What leafy greens does every one feed?

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Joey&Gizmo

Joey&Gizmo

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I know that most leafy greens can be fed, but i just wanted some new ideas from you lovely people :) as i think my pigs have tried most and i know they should get leafy greens daily.

:(|)
 
Well I thought I'd take a pic of what we currently have in the fridge for the piggies...

DSC_1828.jpg


So we have carrotts, spring greens, curly lettuce, peppers, coriander, parsley, cucumber, green cabbage, celery, brocolli, watercress and rocket!

( yes there food does take up most of the fridge! )

There was also basil, round lettuce and another pack of parsley up until they were fed earlier. They obviously don't get everything all in one day!
 
Sweetheart cabbage, kale, pak choi, baby spinach, round lettuce, romaine lettuce, cauliflower leaves :)
 
Your fridge does look well packed with veg for the pigs :)) It looks very scrummy.

Mine love kale and curly lettuce!

Thanks for the ideas. Anymore anyone?
 
Spinach, kale, spring greens, savoy cabbage, broccoli (they always get the stems when we have it), sweetcorn leaves (a real favourite), vine leaves, dandelions, cherry tree leaves and passionflower leaves from the garden. All of these I count as 'greens' towards that portion of their daily diet.
 
ches and maisie have :

curly lettuce
hearts of romaine lettuce
curly kale
pak choi
spinach, watercress, rocket mix with red chard
wild rocket
basil
coriander
parsley
dill
thyme
dandelion leaves

they only have leafy greens, vet said cut everything else out, apart from hay and water obv! and they only have a very small amount of pellets a few times a week now.

need to think of more leafy greens though. i'm struggling to vary it each week. doesn't seem to be enough different things, and also alot seem to be high calcium... and i don't like feeding 'gassy' veg to them...

any ideas what else i could try?
 
This week:
Cos lettuce, round lettuce, spring greens, sweetheart cabbage, broccoli, peppers, French beans, cucumber, celery, carrots, apples, coriander, a rest of baby spinach; dandelion form the garden.
 
I feed them mostly round lettuce or butterhead lettuce because it's cheap. But also any type of lettuce (except iceberg), rocket, spinach, any type of salad leaf mix really, and broccoli. And then other non-green veggies too.

I also have some lettuce, cress, parsley and mint growing for them, so they get small amounts of that and I have some more things starting to grow.

But they get a big pile of fresh grass twice a day and any dandelion leaves I can find. Or they get their run put out on the grass for the day. Grass is their favourite food anyway. :)

Does anyone know if getting a lot of grass can replace getting a lot of greens in their diet? Or should they still get a lot of greens? People on here seem to feed a lot of greens, but I try not to give too many, because the price adds up fast.
 
Thanks for this too. I never know what other kind of greens to give them. I will also give them the broccoli stem now too.
 
Joey&Gizmo; The cherry tree in my garden is an edible cherry and has never had any chemicals on it. I'm not sure about other cherries - I know there are quite a few trees that have been 'bred' for blossom not fruit. I also could feed apple or pear leaves, but I don't have those trees myself. Apple wood makes a very good chew apparently.
 
My lot have a herb and lettuce based diet. I rotate between:

Dolce verde
Romaine
Round
Red cos
Batavia
Continental (crispy and quite curly)
Summer lettuce (bit like a red version of round lettuce)

Parsley
Coriander
Dill

Cabbages are a rarity, although I am thinking of introducing cabbages to 10 of my 15 pigs. I say only 10, as in the remaining group of 5 I have two pigs prone to bloat and trying to pick out the three that can have it.....well, cabbages aren't enough of a superfood to warrant that trouble. :))

They do get other foods as well, but the thread is about leafy veg.
 
Now in spring/summer mine get their vitamin C veggie for breakfast. I alternate between pepper, broccoli and cabbage. The rest is just grass, dandelion leaves and other pig-suitable weeds. They usually get a few carrot and cucumber pieces too, as treats :)
 
Thanks guys, you have really helped and i shall be on the look out for the leafy greens that i haven't fed.

