Vitamin C Pills

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Skydreamie

Hi!

May I know when can I feed my GPs Vitamin C pill? as in how old? Sugar is 1 and a half month old.. Mocha is 1 month old.. i'm still thinking should I feed them Vitamin C pills or just let them eat vege for now =)

Thanks =)
 
I totally agree with DSL so long as they're gettign plenty of fresh fruit and veggies there should be no need for added Vit C supplements. Most pellets, nuggets and muesli mixes contain some degree of stabilised Vit C these days too.
 
as zoe is only on a hay and grass diet and jessie is a junk food piggy and won't eat her veggies we give them a pinch of vitamin C powder in their drinking water everyday. of course with zoe we also syringe vitamin C into her with pre boiled water. so far we zoe we have only been able to add parsley to her diet, when we add something else soft poops 3 days later. like said only if they are ill or not eating veggies like our jessie. good luck. hugs and cuddles to you and your fur babies. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
yeah i agree unless a piggie is ill or not eating their veggies, they should get all they need from a good alround diet O0
 
hihi,

I jus made a appointment with my vet.. it's their first time to the vet, and mine too. hahahaa xx0

I heard from a lot of Guinea pig owners.. giving them to eat Vitamin C chewable pills.. like say, 1 tablet is 100mg.. so 1 tablet is cut into 8 small equal pcs... and 1 small piece for each piggy.
They said its good for their health... becos i'm not so sure how much Vege i should give them ?
Lately Mocha is having soft poop.. and all her bottom is WET! :( and i'm not sure what is happening to mocha.. Sugar is ok, the bottom is not wet at all. so i'm wondering wat happened. Issit because of those Vege i feed them? I didn't really feed a lot though.

So sorry to ask so many questions! hehe.. it's my 1st time owning them.. and it breaks my heart when i saw Mocha having soft poop.. and getting himself all wet at the bottom :'(

btw i already bought the Vitamin C chewable for them a few days ago.. just not sure when is a suitable age to feed them.. there won't be any negative if i feed them vitamin C right? =)

And also.. they are eating Timothy hay now.. but i didn't fill the whole cage with hay like what my sister and some other owners did... i only give them a certain amount.. and if they finish it, i will re-fill it further. guess like this should be alright yea?
 
HI
don't worry about asking questions, thats what we're here for and it's better to ask questions and look after your piggies well O0
Sounds like you've done the right thing seeing the vet O0 hope you get on ok :) What veggies have you been feeding? How much? As we've said, I really don't think piggies need the vit.c tablets unless they are ill and need a boost or not eating their veggies O0 Also a good pellet or mix (dry food) should have vit.c in it so they're getting it from that too :)
Is Mocha eating? Hope you get on ok at the vets :) (((hugs for you and little Mocha))) :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
As for hay, piggies should have an unlimited supply of hay all the time. It's a big part of their diet and a very important part O0 So try and give them a lot and replace it when they've eaten it O0 I like to give mine a whole pile of meadow hay (long) for their bed (on top of newspaper) and they love running and tunneling through it like they would in the wild :) Any other questions, don't be afraid to ask :smitten:
 
