Veg, how do you do yours?

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how many piggies do you have 2?

i would mayb cut a strip and let them try it, i feed mine a quarter of 2 different coloured peppers but i have 9 of them :)
 
sandra turpin said:
An example of how we can all get confused. The above link says cucumber should be given as a weekly treat however this http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37030 says we can give it daily. Different sites say different things. I give my boys cucumber every day. I don't know if there are other differences.

I do like the guineapig 101 site. I have it bookmarked.
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But then if you look in brackets next to the weekly treat it says (3-5 times a week) so its not quite what I would class as weekly
 
I have 2 yes. Theirs munching their romaine at the mo they've never had that. How many hearts of that do you give? I feel the need to check everything now!
 
They're not impressed at all, they've got a leaf of romaine each, a green bean each & a bit of red pepper each. Rodney is doing laps of the cage in a fury & Rufus is chewing his cardboard tunnel.... Hmm! Haha. I'll give them some cucumber at playtime later...
 
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My girls get (dividing by number in herd!) each;

quarter of pepper (any colour including stem and seeds)
half small carrot
half celery stem(including leaves)
half handful of curly kale/spinach/savoy cabbage/winter greens
quarter small apple/pear/apricot/plum

every day.
If any of these are big then they get less of it. Please bear in mind I don't feed a lot of pellets....

Treats as and when available...

broccolli stem
cauliflower stem (the market value ones are good for extra leaves)
sweetcorn
lettuce
outside trimmings from sprouts
grape stems (we eat the grapes and they love the woody bits)
melon rind

Writing this down it looks as though I feed them scraps....but I asked a vet about it and stems and fruit woods really are good for them!

To be honest we eat everything they eat with the exception of the greens. If left in their conservatory then even sweetcorn stems get thoroughly chomped which must be good for teeth. I try to give one treat a day so I have refrigerated melon rind to give the next day as they've already had broccolli stem from dinner prep sort of thing. I suppose variety is the spice of life!

I have been feeding extra calcium veg to my beautiful satin girl in the form of extra greens when she was cuddled (rip Chamomile). I do watch for white drying wees as these are a giveaway that too much calcium is being eaten. Judging by other posts I feed mine more veg than usual, I suppose this makes up for the lack of pellets. And they always have hay of course!
 
Mine are real big on leafy veg so they're gonna miss the kale & spinach! I'm mortified I've been giving them an entire cupful almost!
 
Mine get a variety of veg and I try not to give them the exact same things two days in a row. Tonight they had:

Quarter of a red pepper each
Quarter of a big carrot each
A few small florrets of brocolli and some stalk and leaves each
Just over a quarter of a stick of celery each
Half a leaf of cabbage each.

They've also got unlimited hay and some nuggets.

It sounds like quite a lot but it lasts them all evening as they normally get their veggies about 5pm and quite often they still have some left at 9pm or thereabouts.
 
Its helpful seeing what everyone else feeds of a day... its now 4.5 hours after they were given their dinner & they've slightly nibbled the romaine but thats it - altho Rodney is having a little munch at the moment... hopefully they'll get used to that. I know they like red peppers because they ate them last time I gave it to them - but we seem to be in a little protest this evening inbreeding

Bit lost as to what to give them in the morning now because apart from the romaine everything else is high in calcium! Grr... very coimplicated!?/
 
Rule of two - fresh veg/fruit twice a day, two different veg/fruit each feed, and never the same veg/fruit two feeds in a row.

Thats as complicated as it gets - I can never remember all the nutritional details of each item. My guys get 4 different fresh veg (and sometimes fruit) each day. Most comes from the bargain shelf in Asda in the evening - I got 10 bags of fresh herbs yesterday for 5p a bag :))
 
Sooooo for breakfast we are having 2 rings of red pepper (which we have decided we now like), 2 green beans each, half a strawberry each and a handful of rocket.

Not hugely excited, and the wheeking when I open the fridge has stopped :...

Can I still give them pepper at dinnertime along with some other stuff or is that it? I'm struggling to fill a cup now altho I am totally out of broccoli / cauliflower... but then I read they should have THAT too often either!

Argh!
 
Flipping heck - I think I may be overfeeding my 2 judging on what you lot give your babies!

