Spinach

[PuffinRockMom]

Hey! New Guinea Pig Mama here (my profile says that my piggies are new born. The girl said they were a 3 months old) and I have been giving my guineas spinach for the last couple of weeks, along with lettuce, kale, carrots, peppers, fresh grass and dandelions.

I know a lot of these are high in Calcium. We have had the guinea pigs 3 weeks come tomorrow. I am just really worried that I have been giving them stuff in to high of calcium.

I went to the store today and bought aubergine, parsley, peppers and carrots. Am I on the fight track? So scared that they get little stones.

 

[Merab]

Spinach is high in calcium so should be given more as a treat, as should carrots which are high in sugar.
Needless to say these are foods guinea pigs love !
Their diet should be at least 80% hay

Have a look in the Guinea Pig Care section of the forum where there is a thread about food. You will find lots of great advice there.

 

[Piggies&buns]

The four main safe daily veg are lettuce, cucumber, coriander and bell pepper.
They need unlimited hay. One cup of veg each day and one tablespoon of pellets each per day

Kale and parsley are both also high in calcium so should not be fed regularly.
Carrots should not be fed routinely as they are too high in sugar.
A small amount is aubergine can be given.

This is diet guide - it will help explain the diet they need further

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[fluffysal]

Welcome to the forum. New born pup is to identify you as a new member. The diet guide you have been given a link to is what most of us follow. Enjoy your piggies.

 

[Storm1974]

The four main safe daily veg are lettuce, cucumber, coriander and bell pepper.
They need unlimited hay. One cup of veg each day and one tablespoon of pellets each per day

Kale and parsley are both also high in calcium so should not be fed regularly.
Carrots should not be fed routinely as they are too high in sugar.
A small amount is aubergine can be given.

This is diet guide - it will help explain the diet they need further

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Isn't it the oxylates in spinach that is the problem? I've read that spinach is one of the highest foods in oxylates....But then I've also read that oxylates don't contribute to stones, though some say that 'is' the main issue, and that the calcium helps remove the oxylates out of the body!


'The low incidence of calcium oxalate stones may indicate that for the majority of guinea pigs, dietary oxalate is not a contributing factor in stone formation. Dietary oxalate binds with calcium. Often foods higher in oxalic acid are also higher in calcium, providing the calcium needed to bind with the oxalate'....
Guinea Lynx :: Bladder Stones

'A research study on calcium oxalate stones from the University of Alabama’s Department of Urology, focused on the connection between dietary oxalate and kidney stone formation in humans, found that maintaining regular calcium intake while limiting high-oxalate foods can help decrease the risk of stone formation.'
Guinea Pig Urinary Stones: Bladder + Kidney Stones + Sludge

Oxalic-Acid Information

On a separate note, do you think that if piggies are very active, they are much less likely to get stones?

 

[Wiebke]

Isn't it the oxylates in spinach that is the problem? I've read that spinach is one of the highest foods in oxylates....But then I've also read that oxylates don't contribute to stones, though some say that 'is' the main issue, and that the calcium helps remove the oxylates out of the body!


'The low incidence of calcium oxalate stones may indicate that for the majority of guinea pigs, dietary oxalate is not a contributing factor in stone formation. Dietary oxalate binds with calcium. Often foods higher in oxalic acid are also higher in calcium, providing the calcium needed to bind with the oxalate'....
Guinea Lynx :: Bladder Stones

'A research study on calcium oxalate stones from the University of Alabama’s Department of Urology, focused on the connection between dietary oxalate and kidney stone formation in humans, found that maintaining regular calcium intake while limiting high-oxalate foods can help decrease the risk of stone formation.'
Guinea Pig Urinary Stones: Bladder + Kidney Stones + Sludge

Oxalic-Acid Information

On a separate note, do you think that if piggies are very active, they are much less likely to get stones?

Hi

Spinach is both high in oxalates and calcium; both of these contribute to the formation of stones. Aubergines are not something that piggies are keen on in the first place. Carrot is nutritionally like eating a bar of chocolate for humans.

Please take the time to read our diet guide. It looks at all food groups involved in terms of their role in the overall diet but also in very practical detail as to what you can feed how often.
Hay (and dog-pee free unsprayed green grass once carefully introduced) is making over three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day and what the digestive system is laid for. Veg, forage (fresh or dry), pellets and any treats all together only replace the supplementary role that wild forage used to have and should make less than a quarter of what guinea pigs eat.
If you are living in a soft water area (most of the UK is hard water), you have a little more leeway re. calcium to find your local soft spot in the long term diet.

You also may find our new owners very practical and helpful information collection useful. Coming up towards 20 years of forum experience with literally hundreds of thousands of questions and owner experience in some cases going back half a century hve all gone into our guides which are addressing all the most commonly encountered little and large stumbling blocks that new owners come up against and to help them to learn how to care best for their piggies, learn what is normal and not and how to understand them. A real lot has changed for the last 15 years or so.
Here is the access link, which you may want to bookmark, browse, read and re-read at need. You will find that you are going to take different things away at different stages of experience: Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection