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.

 

[Urmel]

I looked into it extensively, because I was also struck by the difference between German and UK recommendations. Some people have very strong beliefs about the amount of vegetables, but there isn't actually that much systematic evidence behind it either way. Guinea pigs do need unlimited hay and some vegetables, but beyond that, it's a lot of guessing. A lot of what people believe is based on questionable reasoning about what they "would" eat in nature, which is not actually very comparable in domesticated animals and consists of various mixes of fresh and dry vegetation anyway. The medical reasoning is mostly anecdotal, especially around digestive issues, and you'll find people defending either side, including vets.

It is true that teeth are mainly ground down not by the food itself but by the contact with opposing teeth when chewing, rather than friction with the food. The hardness of the food doesn't actually matter. It's important that there is enough chewing for this to happen, so they need a lot of food with low energy density. Hay or vegetables work just the same, but most pellets are too dense in calories, which causes the piggies to eat less, which is bad for the teeth.

With bladder stones, there is evidence to suggest that at least some vegetables in the diet are important, that the ratio of calcium and phosphorus may be more important than the total calcium content (the ratio varies across different hays and vegetables) and calcium processing can be negatively affected by oxalates, which are present in some dark leafy greens such as spinach. Obviously, increasing total water intake helps flush the bladder, but increasing vegetables does not straightforwardly equal more water, as they may drink less to compensate. It may well depend on your piggies and it's worth experimenting with both the kind and amount of vegetables if your piggies have issues.

Overall, it's definitely a myth that larger or even unlimited amounts of vegetables are bad for guinea pigs, as long as they are used to it. Most German rescues feed unlimited veggies and the piggies are perfectly fine. However, the jury is very much still out on whether it's actually superior.