They have unlimited hay and pellets - the pellets only need topping up once a day (small bowl). Then they have a heaped bowl of veggies every morning! One stick of celery, one carrot, half a pepper and about 8 slices of cucumber generally - for each piggy!

Patch stuffs his down within half an hour usually then it's nap time to sleep it off! Scruff eats about half then naps and goes back later for the rest. It's all gone by midday though! They dont get any more meals during the day though - just the odd snack when it's lap time in the evenings! Or when they wheek at me if the fridge is opened....or if someone walks past the cage......or i have leftovers....!

What do you think - am I overfeeding them? And if so - how do you say no to those gorgeous little faces looking up at you all hopefully?
 
tylerina said:
Flipping heck - I think I may be overfeeding my 2 judging on what you lot give your babies!

They have unlimited hay and pellets - the pellets only need topping up once a day (small bowl). Then they have a heaped bowl of veggies every morning! One stick of celery, one carrot, half a pepper and about 8 slices of cucumber generally - for each piggy!

Patch stuffs his down within half an hour usually then it's nap time to sleep it off! Scruff eats about half then naps and goes back later for the rest. It's all gone by midday though! They dont get any more meals during the day though - just the odd snack when it's lap time in the evenings! Or when they wheek at me if the fridge is opened....or if someone walks past the cage......or i have leftovers....!

What do you think - am I overfeeding them? And if so - how do you say no to those gorgeous little faces looking up at you all hopefully?
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looking at this thread I think I may overdo the veggies too, I was going along the cup each idea, but thinking about it, mine probably have more like a squashed down large coffee mug... plus maybe "treats" when they're out etc.
 
tylerina said:
What do you think - am I overfeeding them? And if so - how do you say no to those gorgeous little faces looking up at you all hopefully?
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I can't say no when they start wheeking and looking at me thinking food is on the way. I have to give them a tiny bit of something :red
 
Mine get cucumber and carrot everyday, about 3-5 medium slices between two, and usually celery too (about half to 3/4 of a stick) and usually peppers (1/4 of a pepper). Then something leafy such as romaine, spinach, spring greens about a large handful. I have some green beans in atm which they love, and they also get the occasional piece of fruit such as apple.

I usually give them all this at once but it might be better to split it into two feedings? or doesn't it really matter?

Also I think I have noticed cloudly wee! :S
 
I sometimes go home for lunch and I'll sit by their cage to eat and talk to them and they'll rush out to start eating their nuggets and hay as well x)

That's unless they've already heard the fridge door, then it's wheeking. I agree, how can you not give in when they do this!

snuffles1.jpg
 
Piggles2810 said:
Mine get cucumber and carrot everyday, about 3-5 medium slices between two, and usually celery too (about half to 3/4 of a stick) and usually peppers (1/4 of a pepper). Then something leafy such as romaine, spinach, spring greens about a large handful. I have some green beans in atm which they love, and they also get the occasional piece of fruit such as apple.

I usually give them all this at once but it might be better to split it into two feedings? or doesn't it really matter?

Also I think I have noticed cloudly wee! :S
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Lots of people have said to give veg twice a day but the piggies in my shed get their food and water & hay done 1st thing the morning and then the veg is given up to 30 mins later, but my piggys have acess to their runs all day so I put veg & food in the runs and in the hutches so there's enough for all day.
My piggy inside (who's still recovering from being poorly) has veg in the morning and at tea time as if she hears any bags opening or the fridge opening she'll wheek like crazy until she gets something, she'll just sit on her ledge and give you the sad eyes until she gets what she wants :red I've been owned by a texel guinea pig
 
Lady Kelly said:
But then if you look in brackets next to the weekly treat it says (3-5 times a week) so its not quite what I would class as weekly
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Granted but 3-5 times a week is still a lot less than daily. All I am saying is it can be quite confusing to know what to actually feed when there are different sites saying different things. There are lot of us who feed cucumber daily. Cucumber is just one example.

The question is, am I giving my boys too much cucumber by giving them each a couple of slices daily?
 
I give my guinea pigs cucumber every day. It is fine.