hello again,
is mocha long haired? he may need trimming so he doesn't wet herself. i can't explain the soft poops though, our zoe has them as she has had antibiotics and surgery and her hormones are all over the place now. hay and grass is good for their tummies this is what zoe is on. so perhaps until you see your vet feed mocha hay and grass. zoe was on this for 5 days and them slowly over 3 days add a veggie like say parsley. then if poops are alright add another slowly over 3 days like carrot tops and so on. so far we added cauliflower soft poops, then added parsley, celery leaf and then carrot and back to soft poop. so she is now on hay, grass, parsley and a bit of rockmelon( you call it cantelope). it sound to me and i am not expert that little mocha may have a urinary tract infection hence the wetting of himself and the soft poop. refilling the hay rack is fine as they empty it. will send you a message. when is your vet appointment? and what are you going in for? 2funny 2funny 2funny might be easy to make a list of all your questions and then either read it to the vet or let them read it, also make notes of mocha's weight, behaviour, food eating etc. good luck. sending you hugs and cuddles :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: and my girls send mocha :-* :-* :-*
cavy love said:
I like to give mine a whole pile of meadow hay (long) for their bed (on top of newspaper) and they love running and tunneling through it like they would in the wild :)
Click to expand...
use to feed mine meadow hay but zoe would get seeds in her eyes, so now mine get oaten hay(you call it oat) hugs and cuddles. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
yeah totally agree mary. the best thing to do for soft poops is just put them on hay, water, dry food and a bit of grass until it returns to normal O0 i also agree that if she is long haired, trimming is a good idea. i do this with bertie and it keeps him cleaner and less whiffy for longer! ::) Is she still drinking? this is very important with soft poops, because if she isn't she'll get dehydrated very easily. O0 if she isn't try and syringe some water into her mouth, be careful not to shoot it down, because it could get in her lungs (go down the wrong way) O0 I would get a vet to show yo uhow to use a syringe, if it's needed and if you haven't been shown before O0 Hoping your little one's got on ok at the vets, and that they've provided you with a solution O0
 
Hiye!
I jus changed the bedding for them.. and they love it! wheeking all over.. hahahaa. But i'm still puzzled about Mocha's wet bottom.. Sugar's hair is very clean and neat.. so that's why i'm wondering whats wrong :(

I gave them green leaf vegetable to eat.. how long does you all leave the vege there? Usually i will cut the vege into small pieces around 1pm and leave it till i'm home.. like about 9pm+.. issit bad for them if they eat the vege if it's left for too long?

Maybe i will get parsley for them =) since it is full of vitamin C!
I didn't get any hay rack for them.. the hay is placed inside a toilet roll and they eat it from there.. issit ok? I read it from some forums elsewhere and putting hays into toilet roll is 1 of the method they do.. however I didn't place tons tons tons of hays all over the cage becos i dun think they can finish all? and it seems to get real messy with too much hays.. the hays i got (2nd cut hays) seems to be very dusty in the middle of the packet ?

So I'm comtemplating of getting something to hold all the hays so the hays won't mess up the cage.. its like a ball which u can placed all the hays inside.. do u all think that is neccessary? or just stuffing the hays in the toilet roll will do? :o

The vet is full on appointment... so i would need to wait till coming monday.. which is 3 days later.. yupyup, i would definitely jot down all the questions I need to ask her! Mocha is still so small size =( i'm jus wondering why...

Mocha isn't long hair.. she's a Aby... so.. errm, the hair isn't very short and not very long? ;D

I went to give Mocha a warm "shower" jus now.. washing her bottom.. because my sis told me there's poop stuck in there =(
how often can i shower them by the way?

Thanks for all your :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: and well wishes for me and Mocha, Sugar =)
We feel the love! thankk youu :smitten: :smitten: :D :D
 
I think with guinea pigs it is sometimes easy to fall into the trap of thinking that vitamin C deficiency is the cause of all illnesses. They do need more of it if they are ill but, like with humans who also don't manufacture their own vit c, there are lots of other possible causes too.

I only feed enough veg to be eaten within a few minutes. If any is left, you are possibly feeding too much, and if they eat it once it is no longer fresh, it's obviously not great news, as you say.

It's definitely wise to get them checked out, but I would definitely try less veggies, and also some probiotic.
 
Hmmm, enough vege to be eaten within a few minutes? hmmm... i guess perhaps i left the vege there for too long :-\
How much vege do u all feed for 1 guinea pig? becos i think my guinea pigs are too new to me.. so they are kinda shy towards eating when i jus placed the vege bowl in the cage.. they would always take awhile before feasting on them lol~
 
I give mine 5 different veggies per serving. 1leaf of green, 1/8th green pepper, small stick of celery, half an inch of cucumber, couple of green beans per pig. :)
 
You also have to be very careful about just what vitamin C tablets you feed them. The majority of human ones have artificial sweeteners in them that act as a laxative in humans and would be even worse for pigs. The soft poop could be a combination of this and being introduced to new vegetables too fast.

