Dried Herbs And Calcium

[biscandmatt]

i remember reading that alot of dried herbs are higher in calcium. whether this means they are high calcium, or just higher than the fresh variety, i don't know... does anyone know?

and can anyone recommend any that are suitable for a piggy on a low calcium diet please? thank you

 

[sport_billy]

hmmm, interesting. Will do some googling Hopefully someone may know something on this. love to Mollie and Benjie x

 

[biscandmatt]

hmmm, interesting. Will do some googling Hopefully someone may know something on this. love to Mollie and Benjie x

for the others, every so often i'd scatter some dried herbs for them to forage for, and would like to do the same for mollie and benjie. but obviously have to be careful now that everything is low calcium for mollie

 

[gizzy]

I think it depends on how much they eat ,if you were to reconstitute them it would only be extra water

 

[biscandmatt]

forgot about this. thanks for the replies.

i recently got mollie and benjie a carrot cottage (which they, more mollie, destroyed!) - it obviously has dried carrot on the roof and mollie ate alot of it. didn't seem to have any issues which might not be surprising as carrot isn't high calcium anyway.. but then i also read that drying most herbs automatically increases the calcium.. so i'd assume these would be ok to buy them every so often?

i've looked into other dried herbs and forage but i'm still not sure enough to get any. i'm thinking apple branches would probably be ok though.

i just thought it might be nice for them to have some to forage for once in a while. so if anyone knows any which are definitely low calcium then please let me know

 

[Veggies Galore]

I seem to recall this discussed in the context of Readigrass - which is simply dried grass. Readigrass is classed as a high calcium food.

Fresh herbs (and fresh grass) contain calcium . Without the water content - the calcium level is more concentrated.

My guinea pigs have a carrot cottage. I must admit - I was hesitant about giving them one because of the carrot topping - but , they enjoy it so much !

... the same applies to dried herbs and readigrass - they love them so much , it would be a shame to completely deprive them of the pleasure . I just make sure I only give small quantities - and spread it around so they have to forage for it.

Apple branches are a great idea.

@Sarah from Chucklebunnies suggested giving the stems from a bunch of grapes .

 

[Sarah from Chucklebunnies]

(If you have access to a garden then nettles are very good for a calcium careful piggy. Pick them and then let them wilt for three days in a dry place before feeding them. They have a lovely range of nutrients that they pick up from the soil, but they don't pick up too much calcium. They basically pick up a bit of everything.
Avoid strawberry leaves. They pick up lots of calcium. Dandelion picks up calcium too, so be careful not to give lots of that when from a limey soil.)

Parsley does not pick up a lot of calcium, but it does have lots of vit A in it so don't feed too much dried. Basil does not pick up too much calcium so it is fine dried. From my researches I would recommend parsley and basil dried, they also smell good to piggies as well.

I hope they have fun foraging!