they excrete any excess in their urine like we do (humans and g.pigs are the only animals that cannot synthesise vitamin C from other sources so it's important that we both have it in our diets!).

I can tell you from experience that the oxbow tablets really do taste like pineapple!
 
I guessed it was little Maggie. How funny for Jeff to try to eat Cameos! I have not tried them myself. Mine just eat them on cucumber.

It is about time you posted some pictures on here. I need my Maggie fix.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top