You need to feed a variety of vegetables. I have a pig whose owner thought it was fine to throw him a carrot a day - it's not really any surprise to me that the only vegetable he's not fussed about now is carrots. S&T has a great menu example above. Have a look at this chart here, it tells you what you can feed and how often you can feed it colour coded - http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum...cavys-diet-read-me-nutrition-charts-info.html. Be very careful with high calcium veggies like parsley - they can cause bladder stones if fed in excess.
 
I should put Mocha on just hay, water and dry food, and see if that helps with the runny poos O0 Is she drinking?
As for hays, you don't have to put hay in a ball or tube, although it does give them something to do O0 I would consider that more of a toy. As I said I give mine a whole pile of hay to burrow in an play in and in addition to this, I give them a hay rack with special hays or just mountain hay in, so they have some clean hay that they haven't solied O0 In regards to veggies, I give them around 4/5 different veggies also, twice a day, in the morning and the evening and i usually leave it there for an hour or so. I put it in bowls so they can't trample over it etc. O0
 
well if she is getting, really messy, you need to clean her bottom as often as it takes to keep her reasonably clean. O0
 
Hiye all!

Hahaha.. i just washed Mocha's bumbum again.. this time Mocha is much adaptable to washing xx0
It seems that she got some poop stuck inside.. i think so, but its jus soo dirty which i don't know why!

I didn't really feed a lot of vege to them.. hmm, maybe about a small bowl of chopped veges.. 1 stalk of leafy vege.. in 1 stalk, there are 3/4 leafy vege right.. so usually 1 day i only cut 1 stalk of vege (which consists abt 3/4 leafs) for them..

issit true that we shouldn't feed them leafy vege everyday?

1 big carrot a day seems a lot?!

No worries.. i haven't feed them the vitamin C yet.. but it seems that every ppl in the another forum are feeding theirs with human Vitamin C.. (Redexon For Kids, 100mg per tablet) hmmm, maybe i will make this one of the questions to the vet on monday =P


My cage isn't VERY big.. will make them a DIY cage soon once they grow bigger.. so for now, my cage doesn't have much space to put a hay rack in.. :-\
YUppp, mocha and sugar is drinking well =)
 
they should have 2 portions of leafy greens a day, 1 portion of other veggies and sometimes half a portion of fruit i think i'm right in saying O0 don't feed too much fruit though. :)
ok, glad she's still drinking :) well yeah by all means ask the vet O0 i mean it can't do any harm to give them it, they will pass any extra vit.c that they don't need in their urine, but i just don't think it's neccessary ;) they should be getting all they need from their diet O0 i would take a look at that link that DSL posted, it's very good O0
 
This is the type of leafy greens i feed them
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Gailan.jpg..


So i just cut 1 leaf into small pieces... 2 portion means 2 leafs?

Mocha isn't eating much of the carrot/vege... i suspect Sugar finished all of them. hahaha and mocha doesn't really fancy eating the hays too.. but always eating pellets! *weird* lolol..
But just now i went to buy 1 dried food which consists of vege, fruits etc... highly recommended by the petshop ppl as she said this kinda of dried food got tons of vitamin C!
So i can feed them these kinda of dried food to let them get the vitamin C?
In case Mocha isn't eating fresh vege.. at least i know those dried fruits is giving him enough Vitamin C? hmmm..
 
ok, well i would try giving a range of greens, like chard, spinach (not too much), herbs, carrot tops, chicory, that kind of thing, because it's got to be a little boring eating the same old stuff every day O0 yeah I'd say probably a couple of those leaves each?
do you feed any other veg? e.g. cucumber, celery, tomatoe? I usually give a portion of greens each and then a smaller amount of other veggies and occasionally fruit O0 when are you seeing a vet? I would definitely mention that she's not eating much food O0 it's good that she's having her dry food O0 have you tried any different types of hay? I know that if one of mine's poorly i can usually tempt them with really aromatic hay or oat hay. O0 are you in the uk? If so Pampered piggies do a good selection O0
http://www.pamperedpiggies.co.uk/page.asp?module=shopCategories&clientID=11
Have a look at the shopping list on the forum, that'll give you a good idea of all the different fruit and veg you can give, i like to vary what i give quite a lot O0 http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=47.0
If she isn't having veggies, then maybe it would be a good idea to give her vit.c O0 i didn't realise she wasn't eating her veggies O0
 
