Should you Ration your piggies food?

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DarkStar

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Or should they just be able to eat as much as they want always? I just got my first piggy on friday and I just keep her hay and food full but she eats all the time. Am I supposed to not let her have as much food as she wants?
 
She eats the hay more than anything, I never knew something so small could eat so much XD
 
I *think* guidelines on dry food are 50g nuggets and unlimited hay per pig. However mine don't eat 50g per day they eat less than that but go through their hay at a super fast rate.

It's shocking when you first get one isn't it how much they can eat! :))
 
The advice I tend to give is let them have as much as they want until they are around 6 months old, then start reducing it so that they are on just one handful a day by the time they are 7-8 months.

Adult pigs allowed to eat as much dry food as they want, and whose bowls are filled to the top 2-3 times a day, can be prone to unnecessary weight gain, especially if the dried food is a muesli mix.
 
i give danny and dodger a small bowl of pellets each morning and two small bowls of veg-one bowl will have something like spring greens and the other something like cucumber or a bit of apple or carrot or broccolli.

they have usually polished it all off and i replenish the bowls at bedtime.

they have a ton of hay inthir hutch too.

is this ok?
 
any pigs of mine under 6-8 months get unlimited hay/pellets/veg

my older pigs get offered around 50gm of pellets per pig a day and unlimited hay and almost unlimited veg
 
dannyanddododgersmum said:
i give danny and dodger a small bowl of pellets each morning and two small bowls of veg-one bowl will have something like spring greens and the other something like cucumber or a bit of apple or carrot or broccolli.

they have usually polished it all off and i replenish the bowls at bedtime.

they have a ton of hay inthir hutch too.

is this ok?
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that sounds fine although try to make sure they are getting a minimum of 5-6 different fruit and veg each day for variety and a balance diet x
 
really? 5-6 DIFFERENT veg very day?

how do you do that? i mean what quantities are we talking?
 
Ideally approx a cup of chopped veg/fruit per pig per day :)

Variety is the key, as previously mentioned. Check out the piggy food lists on here for ideas :)

Teresa x
 
sorry to seem thick pbut 'a cup'? how big a cup?
so instead of giving a small bowl of chopped carrots i should be giving one small piece of carrot, one small piece of apple, one piece of spring green etc?

my pigs are approx 10 weeks old.

they LOVE spring greens/cauliflower leaves-will pull them out of each others mouths
they like cucumber/carrots/apple/pear

they dislike tomato
 
Is it really Necessary For them to have that much variety? I don't really eat veggies myself so I give my pig (She's still a baby.) about half a leaf of Romanian Lettuce, 8-10 pieces of parsley (stalks included not just the leaves) and 1 Baby Carrot a day. Occasionally I give her some Banana too. But since I don't eat veggies myself I am pretty hesitant to spend money on veggies that will probably end up half rotting.
 
dannyanddododgersmum said:
i give danny and dodger a small bowl of pellets each morning and two small bowls of veg-one bowl will have something like spring greens and the other something like cucumber or a bit of apple or carrot or broccolli.

they have usually polished it all off and i replenish the bowls at bedtime.

they have a ton of hay inthir hutch too.

is this ok?
Click to expand...

That sounds like a lot of pellets. Mine get slightly less than one bowl (standard rabbit) a day between six of them! But they are on the grass all day and then get hay and fresh dandelions as well at night. I'm stingy with the pellets though and probably won't feed them at all next summer - I'd rather they just got everything they need from the abundance of fresh stuff in the garden.
 
DarkStar - are you buying your veg pre-packed from the supermarket or fresh from the greengrocer?
Supermarket stuff lasts about a week in the crisper section of your refrigerator.
I prefer buying from the greengrocer, then you can buy small amounts at the time - fresh every couple of days.
 
mackpossum said:
DarkStar - are you buying your veg pre-packed from the supermarket or fresh from the greengrocer?
Supermarket stuff lasts about a week in the crisper section of your refrigerator.
I prefer buying from the greengrocer, then you can buy small amounts at the time - fresh every couple of days.
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Uhmmm I buy from the supermarket. I dunno what a greengrocer is even. I live in Canada O_O. you I know it lasts a week but my piggy doesn't eat a whole head of romanian lettuce in a week.
 
dannyanddododgersmum said:
really? 5-6 DIFFERENT veg very day?

how do you do that? i mean what quantities are we talking?
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i cant find the pic right now but take a look through my recent thread and you will see some of my piggies eating,that was there dinner and in the morning they get an almost completely different variety,maybe 1 or 2 things the same but i change it up as much as i can so they have variety and i can say my piggies are very happy with it

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38379

what i usually keep in my fridge for the piggies which provides great variety is

Dutch carrots
Red pepper
green pepper
yellow pepper
cucumber
brocolli
green beans
cos lettuce
butter lettuce
snow peas
snow pea sprouts
corn(husks as well)
baby corn
Cauliflour(for the leaves)
cherry tomato's(no stalks they are poisionous)
Basil
Mint
Parsley
pak choy

and twice a week they are allowed 2 things out of the fruits,the favourites are

watermelon
apple
strawberry tops
 
I tend to feed mine cucumber and lettuce (round or little gem) most days with whatever is left growing in my veg or herb patch's - yesterday they had dandelion leaves, a couple of fresh pulled baby autumn carrots (leaves and all) some raddish leaves, and the last couple of small strawberries. They better get used to perpetual spinach and chard cos that's all that'll be left soon!

Tony
 
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