Sticky Weed/cleavers

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katie-elizabeth

katie-elizabeth

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I have given sticky weed to my piggies a couple of times and they love it - just wondering if it matters how often they have them? Also what nutritional value do they have, are they high in vitamin c?
 
Hello. They are safe with cleavers, no problem. It will contain minerals from the soil it is grown on, high in calcium if grown on chalk. It is a mild astringent, a mild diuretic and good for kidneys in people as a result of this. (Humans can eat it, best cooked, or made into tea. It is a relative of coffee) For piggies, there are no bad side effects. Some piggies do not like it because of the 'mouth feel' and leave it. Most will take a few attempts to really eat it, but they do like it. I regularly feed it to mine as it grows rather too well in my garden!

Cow parsley is trickier because it is similar to hemlock (same family, the carrot family) so take care you have the right plant there. I know it is fine for other herbivores such as horses. It is similar in nutrients to chervil. I personally would happily feed it to my piggies if I had any in the garden, but it is worth checking with a picture (online or in a book) that you do have the right stuff as there are poisonous relatives.

Just to add, avoid feeding plants you have picked from the roadside without thorough washing first. They will be covered in poisonous exhaust fumes.
 
Brilliant :) I too have discovered lots of it growing in my garden so I'll carry on giving it to them :) Thank you, I'll have happy piggies. Interesting that people can have it too!
 
Wow, big thanks to my forum friends for putting me on to cleavers! My two are really enjoying them. And it's so rewarding to forage for treats for them!
 
@Sarah from Chucklebunnies

Can pigs eat any of the following...

Sow thistle
Dead nettle
Mallow
Bindweed
Bristly oxtongue

They tend to be the main weeds in my garden that i feed the tortoise and I have lots of them!
 
Mine love cleavers. It was funny watching them the first time they had it. Groundsel is a favourite too
 
... up until now, I've not been brave enough to forage for anything other than dandelions. I'm pretty sure I'll manage to identify cleavers though.
 
Winifred said:
Just wear a fleece jumper and they'll find you:doh:
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.... won't be doing this for stinging nettles though

(I'm assuming we get the answer that they are OK for guinea pigs)
 
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@Amanda1801

Bristly oxtongue and bindweed are midly toxic to most foraging herbivores - I think your tortoises have slightly different digestions from piggys so I wouldn't risk those two.

Mallow and nettles we can eat so they are definitely not toxic to piggies if our digestions can cope! But I am not sure about the stings on nettles so I have never given them to mine. You may need to 'thrash' the nettles against a hard surface first to undo the stings. As you would do before cooking them for us. And check that the mallow is an edible mallow by finding the picture of your plants online as there are many plants called 'mallow'.

Sow thistle I feed to mine. It's not that prickly, not like a real thistle.

I hope that helped a bit.

Silk's boys who are staying with me are getting used to forage greens now, the cleavers I gave them earlier were gone in a flash.

I just wanted to add that the greens we have cultivated (eg kale and cabbage) are very rich and heavy in sugars compared to the greens piggys would normally eat lots of during their days. And piggies are foraging animals, getting bits of lots of different plants into them during the day. So giving your piggys bits of different greens that grow in the garden is not a bad thing to do at all.
 
I feed dried nettles - give them to everyone, dogs horses, me, everyone!
 
Dried nettles sounds like a good idea. I bet drying negates the alkaloid stings as well. I will feed dried nettles too.
 
Tried Cleavers out this morning and they were a bit success.
I served them separately to their morning side salad. I gave the cleavers to them by hand and all three of my trio grabbed them out of my hand.
I love giving them things from my garden - much fresher than shop bought stuff.


any idea how frequently cleavers can be given?
 
Sara412 said:
I'm going to try these with my boys just worried about Brodie (Rex) he's very fluffy and bit like a fleecy jumper:no:
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aww bless him haha, hand feed them :) mine have just had cleavers plus dandelions and grass, so I'm in their good books lol
 
I suppose I just give them extra forage green when I go down the garden so it kind of depends on the weather, usually two huge handfuls a day between five piggies. I am happy to give cleavers every day, but the handful normally has different stuff in it each time so it's not all cleavers. I always think of forage greens as being a kind of green hay, sort of rich hay but not as rich as kale. So they get a bit of kale, a fair pile of forage greens and unlimited hay. They would, of course, like more greens than that.

Looking back on it I think mine have eaten ever such a lot of cleavers as visitors and my OH also bring them forage greens in as well, it is lovely feeding wheeking piggies, and it has done them no harm at all!

(I will be drying nettles to feed as forage in the winter, this will be a fun experiment. I have rather a lot of nettles too - I grow a patch of them for the native moths and have to keep the patch under control as it tends to spread.)
 
I'm going to try some nettles with mine. Maybe a daft question but how long do you have to leave them before they lose their sting.

I did dry dandelions last year & they were a great success in January.
 
i have a large garden and cleavers, chickweed and nettles grow abundantly! I cut the nettles and leave them in the shed spread out to wilt for a couple of days, then both ponies and piggies are happy to eat them :)

I feed forage abundantly, have never worried about quantities or thought that it was possible to feed too much?
 
His Pig Friday said:
Wow, big thanks to my forum friends for putting me on to cleavers! My two are really enjoying them. And it's so rewarding to forage for treats for them!
Click to expand...
It's fun to forage for yourself too, I bought a foraging book last year I need to dig it out again :nod:
 
@Sarah from Chucklebunnies its a long shot...but hedge woundwort? Just found a large patch down the bottom of my garden. I'm expecting its not g pig friendly as its a moderate feed for torts but worth checking because there's so much of it!

Also, what about vetch? Its my day off today so there will be a dog walk along the canal, lots of vetch there, then across the fields to gather some plantain. And yarrow? Pretty sure there's some of that growing in the fields but its a no feed for tortoises but I'm pretty sure its pig safe?

Plantain is a good one for forage novices actually. It grows in most lawns and is easy to identify. Young leaves to down better than larger more mature leaves as they can get quite tough and stringy. Please more this website is aimed at tortoises, and the information does NOT mean that things are guinea pig safe, but its very good for photos and identifying. Both broad and narrow leaved plantain are safe to feed.
http://m.thetortoisetable.org.uk/m/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=208
 
I wish there was an animal that liked to eat dock leaves......i am invaded by them in my paddock and garden and have to keep strimming!

Can you feed comfrey to piggies? I grow it for one of my ponies, never tried it with pigs though...
 
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