Vitamin C Alternatives?

[Bella123]

Hi, hope everyone's doing well,

Hero and Bella seem to have gone off their bell peppers of late. I have also reduced their pellets down also, (selective naturals grain free) as I have read on here it is recommended that pellets are given in a small limited quantity and better for piggies long term health.

They have plenty of hay, and other varied vegetables to like coriander, various lettuces, carrots ( small quanties) tomatoes, cucumber and obviously different coloured peppers.

I don't tend to give them gassy type vegetables, as I don't want them getting any bloat.

I am also thinking of growing some grass indoors. I know grass has many benefits for them, for their teeth and obviously vitamin c wise, but this won't happen until the start of next year.

The thing is of late I am a little concerned the amount of vitamin C they are getting in their diet might not be enough, due to the decreasing their pellets and them going off their peppers.

Unfortunately Hero doesn't like the oxbow vitamin c tablets so I gave up on those a while back.

Today I decided to buy some Vitamin C drops, these have ascorbic acid in them. I thought they would be ideal at first but now I'm having second thoughts, as one of the ingredients is purified water. I was going to syringe the drops to them.

Please see below:

BioCare Vitasorb C (15 ml)

I'm aware that ascorbic acid degrades in water so I'm beginning to feel I may have wasted my money.

Anyway, would these be still of any use at all as they are coming tomorrow.

I have been also thinking of possibly buying some ascorbic acid powder but as it can't obviously be added to water, maybe mixing it with vegetables wouldn't be such a good idea either.

Is there any other alternative ways of giving them vitamin c, apart from oxbow tablets and the drops mentioned?

Thanks everyone

 

[RosieMaia]

Vitamin C is fairly stable in water, it's light and air exposure that cause it to degrade.

I used to supplement with a little bit of Bit. C drops regularly, but have since stopped. Synthetic Vit. C has been positively associated with higher incidence of autoimmune arthritis (and I have a young boar with arthritis, whether it's a coincidence or not), so for the past two years, I've been sticking to veggies.

Things like kale (even if they're a member of the brassica family, I don't think they're as likely to cause bloat as cabbage), tomatoes, parsley, dill, etc. Guinea Lynx have great tables showing the amount of Vit. C per vegetable:
Guinea Lynx :: Vitamin C Chart

Hope this helps!

 

[Bella123]

Vitamin C is fairly stable in water, it's light and air exposure that cause it to degrade.

I used to supplement with a little bit of Bit. C drops regularly, but have since stopped. Synthetic Vit. C has been positively associated with higher incidence of autoimmune arthritis (and I have a young boar with arthritis, whether it's a coincidence or not), so for the past two years, I've been sticking to veggies.

Things like kale (even if they're a member of the brassica family, I don't think they're as likely to cause bloat as cabbage), tomatoes, parsley, dill, etc. Guinea Lynx have great tables showing the amount of Vit. C per vegetable:
Guinea Lynx :: Vitamin C Chart

Hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply.

Very interesting about the vitamin c and arthritis connection, I have read on guinea lynx that it worsens arthritis when vitamin c is routinely supplemented at high levels.

I am little concerned about other vegetables/herbs such as parsley and kale as I know they can't be given daily. I wouldn't want to give parsley everyday due to its high calcium content.

I'm not totally sure on the best way to tackle this one, but I do know my guinea pigs love parsley and kale!

 

[RosieMaia]

What I do is give them on alternate days, but make sure there's at least one high-vit. C veggie per day. I wouldn't give kale + parsley, but one surely should be fine?

Mind you, I live in an area with very, very soft water, and I still filter it, so my pigs don't get any calcium whatsoever from the water

 

[Bella123]

What I do is give them on alternate days, but make sure there's at least one high-vit. C veggie per day. I wouldn't give kale + parsley, but one surely should be fine?

Mind you, I live in an area with very, very soft water, and I still filter it, so my pigs don't get any calcium whatsoever from the water

That's very helpful, I definitely look into doing that.

 

[Swissgreys]

Here we were recommend Vit C drops (actually for human babies) and told to add them to a small amount of water, and then use this to 'rinse' veg like lettuce before feeding, and then offer them the slightly wet lettuce.
I have never had to try this as my lot love their veg, but I always thought it might be a good idea if you had an ill or picky piggy.