Okies!
Because it seems that some website it says its not so good to give leafy greens everyday.. hahaha, so today i didn't give them any except some carrots :-\

Oh you, i fed mocha a small little piece of the Vitamin C pill, and it seems that Mocha loves it. hahaahaha.. Sugar seems to like his fresh vege and carrots more.
Mocha doesn't like carrots LOL

yupp i fed celery before but it seems that they only eat the celery grasses..
Tomato.. hmm, they didn't like it. lol.. i think my piggies are too choosy! xx0 xx0 xx0


I just bought 5kgs of new timothy hays.. its fresher i guess. will feed them the new hay soon :smitten: :smitten:
they are choosy towards hay too! ;D ;D ;D

i'm going down to the vet tomorrow.. mocha eats a lot of pellets but i'm wondering why he doesn't grow big.. Sugar grew fatter each day.. hahahahaha jus by eating hays :o :o :o
 
on advice of my vet my piggies have one desolvable vit c tab a day. I fill a big bottle with water add the tablet then split it between the bottles, if they finish their bottle they then get pure water. They also get greens and carrot (i love giving it to Olive it stains her mouth orange cos she is so greedy ::))
 
milliekitten said:
on advice of my vet my piggies have one desolvable vit c tab a day. I fill a big bottle with water add the tablet then split it between the bottles, if they finish their bottle they then get pure water. They also get greens and carrot (i love giving it to Olive it stains her mouth orange cos she is so greedy ::))
Click to expand...

I don't know who your vet is but you've been given poor information here. First of all, vitamin C degrades within a couple of hours on contact with water so it's useless anyway. The majority of vitamins for humans contain sweeteners that have a laxative effect in humans - consider the effect this may have on your pigs. If you use the human effervescent vitamin C tablets did you realise that they contain 1000mg of vitamin C? Guinea pigs need a maximum of 10-30mg/kg (so basically an average of 20mg) which means you could be giving your pigs a 100 times the vitamin C they need.
 
Hmm.. i read from other forums that they don't recommend dissolving vitamin C into water becos like what daft said, the vitamin C will degrade very fast in water.

So what they suggest is that, buy those vitamin C pills for KIDS~ which states 100mg... not 1000mg. lol.. adults pill may be 1000mg but for kids it is 100mg.
like i mentioned b4.. they said cut the 100mg into 8 small pcs... so its 100mg/8 = 12mg.
The rest of the vitamin C they can get from pellets/vege/fruits.. that's what the other forumers said in another forum.
Definitely if your guinea piggies are eating tons of veges and giving enough vitamin C.. maybe vitamin C pills isn't neccessary..
but for Mocha, maybe she needs it.. since she doesn't eat fresh vege as much as Sugar (sugar always finished it! ) and so i feed her some small little bits of vitamin C tablet (handfeed).

Its luckie that she munch some of it.. or else i reallie dunno where else she can get enough vitamin C :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
i think mocha probably needs it if she isn't getting much by way of veggies O0 i would never add it to water A: because it degrades, and B: i don't think you should add anything to their water, as it may actually put them off drinking and how do you know how much they're getting O0 yeah i aggree with DSL be careful what you're giving, human ones can be more harm than good :(
 
eeek my poor piggies i didnt know! you would think vets know what they are talking about, definatly think i need a new piggy vet anyone know one on the wirral?
 
yeah you would think they'd know ::) don't worry i'm sure as long as your piggies are getting plenty of veg and dry food they should be fine O0 piggies shouldn't need extra unless they're poorly, under a lot of stress, not getting their veggies etc O0
 
vit c tabs are now in bin, bottles have been scrubbed and filled with fresh water and piggies have an extra large yummy salad tea. I think Poppy thinks its christmas
 
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