How much vegetables?

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Joey&Gizmo

Joey&Gizmo

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I was wondering if anyone knew how much vegetables in grams should each pig be given per day.

I can only find that you should give one cupful per pig per day, but how much is that?

I think i maybe giving my pigs too much veg as they do seem to waste a small amount, they are given their veg once in the morning and once in the evening, they also have lots of variety.

Thank you. :)
 
Not all leafies (lettuces, cabbages, herbs) though. 50g of leafies is a LOT. :))
 
Thanks for letting me know Laura, i do give them their leafies daily but i do put in carrots, cucumber etc too. :))
 
I do give mine too much as when i was giving them their veg last night i weighed it and it was 100g enough for the day for the two of them! Now ive cut down and try and give them 50g in the morning and 50g in the evenings! :)

I was shocked to see that on the packet of dill it said 25g and i thought oh my goodness that is 25g? I am definalty giving too much, thats when the weighing scales came out. :))
 
Where's the harm in giving them a bit more veg than the recommended? Don't they just poo it out? My boys do eat a lot of veg, between them for example, they might get a handful of green beans and a couple of inches of cucumber in the morning, then a carrot in the evening, but they are strong and healthy and far from fat because they run it off. I also know they are getting plenty of vitamin C ^):)
 
Too many greens can lead to diarrhoea, but a nice wide variety fed in two or three portions through the day shouldn't cause problems even if it goes over 50g. :)
 
I picked up a leaflet from my vets the other day about how to care for guinea pigs (produced by the vet surgery) and they hadn't even mentioned to feed veg!
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They said fruit and hay but not so much as a mention to veg.
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Laura-CCC4 said:
Too many greens can lead to diarrhoea, but a nice wide variety fed in two or three portions through the day shouldn't cause problems even if it goes over 50g. :)
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I think I've over fed my boys there greens, one of them has the runs poor thing (ok well its not quite like the runs, it is still solid to a point but it is just very slodgey rather than solid pellet like...)

I have only had them for 5 days, and have been feeding them what I tought was a good variety of veggies, but I think I am giving them too many greens, for example, since monday night I have given them
Carrot,
pepper (red and yellow-turned there noses up lol)
celery
brussels
broccoli
cucumber
romaine lettuce
cabbage
swede
parsnips
tomatoe (again turned there noses up)
galia melon
apple
strawberries
*EDIT* not everyday btw, I've been giving them a mixture of 3 or 4 of these things a day!

Is that too much greens? or could it be that they were not used to so much variety (they used to only get 1 carrot a day between them, or a cabbage leave a day between them (((OH and apparently the last owner fed them potatoe peelings ?/ )))

Could be because I didn't introduce the foods slowly? I didn't realise I had to til I joined this site....

should diarreah (gosh I cant spell that lol) be something to really worry about? or is it like with us humans, it passes...?
They are both still eating well, and playing with each other etc... and apart from still being scared of me :( they seem well in themselves....
 
I've been told it's 50g a day per piggie, and usually try and feed them 4 or 5 different veg/fruit a day. So 10g per item! But not all greens as like you have seen it can give them messy poops and some foods can cause gas/bloat in piggies that are susceptible to it :(
My vet also told me not to give them too much carrot as it's quite fattening, as is corn on the cob. Some foods are high in calcium and can therefore cause kidney/bladder problems so it's getting the right mix. I'm trying new things out and seeing if they like stuff at the moment, they love kale and carrot the most so far. None of them liked the strawberries (more for me!) and they don't seem too keen on dill either. I'm going to look really healthy when I go to the supermarket tomorrow and fill up my basket with all this fruit and veg...little do they know most of it won't be for me! :))
 
lol I went to tesco the other day to stock up on veggies and spent nearly £30! rolleyes
Still don't think I chose the right veggies though, far too many gassy/greens... need more choice for them....

So if your giving them 4-5 a day, which ones do you give them?
I need to get my shopping list sorted out lol
 
Did you manage to find that website from the link I posted in the thread about cabbage being good or bad? I'm going to base mine on that I think. It's the one where the foods are split up into purple, red, orange and brown categories, and states how many from each category to use and the weight of each. To get started it looks easy enough, but i'm going to try and find what alternatives I can use in the 'red' category because I don't want to give them cabbage and kale all the time as i'm worried about bloat. Also if anyone can let me know what I do with celery i'd be grateful...as in do i literally just cut it up or do i need to strip it first so it's not stringy?! who'd have thought there'd be so much to a piggie's diet! :{
 
Lixies_mum said:
lol I went to tesco the other day to stock up on veggies and spent nearly £30! rolleyes
Still don't think I chose the right veggies though, far too many gassy/greens... need more choice for them....

