What Veggies And Fruit Does Your Piggies Eat

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amber horner

amber horner

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Hi all ive had my piggies for 2 weeks now and I'm curious as to what fruit and veg you give your piggies as i dont realy know what they can have ive googled some info but one site says to give certain fruit and veg and another site says not to give them. So far ive given my piggies lettuce which they LOVE red peppers and green peppers, ive tried cabbage and brocolli but they dont seem to like it what other fruit and veg can i try and how much should i give them. Ive been giving my piggies some veg in the morning and early evening is this ok many thanks x
 
a small amount once or twice each day is fine. just make sure any new foods are introduced slowly to avoid tummy upsets :)

i tend to feed a small amount of 3-4 things each day and rotate as much as possible. but ideally you want to focus on leafy greens and add in little bits of other things for variety :)

mollie has: a variety of lettuces, green pepper, cucumber, coriander, spring greens, cauliflower leaves+stalk, broccoli flower+stem.

benjie has the same as mollie but also the following rotated aswell: thyme, spinach, parsley, pak choi, red/ruby chard, watercress and carrot tops.

mollie is on a low calcium diet which is why she can't have all the things benjie has. but if she wasn't, then i'd feed a diet based more on what benjie has which is leafy green focused :)

hope that helps a little :)

eta: i personally don't feed sugary things like carrot or fruit :)
 
I got my gunieas on thu and i went out on fri and got them all this veg to last them the week:

Brocoli, carrot n cauliflower
celery
dill
cabbage
red pepper
kale
spincach
apple
parsley

I give my pigs there veg once a day and thats at night time around 8 as thats when i give there cage quick clean by taking there hay out , emptying there pellets , changing there water and putting all fresh stuff in. I dunno if i am doing the right thing either but it is all a learning curve. I have also give them a guniea pig pop corn stick as a treat in there cage. I have heard to not give them lettuce or cucumber as this is high in water for them but again each person is different. :)
 
I give their veg in the morning when I wake up and then in the evening. Veggies that I rotate are lettuce, green peppers, coriander, parsley, arugula, romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrots, cherry tomatoes and zucchini. I give them 3 different things in the mornings and evenings.
You should give them about one cup a day per pig.
 
thank you all for your advice i shall be going shopping tomorrow for new veg for them i just dont want them to get bored with lettuce and peppers i also make sure they have plenty of fresh hay every day and they are on guinea pig nuggets which is what they were on at the pet shop shall i keep them on the nuggets permantly as this is all their used to, i think i need to give my piggies more veg then as i give them half a pepper in the morning and the other half in the evening and i break up 3 lettuce leafs for them deffo need to up the portion size for them i think x
 
amber horner said:
thank you all for your advice i shall be going shopping tomorrow for new veg for them i just dont want them to get bored with lettuce and peppers i also make sure they have plenty of fresh hay every day and they are on guinea pig nuggets which is what they were on at the pet shop shall i keep them on the nuggets permantly as this is all their used to, i think i need to give my piggies more veg then as i give them half a pepper in the morning and the other half in the evening and i break up 3 lettuce leafs for them deffo need to up the portion size for them i think x
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those measuring scoops you can buy are helpful. i got mine off ebay - just plastic ones that range in size from one cup downwards. if you loosely fill it and go by the one cup per pig per day estimate then you won't go far wrong. i don't tend to feed that much to be honest but it's a good guide to start with :)

i don't know about other people but with pepper i tend to do one slice each when i feed it :)
 
I've had my pigs about 2 months now and have tried a variety of vegetables. My pigs love round lettuce and romaine lettuce (not iceberg) cucumber, celery, kale and spinach and carrot, little bit of tomato. I've tried fresh beans, peas peppers asparagus baby corn mange tout courgette but they don't really like them
 
Mine love all colours of sweet pepper, cucumber, celery, carrots, swede, parsnips used to be ok but they won't eat them atm, butternut squash is ok-ish, peas in pods get very stern looks, just incase they're green beans - they won't touch them! Baby sweetcorn is ok, brocilli is well liked and is better than collieflower they love pea shoots and frizzy lettuces and radicho, but won't eat lambs eat lettuce, ummm... Oh tomatoes are a popular treat, baby chard and baby kale also went down well!
 
Lettuce (green leaf or romaine) and cilantro make up the bulk of my girls' daily veggies. They also each get 1/8 of a green bell pepper every day. Then they get a little bit of something else to add variety- either baby carrot, tomato, cucumber, celery, or fruit. Fruit is usually watermelon, strawberry, grape, or apple- whatever's in the house, because they don't get much of it at all. Callie also gets a small amount of parsley every day because she's under six months old and needs the calcium that she can't get through young guinea pig pellets (Nikki's old and sensitive to calcium so I can't use them).
 