Just to mention that I went to aldi and they had 'speciality lettuce' for 79p and when i looked to see what is was it was endive, lolo rosso, also the red dark lettuce (cant remember the name) etc in huge bunches! Ive never seen them like that only in salad bags so i got them one as they love those lettuce.

:)
 
does anyone know how much i should feed ches and maisie if they only have leafy greens and no other types of veg?

and how i can rotate them so they aren't having too much calcium...

and does grass count as greens or forages like hay is?
 
Mine have spinach, carrot, brocolli, kale, parsley, green beans, celery, grass or dandelions.

Sarah, we used to have an apple tree in the garden and the pigs absolutely loved the brances to chew on :) moreso than anything else I've ever tried with them, apart from cardboard rolleyes
 
I think grass counts as a forage, Lea.

Still go for a good handful each per day, minimum.
 
I have a pear tree, which is chemical free can they have leaves and branches from it?

I'll keep the pears for me :p... :))
 
mine mainly have spring greens and lettuce, in leafy greens I fill my trolley with all the reduced salad bags! :)
Their favourites still seem to be grass and dandelions though! Thankfully both are in large supply as I am a terrible gardener!

Does anyone know if they can eat 'bind weed' otherwise known as morning glory? it is officially out of control in my area and a real **** in peoples gardens as it strangles the other plants - if the pigs could eat it, it'd be Dora & Poppy to the rescue!!
 
sazmatazz said:
mine mainly have spring greens and lettuce, in leafy greens I fill my trolley with all the reduced salad bags! :)
Their favourites still seem to be grass and dandelions though! Thankfully both are in large supply as I am a terrible gardener!

Does anyone know if they can eat 'bind weed' otherwise known as morning glory? it is officially out of control in my area and a real **** in peoples gardens as it strangles the other plants - if the pigs could eat it, it'd be Dora & Poppy to the rescue!!
Click to expand...

Bind Weed is poisonous. We have it here too & i second your thoughts on it grrrr
 
Niki said:
Bind Weed is poisonous. We have it here too & i second your thoughts on it grrrr
Click to expand...

I've heard that bind weed isn't poisonous, only true morning glory is . . . or something? It was on another forum and they said it was fine to feed them, but don't trust me on that. I used to always feed it to my old guinea pigs with no problems, but now I have new ones and I tried them on a small piece of it before and they didn't even like it, so I don't feed it to them.
 
Does anyone know if daisies are edible? I've heard they are, and are used on salads etc. but I've also heard they're not (from websites like Yahoo answers though that I don't really trust.)
 
CCT has bindweed listed as dangerous. Some plants aren't toxic in very small quantities, but too much can still kill, so it's better to feed none.

Daisies I don't know about, it's something I've got no idea about either.
 
CiaraPatricia said:
Does anyone know if daisies are edible? I've heard they are, and are used on salads etc. but I've also heard they're not (from websites like Yahoo answers though that I don't really trust.)
Click to expand...

I gave my boys a daisy each yesterday I thought they were ok :... they are all fine this morning
 
Hm... daisies (the tiny kind you make daisy chains from) are all over the lawn! It would be hard to find a spot without them... Do you think piggies will avoid stuff that's not good for them, like cows and horses do?
 
skrikopanik said:
Hm... daisies (the tiny kind you make daisy chains from) are all over the lawn! It would be hard to find a spot without them... Do you think piggies will avoid stuff that's not good for them, like cows and horses do?
Click to expand...

Don't know my boys ate them yesterday!
 
skrikopanik said:
Hm... daisies (the tiny kind you make daisy chains from) are all over the lawn! It would be hard to find a spot without them... Do you think piggies will avoid stuff that's not good for them, like cows and horses do?
Click to expand...

I think they will, they seem to avoid buttercups, nettles, thistles, and bind weed anyway :)
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
CCT has bindweed listed as dangerous. Some plants aren't toxic in very small quantities, but too much can still kill, so it's better to feed none.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've just heard so many different things about bindweed. My rabbit book says it's fine and my guinea pig book says it's poisonous! Best to avoid it I guess anyway, since they don't seem to like it (and mine would eat anything) :)
 
best to avoid it then. It's a shame though as we have such a large supply!
mine seem quite fussy with their greens, they like the expensive stuff the most!
 
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