So if your giving them 4-5 a day, which ones do you give them?
I need to get my shopping list sorted out lol
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I give mine peppers, carrots, babycorn, sugar snap peas or trimmed beans, cucumber and celery. I buy the value range where ever poss to save some pennies. Peppers tend to come in bigger bags in the value ranges (usually 6 or 7 smaller ones) for only slightly more than a pack of 3. Then they get parsley a couple of times a week. Sometimes brocolli but really I only tend to get this if there isn't much of the above list.

I still spend a small fortune on their dinners though rolleyes
 
I understand that diarrhoea is a major problem in pigs but sounds like yours have more like soft poops. Are they like this all the time? Poops tend to be softer overnight I've found. I think if you're concerned then cut back on the veg so they increase hay and pellets. This should firm up their bottoms, so to speak.
I introduce new foods slowly so that I can monitor any effect they have on my pigs. Some are more susceptible than others to particular foods. Sounds like you're giving them a good variety but it might be a bit overload if they're not used to it. Don't worry that you didn't introduce slowly but would be worth remembering for any new foods you want them to try.
A guinea pig only needs about a cup of veg a day- split over 2-3 servings.
Good luck. Hay is the main part of their diet.
p.s. I'm pretty much still a newbie owner too (since december) but have picked up a lot on the forum. Laura CCC4 and Wiebke have posted some really good info on food/ veg.
 
Thanks, that really helps, I was worried I was giving too many greens, but I think in my mind if it is the colour green, its a green? lol so I've been thinking of trying to get of each colour veg each meal time hehe.
Yeh it is more like soft poo, which they then walk in and make a mess of :S lol. when I first got them on Monday night I cleaned out there cage (which looked like it hadn't been for a very long time poor things) and gave them a huge bundle of hay for bedding plus put green meadow hay on top for food, They munched through nearly all of it over night! so I topped it up again, but they don't seem to be eating as much hay any more... I still top it up every day and try to remove any wet and soiled hay, but they just seem to be squashing it rather than eating it. so I think I will drop back on the fresh veggies a little encase I'm filling them up with that so they are not eating the hay. as there cage isn't that big I'm finding it hard to separate hay for bedding and food (to keep from soiling, but have ordered a hay rack, I've seen some concerns about these... but think until I can get a bigger cage it will be more hygienic for them. Then I'm saving up for a C&C cage, I'd love to make a 2 tier cage for them 4ft by 4ft at the base smaller on the top tier. :)
 
Thanks, that really helps, I was worried I was giving too many greens, but I think in my mind if it is the colour green, its a green? lol so I've been thinking of trying to get 1 of each colour veg each meal time hehe.
Yeh it is more like soft poo, which they then walk in and make a mess of :S lol. when I first got them on Monday night I cleaned out there cage (which looked like it hadn't been for a very long time poor things) and gave them a huge bundle of hay for bedding plus put green meadow hay on top for food, They munched through nearly all of it over night! so I topped it up again, but they don't seem to be eating as much hay any more... I still top it up every day and try to remove any wet and soiled hay, but they just seem to be squashing it rather than eating it. so I think I will drop back on the fresh veggies a little encase I'm filling them up with that so they are not eating the hay. as there cage isn't that big I'm finding it hard to separate hay for bedding and food (to keep from soiling, but have ordered a hay rack, I've seen some concerns about these... but think until I can get a bigger cage it will be more hygienic for them. Then I'm saving up for a C&C cage, I'd love to make a 2 tier cage for them 4ft by 4ft at the base smaller on the top tier. :)