Lossy said:
I've had my pigs about 2 months now and have tried a variety of vegetables. My pigs love round lettuce and romaine lettuce (not iceberg) cucumber, celery, kale and spinach and carrot, little bit of tomato. I've tried fresh beans, peas peppers asparagus baby corn mange tout courgette but they don't really like them
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i'm so tired today that i just read asparagus as sausage! :woot: :))
 
Lol no I wouldn't give them sausages I did have a hamster once who escaped and we found him in the cooker! Eating a leftover sausage! to this day I don't know how he got in there!
 
Lossy said:
Lol no I wouldn't give them sausages I did have a hamster once who escaped and we found him in the cooker! Eating a leftover sausage! to this day I don't know how he got in there!
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:)) thank goodness you found him! :eek:
 
My 2 piggies get a rotation of veg.
Carrot, zucchini, cucumber, corn, green,yellow or red capsicum depending on the day. Lettuce, watercress, Brussel sprouts, parsley, coriander, broccoli, beans a few other things that i cant think of now. Theres a site around that has a list of foods to give them and how offten they should have it. I took screen shots of the food and just walk around getting stuff. Then made up a weekly menu with it :)
 
:D My girls get; parsley, cabbage, kale (very small pieces of leaf and stalk) , carrot, celery leaves, parsnip, broccoli, cucumber, cauliflower hearts, spinach (half a leaf), sweetcorn (4 cobs), red and green pepper (won't eat yellow), cherry or baby tomatoes (1 quarter of a tomato) and various lettuces - except, of course, iceberg. . They only get very small amounts of each, and not everything every day.
They don't like asparagus (or sausages!) pak choi. coriander, or celery stalks. Cedar doesn't eat tomato and Beano won't always eat her peppers.
 
We have only had our guinea pigs for a week, and are slowly introducing different fresh veggies to them.
At the moment we only hand feed the veggies or let them have them during lap time, as we are still using limited quantities until we work out what they do and don't eat, and also what suits their digestion. Hand feeding also gives us a chance to see which pig likes what.
So far their favorites seem to be parsley, carrots, sweet peppers (all colours), fresh grass (hand cut - it's still too cold for them to go out yet) and apple.
None of them liked coriander (cilantro), and lettuce wasn't popular either.
Next on the list is broccoli, courgette and cucumber.

My favorite part about this is that each pig already has very definite preferences - it's been lovely seeing their personalities emerge :love:
 
Swissgreys said:
We have only had our guinea pigs for a week, and are slowly introducing different fresh veggies to them.
At the moment we only hand feed the veggies or let them have them during lap time, as we are still using limited quantities until we work out what they do and don't eat, and also what suits their digestion. Hand feeding also gives us a chance to see which pig likes what.
So far their favorites seem to be parsley, carrots, sweet peppers (all colours), fresh grass (hand cut - it's still too cold for them to go out yet) and apple.
None of them liked coriander (cilantro), and lettuce wasn't popular either.
Next on the list is broccoli, courgette and cucumber.

My favorite part about this is that each pig already has very definite preferences - it's been lovely seeing their personalities emerge :love:
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Here are our recommendations and a list of edible foods:
Recommendations For A Balanced General Guinea Pig Diet
Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading
 
i was just going to reccomend that you feed a variety of forage along side fruit and veg guinea pigs are fine
people may reccomend things like bracken and ferns but NEVER feed it to them but other foods are good such as dandelion lawn grass orchard grass alfafa wheatgrass sheperds purse (dandelion looking leaf but more rounded) and lots of herbs
piggies baisically enjoy leafy greens as it is closest to what they eat in the wild
if a fruit/veg comes from a tree USUALLY the leaves and wood is fine to feed and for them to gnaw on an exception to this is tomatoes as the leaves are poisonous if you are unsure research on websites sunch as the rspca, calicavycollective, guinealynx and rwaf
the rwaf (rabbit welfare association & fund) have also published a very successful and useful guide to forage that is safe to feed although the booklet is compiled for rabbits guinea pigs are also able to eat the forage listed also make sure you forage in places free from the likely hood of pollution from cars pesticides incectisides or contamination form dogs cats other pets and wild animals
hope this helps!
if you need any advice just ask at pet stores and research online (pets corner the pet shop is particularly good) and most of all love your guinea pigs
 
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