What does my daily menu look like to you?

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Pigglywinks

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Hello everyone, me again :)

Ok so I have been trying to cut back on the amount of veg I feed the pigs as one of my boars doesn't drink a lot so tends to have cloudy wee that dries chalky and I am sure I have felt grit once or twice, I am so paranoid that my boys will end up with stones or sludge :( So I have been studying calcium and vitamin C charts and am now trying not to feed them anything that is above the mid range of calcium, generally I try to stick to low calcium veggies, I wondered if you guys could take a look at the veggies I feed and tell me what you think? Here is their daily diet:

Unlimited timothy and meadow hay
1 eggcup full of pellets per pig

The veggies they get are:
Romaine lettuce
Green or red pepper (daily for vitamin C and is low in calcium)
Cucumber (daily, helps me to get water down my boar who doesn't drink a lot)
Baby carrots (going to give 1 per day per pig maximum)
Little gem lettuce
Chicory
Parsnip (2 times a week at most)
Brocolli (2 times a week at most)
Apple (couple of times a week)
The odd brussel sprout (not very often at all)
Pear (not very often)

I've tried to keep calcium levels to a minimum, they get a mixture of the above fruits and vegetables but do get pepper, cucumber and some sort of lettuce daily. I also plan on trying them with beetroot and tomato at a later date. The amount they get is 1 small glass tumbler full each which will generally contain 1 chopped lettuce leaf, 3 slices of cucumber, a few slices of pepper and then small amounts of whatever else. Is this ok or am I not feeding enough?

I used to feed them ever so much before I knew any better and I am extremely ashamed to say that once upon a time they were chowing down on carrots daily and also large amounts of parsley and cabbage :( I am so glad that there are now forums like this to properly advice owners as quite often people can be given the wrong information.

Thanks ever so much, I really just want to nip this calcium-ness in the bud! :)
 
I wasn't sure about the romain as on the chart it is quite low in calcium and quite near to the bottom of the list. Are there any other low calcium leafy vegetables that I could feed? And what about the amount? Arrgghhh, I have so many questions! lol :))
 
I know I found it confusing too! Until I found this forum my previous piggies ate celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber and carrot daily! I never fed them any lettuce at all rolleyes I thought it wasn't good for them. I will add my last piggy lived to 7 so I couldn't have been doing her too much harm :)
 
For Pigglywinks.....

Hi Pigglywinks, my boar Bubbles (age 3 1/2) has problems with gritty urine (he doesn't have stones thankfully) and I've just been advised to give him extra water and put him on a low calcium diet too.. I'm trawling my way through all the dietary information out there and it's a minefield!

I saw this thread from a few weeks ago and was just wondering how you were getting on, you are a few weeks further down the road on this one than me and I'd be interested to hear if you have any tips or advice.
 
Well all of my pigs are now on brita filtered water, their pee is paler but I am still battling deposits on the fleece. I have one pair that drink great, around 300ml between them a day and they have far less deposits and much clearer urine. The other 3 I am still working on, they don't seem to be big drinkers.
 
never thought about filtering the water... hmmm. I dont think Bubbles drinks enough, am wetting his veg for now but think I may have to get syringing!

Would be interested in keeping in touch on this one.....:))
 
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