opps, double posted! lol
 
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I use shredded paper mainly for bedding, and bit of meadow hay, then they have bio-organic hay in a rack and also in those hanging ball things. They're quite good because there's no chance of the hay getting soiled. I also hide some of the veg in the hay in the hanging balls and they have a good time trying to get it out! One of the balls has got a bell on the end so I can hear when they're eating from it! The main reason I stopped using hay on it's own as bedding was because Ernie has had mites in the past and scratched a lot, so putting the hay in the balls seemed to help.
Some of the pictures of C&C cages are great. When I got Stanley a couple of weeks ago I had him and Ernie in separate cages but side by side next to each other. When the introduction went well I simply opened up the sides of each cage and i've made a ramp out of those bending sticks to link up the cages. It's worked so far and quite fun for them to run across! The only thing i've found with the placing the hay on the floor of their cages is they eat that first rather than the hay in the balls. As the hay in the balls is better quality I might go back to just shredded paper for bedding. I also put their veg in the ke-bob things that hang from the top of their cage. You basically skewer the veg on to it then they can bite it off. Sorry if i've gone off the subject of the original thread, I can't send PM yet otherwise I would've sent a message directly :)
 
I've seen those, that's a really good idea, would stop them tipping the veggie bowls over too and squashing them into the saw dust! lol. (eventually I will change to fleece bedding/flooring, but need a bigger cage first I think. Still give them a hay bale to hide and burrow in but have fresh hay in racks and balls :D ) Yay! so excited, can't wait til I've got it all sorted for them!
 
flips said:
I introduce new foods slowly so that I can monitor any effect they have on my pigs. Some are more susceptible than others to particular foods. Sounds like you're giving them a good variety but it might be a bit overload if they're not used to it. Don't worry that you didn't introduce slowly but would be worth remembering for any new foods you want them to try.
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I think i've been giving them too many different foods too quickly then :(
Been trying out a few different things in one setting, although only a small amount of each. But before I was only giving them a bit of cucumber, carrot and dandelion leaves as I was worried about giving them gassy veg due to previous piggies dying from bloat and a stomach infection. So i've introduced kale, spinach, celery, courgette, pak choi, green pepper, some herbs such as parsley, coriander and dill, and I also tried pear and strawberries! I read that it was better to split up the veg into small servings of each rather than a big lot of one or two, so as to get a good calcium/phosporous ratio. For example 10g of 4 different types of veg/fruit, rather than say 20g of 2 different types. What would you suggest I do? They all seem to love most things i'm giving them but perhaps it would be best to not try anything for a while and just stick to the above. Any advice is much appreciated :)
 
I was thinking the same about my wee girls, thinking I was feeding them too much, but since I transferred the weight scales from the kitchen to their room, I can easily weigh their food and them when they allow (with the squirming *** they expect food). Was never sure if I over fed them and was trying to cut down on their fresh food but I think I'm just right. Yep spend a fortune weekly. Husband opens the fridge and says "the only thing in here is a light and the piggy food", not true of course, it generally means ingredients you have to put together.

Defo go for the bargain multipacks. The only thing mine will absolutely leave and not eat is apple chunks, tried all different types to no avail. They even eat strawberries if I put nothing else in which I naturally encourage. Hmm, I must invest in a vegetable patch this year or mini greenhouse.....I'm sensing a garden project for my husband!

Thanks for the info everyone, a great thread.
 
I was told by the guy who runs the local pet shop here not to give them strawberries as they are too acidic and could upset their tummies...?/

Which seemed a shame as my boys really seemed to like strawberries, but I haven't given them any since :(
 
Piggiewinkles said:
I'm going to look really healthy when I go to the supermarket tomorrow and fill up my basket with all this fruit and veg...little do they know most of it won't be for me! :))
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I had to laugh at this I'm the same since getting the piggies i feel realy healthy walking around with my shopping trolley heaped up with lots of veggies and salad stuff! hubby looks in the fridge likee ''oooo lovely for us?'' ~~ ''Err not a chance dear lol its for the wiggies'' :))
 
i feed 5 different veggies/herbs a day (same 5 twice a day, for the whole week, then 5 different the next week and so on.... to give variety) and give 10g of each one. because they have 3 from the high ranges and 2 from the low ranges, the high things tend to be leafy things (parsley, basil, coriander etc...) then the low tend to be solid foods (pepper, babycorn, cucumber etc...) and 10g of pepper isn't alot... so it works out really well. the meals are balanced and it doesn't overload the greens as such.

hope that makes sense! mallethead

laura did that thread on the high and low range foods and how to feed and i have followed that since and chesney and maisie have kept a nice steady weight and had no problems. :)
 
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