Picky Piggies

[Cat906]

I try and vary my piggie's veg diet, but after reading that green bell pepper can be fed daily, this tends to make up the majority of their diet, with cucumber, romaine lettuce, dandelions, tomato, kale and celery being added as well- in small quantities. However in the past couple of wheaks the pigs have been totally rejecting the pepper. They will only eat lettuce and keep squeaking at me until they get some- even if they have a load of pepper and cucumber to eat. Shall I persevere and continue to give pepper or just give up?

 

[VickiA]

Like children, they get faddy in my experience. My girls will often leave green pepper so I switch it for yellow or red for a while. Green pepper has lower sugar content than red so I feed less red than green. I find if I offer them nothing else they will often eat what's left in their bowl (like kids)

 

[jeffnsweep]

Mine seem to love red pepper for some reason probably because of the sugar but I do mix my veg up daily as I give what I can get reduced, just try and vary it as long as they aren't on a specific diet try and vary as much as u can x edited to add.it sounds like ure doing this already, the little fuss pots are probably trying it on persever xx

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

My piggies are exactly the same, it's hard to find something to peak their interest. But surely lettuce is boring?!

I find herbs like parsley and coriander help to add a little flavour, and my girls will take my hand off for a few leaves!

Do you mean celery leaves? I read that the stalks were bad due to them being stringy so I tried it once cut up really small but I was so worried I decided not to do it again lol. They get the leaves off it though.

@VickiA I have the same thing, they will eat what they want first, and then they go back for the rest over the course of the night lol. Very much like spoilt children!

 

[Raven_LG]

Mine are the same, I wish I loved lettuce as much as they do! As @VickiA said, just like kids and will eat once hungry as I don't negotiate with terrorists no matter how cute and fluffy

 

[Arcticwolf]

I have a picky pig, and the one and only way to get her to start eating a certain veggie is to chop it up into tiny pieces and mix it in with the pellets. For some reason, this makes her like the taste of it.

Both of my pigs leave the pepper until everything else in the bowl is gone, though. They also eat the green leafy parts of the lettuce and cilantro and leave the white parts/stems scattered all over the cage until they get hungry enough to eat them.

 

[Keiko The Pig]

My pig Keiko will only eat carrots, I've tried romaine lettuce, dandelion greens, red/green/yellow bell peppers, a piece of apple, a small strawberry, cucumber, celery, and he turns his nose up at everything! I even stopped with the carrots and just continued to place other greens in his cage but he refuses to eat anything other than pellets/hay and his carrots. Should I give up on the other veggies? I feel like I'm wasting food at this point. I've tried feeding him these veggies both in and outside his cage, I tried hand feeding and he'll come over, take a sniff and then walk away. All the veggies were fresh, so what should I do?

 

[LilyandGeorge]

That sounds like George! He loves carrots and quite likes lettuce, and that's it really. He used to only want celery leaves, to the point of obsession, then suddenly went off them and started a brief parsley obsession, which is now over. He still gets excited at veggie time but then really only wants the carrots and eventually some lettuce. Lily likes practically everything, and is consequently a fair bit bigger than him. I don't know either, what can you do?! He seems quite healthy. He does love fresh grass and hay.

 

[Keiko The Pig]

That sounds like George! He loves carrots and quite likes lettuce, and that's it really. He used to only want celery leaves, to the point of obsession, then suddenly went off them and started a brief parsley obsession, which is now over. He still gets excited at veggie time but then really only wants the carrots and eventually some lettuce. Lily likes practically everything, and is consequently a fair bit bigger than him. I don't know either, what can you do?! He seems quite healthy. He does love fresh grass and hay.

keiko eats lettuce apples carrots and cucumber now all thanks to the pig i adopted as he grew p with lots of veg in his diet!

 

[LilyandGeorge]

Ah, well done! I hope George will get more adventurous again, he was always fussier than Lily but not quite this bad!