Removing Pellets From Diet

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Dilly's Piggies

Dilly's Piggies

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I'm considering removing pellets from my piggies diet completely and only feeding hay and veggies, all my pigs are healthy apart from a few that suffer bladder problems, so obviously the aim by removing pellets is to minimise calcium intake as much as possible as I think they are a big reason why they're still having problems. The veggies I feed are already the lowest calcium I can possibly find so I want to try removing pellets now.

My questions are about the nutrition loss, do piggies lose anything significant from not eating pellets, and what can I feed/supplement to make up for it? I want to know how to give my pigs a balanced diet with all the vitamins and minerals they need. I also have a 3 month old baby pig (all other pigs are 1-2 years old), will she be okay on the same diet as everyone else, just with more parsley for calcium?

I'm very interested about this as it's a big change for my piggies, they've always had pellets since the beginning, but I want to do this right for the health of my pigs. Any advice and stories are appreciated :)
 
I think it would be better to first of all cut down the amount you are feeding and then try introducing one of the grainless brands as they have more natural ingredients. They can be a bit hit and miss with whether they eat them though. I know Adelle has tried lots of different types with her bladder pig Crunchie. They can go pelletless but you would need to make sure they were getting everything they needed from their hay and veg. I used to give the Orapharma multivitamin for any not on pellets. I know Flutterby has a lot of information on the different pellets in her sticky. I used to have loads as I was working on a pellet sticky but it is a bit out of date now.
 
Expect a big weight loss. My boy lost 200g when I stopped feeding pellets to him.

Later in life he was diagnosed with severe arthritis. It was never linked to the lack of pellets (and calcium) so we'll never know.
 
I don't feed pellets, too; only a teaspoon (some pieces) as a treat. The only concern and only issue might be the vit D3 and of course there are no researches about a comparison between pellet and no pellet diet. Of course researches are ALL financed and supported by big firms... therefore the reason is clear. Nobody knows the real requirement of vit D in a piggie, but the last researches say that the grass has some vit D and that a supplement can be even dangerous. Arthritis has nothing to do with calcium and vit D, it is an inflammation... another story, then. Arthritis is not osteoporosis.
There are only a lot of vets and oweners who have been following the new diet for years now solving a lot of medical issues. Also my vet don't feed pellets to his old piggies; but official data don't exist. You can only listen to the single stories. On Guinea Lynx forum there are some old threads about this subject and some users have talked of their personal (very good) experience and their results. I have those pages saved on my pc; if you like and if it is allowed, I can copy paste those posts. Of course I cannot post anything in italian, but also a lot of italian owners write on the forums saying their pets are fed pellets free.

About the weight, of course cutting off all the sugars and cereals might decrease the piggie's weight... I also have lost 2 sizes in ten days since when I cut off all the cereals from my diet (I am and I was slim, but I changed my diet for feeling better than before, not for aesthetic reasons). I honestly agree with a certain american doctor who considers fat most of the piggies. My piggies are slim, agile, but grow up regularly; their muscle mass is amazing (vet's word) and although they are young, I think this is the correct diet. And I read online that many piggies lose some grams and then gain them again.
I feed them with 7-8 little pieces of a pellet containing enough vit D; I add 2 drops of Cebion although the vet says it is wasted money as they eat now huge amount of fresh grass (but I prefer using a very little supplement as well).
They are 6 months old. Their weight is now 700g and 755g and they go on gaining 10-20 g a week, usually. When they were rescued and were 2 months old they weighed 240g and 310g.
A last thing: there will never be published serious researches about the HAFF diet (Hay and Fresh Food diet) for obvious reasons, but there is a research which demonstrated that guinea pigs kept slim (with 20-30% weight lower than "normal") lived better and longer.
There is a user here from Czech Rep. whose grandmother have always fed her piggies with fresh grass, hay, no supplements, and no pellets and those piggies have lived a very long life... I don't remember the name of this user, though.
 
If you did decide to go down the grainless route, I use Versele Laga Cava Complete and would be happy to send a sample. The grainless ones tend to be expensive and I'm really glad I got samples before buying bags as they wouldn't eat two of the brands! They polish these off though!
 
They don't lose much vitamins. Just take about 4 weeks to slowwwwwwwwwwly reduced the amount
 
I have been thinking if this lately with my herd. All 7 piggies adore their nuggets (although I'm throwing half of them away because I made the mistake of mixing their mint Burgess with Harringtons, and they suddenly HATE Harringtons).

They get a huge bowl of veggies in the morning, hay throughout the day, and my OH sneaks them more cucumber before I get home from work in the evenings.

I am also thinking of moving over to grainless, as the treats I get from shops are all grainless.
 
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