Refusing bell peppers

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hayethusiasts

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Hi everyone, sorry if this has been asked before (i could not seem to find a thread about this)

I was just wondering please - my piggies are now outright refusing to eat bell peppers. So was just wondering what are the alternatives for this? And also if I was to give them a break from bell peppers, how long should I give them beforr trying to give it again?

I give cucumber, bell pepper and lettuce daily, then witloof chicory & coriander 3-4x a week.

thank you so much

I have just settled on their hay and i think they figured it out so they are now giving another thing to worry about! Haha
 
Coriander can be given daily in small amounts so I would do that and not worry about the bell pepper. You can also add in many other veggies instead.
You can try again with bell pepper whenever you like.

If they are having pellets (and are eating other veg - vit c is in everything in differing amounts) then they are not going to be short of vit c anyway

Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
 
Peppers are not every piggy's favourite food.

Alternatively, with a reduced amount of pellets and with filtered water for hard and medium water areas, you can feed safely once a week a 1 inch slice of greens (UK)/collard greens (USA), a little kale etc., or a bit of parsley, dill etc.
These veg and herbs are higher in calcium but they are also high in vitamin C and - something that is not much in other veg and not in pellets - magnesium.

The best vitamin C food is however fresh growing green grass, which is the reason why guinea pigs were able to switch off the gene complex that produces vitamin C in the body because their main food was so rich in it.
However, fresh grass needs to be dog pee-free and it needs to be carefully introduced. Hay contains a lot less vitamin C but it is in small quantities in many veg, fesh herbs and forage products as well as pellets so your piggies not eating peppers is not going to cause scurvy. One of my current piggies would rather not eat peppers but she is now 5 years old and is still not showing any signs of scurvy.

It is telling that the majority of the very few scurvy cases have been from over-supplementation of vitamin C where the body had accustomed to the much higher levels of vitamin C in the body and reacted with scurvy symptoms to a sudden drop even though the actual vitamin C levels were still higher than normal. Real scurvy cases were seen in freshly privately rescued piggies from neglect situations and as a default diagnosis from vets not familiar with guinea pigs, mostly in countries like the USA or India/Asia. But a few handfuls in nearly 20 years don't indicate a major problem in well looked after piggies on a balanced diet... ;)

Piggies learn what is safe to eat and what not from their elders; if they come from situations where it is not fed, then they may struggle to accept it. Especially young under-piggies will follow the leader's preferences.

I hope that this explains the situation a bit more, @dyonataly ?
 
Mine go off pepper and cucumber from time to time. I suspect it's seasonal when we import veg from different countries and the veg maybe a different type although it looks the same to us.
I'm not buying peppers at the moment, some of my pigs are refusing it and at £2 for 3 it's too expensive to be refused! 2 of my piggies will only eat green or red and the shops here only have yellow or orange in their packs the last 2 weeks.
Guinea pigs can be so darn fussy!
 
Wiebke said:
Peppers are not every piggy's favourite food.

Alternatively, with a reduced amount of pellets and with filtered water for hard and medium water areas, you can feed safely once a week a 1 inch slice of greens (UK)/collard greens (USA), a little kale etc., or a bit of parsley, dill etc.
These veg and herbs are higher in calcium but they are also high in vitamin C and - something that is not much in other veg and not in pellets - magnesium.

The best vitamin C food is however fresh growing green grass, which is the reason why guinea pigs were able to switch off the gene complex that produces vitamin C in the body because their main food was so rich in it.
However, fresh grass needs to be dog pee-free and it needs to be carefully introduced. Hay contains a lot less vitamin C but it is in small quantities in many veg, fesh herbs and forage products as well as pellets so your piggies not eating peppers is not going to cause scurvy. One of my current piggies would rather not eat peppers but she is now 5 years old and is still not showing any signs of scurvy.

It is telling that the majority of the very few scurvy cases have been from over-supplementation of vitamin C where the body had accustomed to the much higher levels of vitamin C in the body and reacted with scurvy symptoms to a sudden drop even though the actual vitamin C levels were still higher than normal. Real scurvy cases were seen in freshly privately rescued piggies from neglect situations and as a default diagnosis from vets not familiar with guinea pigs, mostly in countries like the USA or India/Asia. But a few handfuls in nearly 20 years don't indicate a major problem in well looked after piggies on a balanced diet... ;)

Piggies learn what is safe to eat and what not from their elders; if they come from situations where it is not fed, then they may struggle to accept it. Especially young under-piggies will follow the leader's preferences.

I hope that this explains the situation a bit more, @dyonataly ?
Click to expand...
Yes, thank you so much. :) so grateful with this forum :)
 
Merab said:
Piggies can be funny.
Today’s favourite food is tomorrow’s poison then a few days later it’s why haven’t you given me x - it’s my favourite 😅
Click to expand...
Tell me about it. To be honest these past 2 weeks have been the most relaxed i've been. I thought i'd cracked it all - they are happy with their hay, and i made sure they have low calcium vegetables that are given in rotation so they do not get bored. The only thing i am asking them is to eat even just a little bit of bell peppers daily! Lol

I think they noticed I'm too relaxed so they gave me another reason to think about.
 
piggieminder said:
Mine go off pepper and cucumber from time to time. I suspect it's seasonal when we import veg from different countries and the veg maybe a different type although it looks the same to us.
I'm not buying peppers at the moment, some of my pigs are refusing it and at £2 for 3 it's too expensive to be refused! 2 of my piggies will only eat green or red and the shops here only have yellow or orange in their packs the last 2 weeks.
Guinea pigs can be so darn fussy!
Click to expand...
This is the problem, they are expensive! To be honest ever since adopting my piggies I have forgotten how it feels to buy new makeup! Hahaha. All my money now is their money 🥰 but i wouldn't have it any other way 🥲😊
 
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