Calcium in spring greens and red cabbage

Nyanzai

Nyanzai

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I’ve been reading up on vegetables and read the newbie guides on vegetables and daily amounts. What struck me was the addition of spring greens. If you check online, for 100g: spring greens have around 40mg of vitamin C but 210mg calcium whereas red (purple) cabbage has 86mg of vitamin C and only 48mg of of calcium. I understand the position of bloating and cabbage is more likely to cause bloat. Are spring greens milder in that sense. I am also wondering why spring greens are recommended (even daily) for low calcium diet piggies, is there something i’m missing?
 
A decision on calcium content alone would be misleading as it's actually the calcium/phosphorus ratio that's important in a piggy diet and that becomes very complex so looking at the level of calcium in a particular veg is not going to be good. Also you would need to compare with how much vitamin c a piggy needs (I don't know the answer to this). Any additional vitamin c is just going to get excreted in their urine
 
Spring greens are a milder form of cabbage so less of an issue when it comes to bloat. Like everything though, it comes down to moderation. Feed them what you are comfortable feeding them. The amount you feed them is very small though - you aim for around 1 cup of veg per day.

Ultimately the best way to reduce their calcium intake is to filter drinking water and keep pellets strictly limited - that’ll do more for calcium intake than worrying about veg.
 
Thank you! I also have done some research on common Japanese vegetables that are often fed to piggies here in Japan. Seems like Bok choi and Komatsuna are often given but their calcium levels also seem high.
(100mg and 170mg per 100g) but I guess lower than spring greens. Phosphorus for both veggies are low (27mg and 45mg per 100g).

This Japanese info I found suggested only 6g of Vegetables a day as a snack and parsley was recommended (120mg Vit C, 290mg calcium and 61mg phosphorus).

I also saw the nutritional info for mitsuba (Japanese leaf used in salads and in soups) looks like coriander and seems like it could be fed daily to me.

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Source:-
小動物情報 | ゆず動物病院 Yuzu Pet Clinic
 
6g of veg per day - I feed mine slices of pepper each day which weighs more than that without any of the other veg they get added on! I occasionally feed my piggies parsley if I have it in.
As I said, it’s about moderation - if you feed a higher calcium veg one day, then don’t feed it again until the following week if you are concerned about the levels.
It’s really not something I think about hugely - I just don’t feed high calcium veg regularly instead I just give them a wide variety of veggies. The only things mine get every day are pepper, coriander, lettuce and cucumber - some days this is all they get, other days I add in other veggies if I’ve got them in my fridge
 
I always have a lot of veggies as we are vegan, so knowing how much they can have would help. We mostly have a lot of Japanese ones so I have to research these as I don’t want to do them harm 😅

we do usually have cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and green pepper (but they are a small green kind called “piman”) I also do buy regular bell peppers but very expensive over here.

other than that we have things like bok choi, komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach), Japanese spinach, mizuna, mitsuba, turnip greens, chard and I’ll probably have things like carrot greens, beet greens, Japanese raddish (daikon) greens.
We can get Japanese coriander thankfully.

So far, I think I can feed coriander and mitsuba daily.

i’ll definitely give more than 6g. That seems too little. They say 30g of pellets. I don’t necessarily trust Japanese advice due to the advice (or lack of) on cage size :(

I’ll probably be going with around 10-20g of pellets (however much my table spoon weighs) and then a cup of veggies. I’ll probably be foraging grass and wild herbs most days during summer though so this will be counted towards the veggie portion.

(I wanted to go pellet free initially but I know i’d worry about their vitamins and what not, so just decided to go with but make sure its a small amount).
 
(Of course I have other vegetables too such as Japanese raddish, burdock, lotus root, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, onion, potato, garlic chives, welsh onion, spring onion etc) but I think all these are not suitable.

It seems like radicchio/chicory might be good to add and lettuce.

(I’m also going to be growing my own herbs and we all dislike coriander here, so coriander can be completely for the piggies 😁)
 
Bean sprouts are okay. But definite no to potatoes and onions. If the radish is like the one here it can also be fed in moderation.
 
Siikibam said:
Bean sprouts are okay. But definite no to potatoes and onions. If the radish is like the one here it can also be fed in moderation.
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They have regular radish here and also Japanese radish which is milder but like huge! Looks like this:FCB195F3-DA27-47B1-B988-F14486A98C76.webp
 
Never seen it before. Others will probably know it though.
 
Siikibam said:
Never seen it before. Others will probably know it though.
Click to expand...
I think it is better not to feed too much as it is high in oxylates. If I want to give it should be rarely and maybe just stick to the greens at the top.

I’ve checked a list in Japanese to make sure certain veg are not poisonous and technically able to eat then i’ve been looking at the nutritional values.

so far Japanese coriander, mitsuba, and a japanese herb called seri seem great even for daily feeding along with Japanese green peppers. Other than the pepper, not massively high in vit C but all relatively low in calcium at least.
 
Coriander is the other good source of vitamin c. You can also always feed other herbs like parsley, mint, rosemary?, sage?...

Your piggies are going to be so lucky 😁
 
Hope so! Already got a big list of things on pinterest 🙈

Still Covid19 puts a spanner in the works, we’ll have to wait until it has settled down as we want rescue piggies.

What is good though, is there is plenty of time for research. Nothing worse than buying pets on a whim.
 
Research beforehand is definitely better so you’re more prepared before you get into it. Some have a mindset of small animals being disposable. Others have a mindset of ‘it’s Christmas/easter/birthday/whatever’ then reality sets in.

Looking forward to seeing your piggies and your setup 🙂
 
Siikibam said:
Research beforehand is definitely better so you’re more prepared before you get into it. Some have a mindset of small animals being disposable. Others have a mindset of ‘it’s Christmas/easter/birthday/whatever’ then reality sets in.

Looking forward to seeing your piggies and your setup 🙂
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I used to own hamsters when I was younger (in my 20s) in the UK. They also had big set ups and what not. I understand the misinformation around pets. Makes me so sad seeing them in small enclosures :(

I wonder when we’ll be able to find some piggies actually though. Covid19 doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Maybe September.
 
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