Viatamin c

[mls18]

what are peopls thoughts on giving extra viatamin c to guinea pigs? Ive never given any supplimants to my guinea pigs, i just let them get their viatamin c from high viatamin c veggies. The vet i just went to told me this wasent right and that i should give oxbow viatamin c tablets everyday, and that theres no way guinea pigs could get enough viatamin c from veggitables. Is that right?

 

[Claire W]

Guinea pigs do not need added vitamin C. I asked a similar question the other day and I was told that they get enough vitamin C from their veggies, hay and pellets

 

[mls18]

Guinea pigs do not need added vitamin C. I asked a similar question the other day and I was told that they get enough vitamin C from their veggies, hay and pellets

ok thanks! thats what I was thinking but the vet made me question if that was correct.

 

[Siikibam]

Their diet is the way it is because that’s how it has adapted in order for them to get enough vitamin c. It’s in the hay and also the pellets. I believe all veg contains some amount of vitamin c, some more than others.

The issue with supplementing is it can actually cause issues in itself when they’re getting too much. If the level in their body drops below a certain level (even if it’s within the normal range), they could potentially develop scurvy.

It seems thoughts on this vary between doctors and countries. Hope your appointment went well

 

[Piggies&buns]

If that was the case that they cannot get enough from the diet then there would be a lot of poorly piggies on this forum, all suffering with scurvy. Most long term owners, myself included, do not supplement.
We hardly ever see scurvy on the forum. If we do see it, generally it is in cases where piggies have been fed an incorrect diet (being given rabbit food and no veg for example). The other time we see scurvy is in piggies who have been supplemented but the supplementation then suddenly stops (explained below).

If you routinely supplement piggies in addition to a good healthy diet then the excess vit c will just be excreted in the urine. You will simply be wasting your money to supplement them.

More seriously, if you supplement then their bodies get used to abnormally high levels of vitamin c.
This means that if the level they have become used to drops, even if the level it drops to would be within normal range for a non-supplemented piggy, then it can cause scurvy. So technically you risk making your piggies ill.

 

[mls18]

Their diet is the way it is because that’s how it has adapted in order for them to get enough vitamin c. It’s in the hay and also the pellets. I believe all veg contains some amount of vitamin c, some more than others.

The issue with supplementing is it can actually cause issues in itself when they’re getting too much. If the level in their body drops below a certain level (even if it’s within the normal range), they could potentially develop scurvy.

It seems thoughts on this vary between doctors and countries. Hope your appointment went well

If that was the case that they cannot get enough from the diet then there would be a lot of poorly piggies on this forum, all suffering with scurvy. Most long term owners, myself included, do not supplement.
We hardly ever see scurvy on the forum. If we do see it, generally it is in cases where piggies have been fed an incorrect diet (being given rabbit food and no veg for example). The other time we see scurvy is in piggies who have been supplemented but the supplementation then suddenly stops (explained below).

If you routinely supplement piggies in addition to a good healthy diet then the excess vit c will just be excreted in the urine. You will simply be wasting your money to supplement them.

More seriously, if you supplement then their bodies get used to abnormally high levels of vitamin c.
This means that if the level they have become used to drops, even if the level it drops to would be within normal range for a non-supplemented piggy, then it can cause scurvy. So technically you risk making your piggies ill.

ok great thanks for the replys! I guess the vet just has diffrent thoughts about it, glad I double checked before buying the suppliments

 

[Betsy]

I have never given my guinea pigs supplements. I've had piggies for nearly 7 years and for 5 years before that with my first two. They were all very healthy.

 

[Wiebke]

what are peopls thoughts on giving extra viatamin c to guinea pigs? Ive never given any supplimants to my guinea pigs, i just let them get their viatamin c from high viatamin c veggies. The vet i just went to told me this wasent right and that i should give oxbow viatamin c tablets everyday, and that theres no way guinea pigs could get enough viatamin c from veggitables. Is that right?

Hi

Guinea pigs get vitamin C through:
- fresh growing grass (which is high in vitamin C and the reason why they could switch of their vitamin C producing gene complex) and to some lesser degree hay and hay based products which is their main food source and adds up by virtue of making over 80% of their daily food intake.
- ANY veg and fresh herbs, not just those high in it
- pellets reinforced with vitamin C
- vitamin C reinforced formula products for guinea pigs that do not eat fully
It all adds up - vitamin C is in pretty much in any food that piggies eat and not just a in slice of pepper to two.

All we can say is that none of our own piggies have ever had a scurvy problem, with our personal experience reaching back in case half a century even though we do not supplement. This forum has been running for over 15 years with literally tens of thousands of piggies passing through, yet actual scurvy cases still only number in handfuls out of hundreds of thousands of threads.

The few scurvy cases that we see on here are mostly from owners persistently oversupplying with vitamin C, which means that the body accustoms to those higher than normal levels and tends to react with scurvy symptoms even though the vitamin C levels are actually still above normal. The other group are newly rescued neglect/malnutrition cases.

I once adopted a piggy with severe scurvy from malnutrition once she had been brought back to health and her dental issues had been dealt with (her companion was sadly not so lucky). Teggy lived another 5 years on a perfectly normal diet without extra vitamin C and passed away aged 6 from age related issues.

I hope that this helps you?

 

[mls18]

Hi

Guinea pigs get vitamin C through:
- fresh growing grass (which is high in vitamin C and the reason why they could switch of their vitamin C producing gene complex) and to some lesser degree hay and hay based products which is their main food source and adds up by virtue of making over 80% of their daily food intake.
- ANY veg and fresh herbs, not just those high in it
- pellets reinforced with vitamin C
- vitamin C reinforced formula products for guinea pigs that do not eat fully
It all adds up - vitamin C is in pretty much in any food that piggies eat and not just a in slice of pepper to two.

All we can say is that none of our own piggies has ever had a scurvy problem, with our personal experience reaching back in case half a century even though we do not supplement. This forum has been running for over 15 years with literally tens of thousands of piggies passing through, yet actual scurvy cases still only number in handfuls out of hundreds of thousands of threads.

The few scurvy cases that we see on here are mostly from owners persistently oversupplying with vitamin C, which means that the body accustoms to those higher than normal levels and tends to react with scurvy symptoms even though the vitamin C levels are actually still above normal. The other group are newly rescued neglect/malnutrition cases.

I adopted once a piggy with severe scurvy from malnutrition once she had been brought back to health and her dental issues had been dealt with (her companion was sadly not so lucky). Teggy lived another 5 years on a perfectly normal diet without extra vitamin C and passed away aged 6 from age related issues.

I hope that this helps you?

Thank you for taking the time to reply! I don't know why the vet was making me feel like I was doing something wrong when I said I didn't feed any extra supplements, so thankful for this forum or I would've listened to her!