It really isn't necessary to get too worked up about ratios unless you have a guinea pig with a specific health issue. Again, variety and moderation with everything is all you really need to be concerned about.

You can feed once, twice, three times a day... fit it in around your own routine... as long as the overall amount is the same it doesn't matter how it is spread out throughout the day. It suits me to feed throughout the day as I am at home. I volunteer at a rescue where veg is served once a day... there simply isn't time to go round thirty-plus pigs several times a day. All our pigs are healthy.

If you find that your pigs wheek every time you move then try putting an extra handful of hay in to keep them quiet. I tend to find they don't mind what they get, as long as they get something. :(|)
 
I throw a whole load of different vegetables chopped up into an extremely large bowl (Not kidding this bowl is huge, I got 15 mouths wanting veggies!). Then I dish it out to all of them and they scream until it gets put into their mouths, ahh such patient little darlings :pIt varies each time which veggies they get, but they always get a variety.
 
I feed mine morning and teatime, mainly because I'm at home with the kids and in the kitchen (where their cage is) etc, but they also get odd treats through the day...
 
When i get some piggies, i would feed veggies in the morning, as i wouldn't have time before school to do it (although their hay and pellets would be done in the morning as well)
 
How can youtell if there's too much calcium in the wee? Someone wee'd on the bathroom during playtime tonight & it smelt quite strong!
 
Can they have Butternut squash? Is there any Vit C in it? and how often can they have it?

the reason for my question Ive recently started Atkins and bought two big butternut squashes and I cant even eat them :( they're my fave so instead of them rotting in the fridge Id love my boys to appreciate them instead, I just never realised they could eat it :)
 
dont know about vitamin c but mine ate one piece and i found the other piece shrivelled up yesterday so i take it they weren't keen lol
 
Our piggies in the rescue get a mixture of carrots, spring green cabbage (just once a week for this), kale, cucumber, apples- they prefer royal gala :)) , dandelions in the summer, peppers, celery (which is a favourite), tomatoes- though not many like these, brocolli, beetroot (in its raw state) and bits and pieces of other things.

We do like to spoil them :)

I think as long as they are getting enough and are fed a good quality dried food such as the nuggets then they will get enough vit c. We also add vit c to their water once a week.
xx
 
PAMELAKT said:
Its helpful seeing what everyone else feeds of a day... its now 4.5 hours after they were given their dinner & they've slightly nibbled the romaine but thats it - altho Rodney is having a little munch at the moment... hopefully they'll get used to that. I know they like red peppers because they ate them last time I gave it to them - but we seem to be in a little protest this evening inbreeding

Bit lost as to what to give them in the morning now because apart from the romaine everything else is high in calcium! Grr... very coimplicated!?/
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Don't worry lovely, you've seen a rough guide here now of what most people feed their piggies, so you can work it to suit yourself and your piggies. You'll soon get into the swing. I was the same, so don't worry.

Mine wheek when they hear me cutting the veg and they both got different 'wheeks', bless them. They don't half know when it's coming mind, they're so funny, aren't they?

flintstones said:
The only things I feed everyday are:

Cucumber
Peppers
Coriander
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Yea, that is similar to what I feed mine, with the addition of the extra veg that others have mentioned.

beaverstar said:
I sometimes go home for lunch and I'll sit by their cage to eat and talk to them and they'll rush out to start eating their nuggets and hay as well x)

That's unless they've already heard the fridge door, then it's wheeking. I agree, how can you not give in when they do this!

snuffles1.jpg
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Aww, what a lovely photo. It's so hard not to give in to a little face like that. :)

I feed mine twice a day, although since starting back to work after Christmas, I haven't had time in the morning......school run etc. So they have it when I'm preparing the tea, around half 5 and don't they know it too, hee hee.

I'm going to get some peas/beans when I shop after work, though am not sure how to feed those.............are they likely to choke on the pea?

What's the best peas to give? I bought sugarsnap peas, but wasn't sure wether to give them any or not.

I also pop a pinch of vitamin C powder (bought from vets) on each slice of cucumber, cut it in half and make sure I watch each one eat the piece with it on. :)
 
My boys don't like sugarsnap peas, but they're obsessed with green beans. I thought they shouldn't have coriander everyday?
 
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