Ad libitum fresh greens

[Antoween]

Hi all:

After looking deep in many websites around the planet I have found an interesting way to feed the piggies
In Germany most of the owners feed ad libitum "vegetables" focusing on 80% of greenslike:
Grasses and meadows
Bitter salads : escarole, radicchio,etc
Cabagges: kale, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, etc
Vegetables greens: carrots greens, fennel greens etc
Kitchen herbs: coriander, basil, etc
Other greens: Romaine lettuce etc
15% of other veggies like cucumber, carrots fennel etc


They give a very huge selection so that there is always food available so they can choose what they want and that never runs out. They of course supply with Hay and most of them do not give pellets.

They believe that the course number one of bladder stones and digestive issues are due to the dry food ( pellets,hay)
Bladder Stones: because the pellets contain high calcium and makes the piggies not want to drink much, and also they say the vegetables have high water content so it helps to flush calcium away
Digestive issues: most piggies fed with so little fresh greens ( specially once a day, if they eat the veggies in 2 minutes) and then just eating for 23 hours just dry food, produce an imbalanced digestion.

They also say vegetables wear down the teeth as much as hay, that the feeding rule of one cup or 100 gr per piggie per day is a bit old and more like a myth .

I will attach some websites
They are in German, but I highly recommend to go through them, because nothing that it is said sounds so crazy to me

Ernährung – Meerschweinchen-Info
Meerschweinchen INFO

What do you all think about this? Have any of you tried this type of feeding? In my case, I must say that I stopped the pellets ( oxbow) and I increased considerably the fresh green food for my piggies ( following a bit the table I attached) I give way more than just a cup ( still not ad libitum though) and I immediately stopped noticing white spots in the pee and the 3 of them are incredible more active and happy !There were no changes in weight!

 

[Merab]

I suggest you have a look at the feeding guides on the forum.
Much of the advice on what veggies to feed are there too.
There are people here who feed more than a cup of vegetables per day as well

 

[Piggies&buns]

A wet diet isn’t a bad thing at all and keeps the bladder flushing through but it is important that any owner never suddenly increases veg amount as that will cause a digestive imbalance.

It is known that the calcium in pellets can lead to stones - our forum guides explain this - but it is also about a balance in the diet as a whole. This is why the limit is one tablespoon per pig per day. Feeding less pellets is also fine and gives a bit of leeway in the veg portion of the diet.

Mine are fed unlimited hay and a bit more than one cup of veg per piggy (id never feed unlimited veg). They also get lots of grazing on the lawn in summer. I hardly feed any pellets - just five pellets each twice a week as a treat.

Kale, parsley, spinach being high calcium means they should be limited but by not feeding pellets you have leeway to feed those items.
I would still not feed carrots though, and any brassicas is kept limited due to the risk of bloating.