Please help, piggie won't eat her veggies!

[Jinkix]

Hi, I just joined the forum, needed some help and I thought this would be a good way to hear from fellow cavy owners!

Recently I adopted a new piggy that was in a rescue house and I'm having a very hard time getting her to eat her veggies... In the rescue they told me the previous owners were the type that get pets as toys for their kids and didn't treat her very well so they gave her away to the rescue, so I am assuming they didn't feed her vegetables, and even in this house where I adopted her all they had there to eat was dry rations and random cabbage but not a lot!

I've tried feeding her bell peppers, kale, this um, sweet beet leaves thing, I'm sorry I don't know the name in english but my other piggies love it so I thought she'd enjoy it, even carrots, broccoli, celery, all she eats is cucumber and that's not all that good for her, and apples which are a rare treat.

She always appears to be healthy and happy and running and popcorning everywhere, but I am very worried about the vitamins she's getting when she never eats her vegetables, I was wondering if anyone has experienced this and could give me advice on how to get her to try her vegetables...

 

[Toffeewoffee]

We had a new piggy join us at the end of may, she was 3 to 4 months old at the time and for atleast 2 weeks after she joined us she would not touch veggies, if you put it infront of her she would run away from it, not interested, it took a long time to get her to actually eat them, i dont think she had seen a fresh veg before in her life!

But now she is by far the greediest piggy we have

xx

 

[Shellza]

My Archie was the same. I got him from a skanky pet shop and he just didn't understand the veggie thing. I started him off with carrots and would just leave them in the cage (obviously not long enough for them to go manky) and then eventually he did decide to try it. he's my most demanding at veggie time now

 

[piggyfan]

Cucumber is not bad for her so do not worry. All you can do is continue to offer her vegetables and I am sure she will try them when she is ready.

 

[Toffeewoffee]

Perhaps try big green leafy things and put them in her hidey, she might feel safe eating in there until she has plucked up some courage

 

[Lauragregory92]

Hiya,

Just a thought, might be worth checking piggies teeth.

Frazzle one of my rescue piggies recently managed to snap off at the gum his two top teeth and really struggled to eat. He picked at his normal food but couldnt bite his vegies.

 

[gogoguineas]

Yes do check that's she's eating dry food and hay, if that's ok then I wouldn't worry about the teeth and just keep trying and i'm sure she will eat the veg in her own time. If she's eating a lot of hay then that's a good start.
Sometimes it can take a piggie who isn't used to veg a while to come around to it
PS- if you mean beet root leaves then please don't feed them as they're toxic