help! piggie stopped eating bell pepper!

piggiemummy03x

piggiemummy03x

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can anyone advise me what i can do please? my luna has suddenly stopped eating pepper! yellow, orange, red, she doesn’t want to know. what should i do? where should i get her vitamin C from now and what are the signs shes lacking vit C so i can keep track? I'm worried😣
 
I’m sure there is vitamin C in other veggies so she should be fine.

I’m sure she’s just gone off peppers and I don’t want to worry you further but just keep an eye on her weight for a while as I had a piggy who stopped eating peppers and he had an abscess brewing. Are her incisors straight?
 
Parsley and coriander both contain vit C as does hay.
Have a look at the food guide for a full list.
Piggies do suddenly go off foods that were once favourites so don’t worry.
Keep an eye on her just in case there’s an issue brewing as @weepweeps said
 
piggiemummy03x said:
can anyone advise me what i can do please? my luna has suddenly stopped eating pepper! yellow, orange, red, she doesn’t want to know. what should i do? where should i get her vitamin C from now and what are the signs shes lacking vit C so i can keep track? I'm worried😣
Click to expand...

Hi

Vitamin C is in most foods that piggies eat - pellets, veg/herbs, grass (especially fresh growing green grass is actually very high in vitamin C (which is the reason why guinea pigs did switch off the gene complex that allowed to produce their own vitamin in their bodies), there is a little in hay and it is also in forage. Readigrass also contains a bit but it is too rich to feed other than a treat in small quantities. Vitamin C is also in fresh herbs, greens etc. which should be still a part of the weekly diet. Peppers are the veg highest in vitamin C and lowest in calcium, which is why they make a convient part of the diet in a hard water country like the UK but it is not the end of the world if your piggy is going off them. It takes a real lot more for them to develop scurvy.

Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
 
weepweeps said:
I’m sure there is vitamin C in other veggies so she should be fine.

I’m sure she’s just gone off peppers and I don’t want to worry you further but just keep an eye on her weight for a while as I had a piggy who stopped eating peppers and he had an abscess brewing. Are her incisors straight?
Click to expand...
Merab's Slave said:
Parsley and coriander both contain vit C as does hay.
Have a look at the food guide for a full list.
Piggies do suddenly go off foods that were once favourites so don’t worry.
Keep an eye on her just in case there’s an issue brewing as @weepweeps said
Click to expand...
Wiebke said:
Hi

Vitamin C is in most foods that piggies eat - pellets, veg/herbs, grass (especially fresh growing green grass is actually very high in vitamin C (which is the reason why guinea pigs did switch off the gene complex that allowed to produce their own vitamin in their bodies), there is a little in hay and it is also in forage. Readigrass also contains a bit but it is too rich to feed other than a treat in small quantities. Vitamin C is also in fresh herbs, greens etc. which should be still a part of the weekly diet. Peppers are the veg highest in vitamin C and lowest in calcium, which is why they make a convient part of the diet in a hard water country like the UK but it is not the end of the world if your piggy is going off them. It takes a real lot more for them to develop scurvy.

Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
Click to expand...

thanks all! oh wow okay thats scary! was it just pepper he went off? do you think he was unable to eat it due to it being hard? shes still eating her other bits (cucumber, coriander + lettuce, reduced diet as her sister is a bladder problem piggie) its just the pepper! i’m hopeful shell start eating it again, i was maybe going to not offer her any for a day or two and see if re-introducing it would help!

is there any way i can trick her?🤣

okay great, we don’t really feed pellets anymore but maybe i will start again, i just worry as there veg range isn’t very broad already:( thanks for the info!
 
piggiemummy03x said:
thanks all! oh wow okay thats scary! was it just pepper he went off? do you think he was unable to eat it due to it being hard? shes still eating her other bits (cucumber, coriander + lettuce, reduced diet as her sister is a bladder problem piggie) its just the pepper! i’m hopeful shell start eating it again, i was maybe going to not offer her any for a day or two and see if re-introducing it would help!

is there any way i can trick her?🤣

okay great, we don’t really feed pellets anymore but maybe i will start again, i just worry as there veg range isn’t very broad already:( thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

Hi

Try to coat the damp pepper piece with some herbal forage (or pellet dust/crunch for those that feed pellets) to see whether she nibbles it that way but do not hold your breath. You can always feed a little extra higher vitamin C veg once or twice a week outside the cage but give her companion something else to eat in the meantime so she is not feeling left out.
 
piggiemummy03x said:
thanks all! oh wow okay thats scary! was it just pepper he went off? do you think he was unable to eat it due to it being hard? shes still eating her other bits (cucumber, coriander + lettuce, reduced diet as her sister is a bladder problem piggie) its just the pepper! i’m hopeful shell start eating it again, i was maybe going to not offer her any for a day or two and see if re-introducing it would help!

is there any way i can trick her?🤣

okay great, we don’t really feed pellets anymore but maybe i will start again, i just worry as there veg range isn’t very broad already:( thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

The pepper was what I noticed him not eating as it must have hurt him to eat it. I didn’t notice him not eating hay as you can’t really tell if they are eating that or not. He lost 100g in a week and he had wonky incisors too. So a weekly weight check is always a good indicator of a problem. I’m sure she’s just gone off peppers.
 
I swapped to baby/mini peppers when the goblins got a bit weird about bell pepper. Nothing wrong with their teeth or anything, they were just being overly fussy and they're back to eating bell pepper now anyway.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Try to coat the damp pepper piece with some herbal forage (or pellet dust/crunch for those that feed pellets) to see whether she nibbles it that way but do not hold your breath. You can always feed a little extra higher vitamin C veg once or twice a week outside the cage but give her companion something else to eat in the meantime so she is not feeling left out.
Click to expand...
great idea!
 
weepweeps said:
The pepper was what I noticed him not eating as it must have hurt him to eat it. I didn’t notice him not eating hay as you can’t really tell if they are eating that or not. He lost 100g in a week and he had wonky incisors too. So a weekly weight check is always a good indicator of a problem. I’m sure she’s just gone off peppers.
Click to expand...
bless, i weigh every week so will notice if she loses.. hope your little man is better now?
 
Lorcan said:
I swapped to baby/mini peppers when the goblins got a bit weird about bell pepper. Nothing wrong with their teeth or anything, they were just being overly fussy and they're back to eating bell pepper now anyway.
Click to expand...
interesting thankyou!
 
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