Storm1974
Junior Guinea Pig
I've read a lot on here about the fact that our pigs shouldn't really be eating a lot of pellets and although we do feed them good quality ones (Versele Laga Cavia), they do only have quite a small amount a day (AND we stupidly brought a massive 8kg bag, which we've not even got half way through yet!), we don't want to overdo it with the pellets because of the extra calcium ....BUT, the only thing that puts us off giving them less pellets, is that the pellets contain Vitamin D, and because the boys don't get outside very often due to the weather being either too windy or wet since we've had them (We also had some building work being done on the outside over the last couple of weeks, when the weather was better, so they couldn't go out then either), how will they get their 'all important' Vit D if we cut right down on their pellets?
I sort of see the pellets as vitamin tablets for the boys, but if it's only really due to the high calcium levels feeding both pellets and fresh food high in calcium, then I would probably prefer to cut down on the higher calcium veg. One of my fave YT channels LA Guinea Pig Rescue always has full bowls of pellets though and they also don't seem to worry too much about feeding too much calcium rich veg either. The owner 'Saskia' actually did a video on this subject a while ago and said it was the oxylates that were actually more of a problem and that we shouldn't really limit their calcium, just oxylate rich veg (But she also seems to feed a lot of parsley which is apparently high in oxylates, though I'm not sure if she 'still' does that?), and she also said that some pigs are genetically more prone to getting stones than other pigs......
On that note, does anybody know if there is anything we can give our piggies as a preventative to getting stones, or any form of treatment (Other than surgery which is risky) that can help dissolve them if they actually develop them?
I sort of see the pellets as vitamin tablets for the boys, but if it's only really due to the high calcium levels feeding both pellets and fresh food high in calcium, then I would probably prefer to cut down on the higher calcium veg. One of my fave YT channels LA Guinea Pig Rescue always has full bowls of pellets though and they also don't seem to worry too much about feeding too much calcium rich veg either. The owner 'Saskia' actually did a video on this subject a while ago and said it was the oxylates that were actually more of a problem and that we shouldn't really limit their calcium, just oxylate rich veg (But she also seems to feed a lot of parsley which is apparently high in oxylates, though I'm not sure if she 'still' does that?), and she also said that some pigs are genetically more prone to getting stones than other pigs......
On that note, does anybody know if there is anything we can give our piggies as a preventative to getting stones, or any form of treatment (Other than surgery which is risky) that can help dissolve them if they actually develop them?