Traci (and everyone), I think that the single most important food is hay. If they are not eating it, I think it leads to trouble. Other vege and fruit tastes change over time. things they wouldnt touch are yummy a year later.
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picky pigs
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 AmeliaDaisy |
Re: Veggies | #21 | ||
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Posts: 1601 04/18/06 02:48 PM |
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charliesmamma |
Re: Veggies | #22 | ||
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Posts: 36 05/21/06 09:40 PM |
Our newest memebers Peter and Patrick only seem to like Kale and Carrots, hopefully over time they'll like some other things :)
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I Married Shrek |
WWWWWEEEEHOOOOOO | #23 | ||
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Posts: 211 05/23/06 04:52 AM |
After 6 weeks Fabio FINALLY ate some lettuce! Our newest rescue baby loves his greens and eats them right out of our hands (thank you cavy spirit for a good foster mom who taught him right!) and today..Fabio just couldn't take it anymore...
After living week with his new rescue baby "Turbo Pig" he decided that maybe there was something to that "stuff" he was eating. He sure seems to eat a lot of it. So ...sniff....nibble...stop...nibble....chew..chew...HEY! this stuff is pretty good!!!! And he gobbled up about 10 pieces of the salad mix that Turbo had already had his fill of. Thank you cavy madness folks for telling me to keep trying! |
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I Married Shrek |
Re: Veggies | #24 | ||
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Posts: 211 09/04/06 12:34 PM |
I thought I would update on my own situation.
My boys wil now eat almost anything I put in the cage. It took about 2 months for them to decide that if I was eating it, they could eat it too! Now when I'm nibbling on something and looking at them they look up with their little heads and move their mouths as if they are chewing something. It's just so cute. Then they walk toward me and wait. It simply can't resist it! I think ..just maybe they are actually learning words. I know they know ONE word...."carrot" ....I say "do you want a treeeet? (like I'm wheeking) and they look at me..waiting...and IF i say.."you want a carrot?" ...they start wheeek wheeek and popcorn in a little circle. Otherwise, they just wait and lick their little piggie lips. |
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singht |
picky stuart! | #25 | ||
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Posts: 17 11/08/06 09:05 AM |
wanted to run this by you guys this is what stuart eats during the day:-
green bellpepper (almost 3/4th ) little bit coriander fenugreek leaves -once in 3 days ( he'd eat it daily if i give him) cucumber 2-3 small pieces apple- 1/4th grass hay - lots yesterday he gobbled up a piece of chapatti that my younger son dropped on the floor before i could even bend down to pick it up! chapatti is indian bread- has no fat, made of wheat flour kneaded with water alone and no butter or salt/sugar. is that ok if he has a piece? He seemed to have loved it coz kept whheking and sniffing the air for quite sometime and rejected even his favorite bellpepper for it!! oranges are a big no no for him. doesnt even look at them. rest whatever i offer is outrightly rejected. i have potted a few shallow pots of whear grass for him where i let him lose every morning. he climbs on them and literally stuffs his mouth with the grass!! Is this ok? i need to know if i am missing something here. |
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PooksiedAnimals |
Re: picky stuart! | #26 | ||
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Posts: 4114 11/08/06 05:13 PM Moderator |
I tend to give a lot less green pepper, simply because it would cost a lot to be giving my pigs 1.5 peppers a day! Certainly it won't hurt him, but you can get away with less, if you wish.
It looks pretty good, as far as nutrition is concerned. He gets plenty of vitamin C (he only needs 1/6th of a pepper to get a full day's supply, and the hay is what's most important. You seem to lack leafy greens - but I suspect that may be because of your location? Green leaf lettuce, Romaine, kale, chard, escarole, chicory - these tend to be a staple for many guinea pigs' diets. Also, my girls get trimmings from whatever veggies and fruit I'm eating: eggplant ends, bits of winter squash (they hate zucchini and summer squash), tomatoes, celery, broccoli, corn husks; bits of pear, cantaloupe and melon rinds, a small slice of banana. Oh, and kiwi rinds! (a big favorite). They are all worth trying, to add to the variety. |
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Topaz65z |
Re: Veggies | #27 | ||
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Posts: 69 11/20/06 04:14 PM |
I was happy to find this thread this morning as two of my three baby girl pigs won't eat anything but hay/grass/pellets. One of them eats anything I put in there....parsley, apples, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, grapes....anything and everything. And she's the smallest! I was wondering if this was common. Each morning and then again in the afternoon, I've been putting various fruits/veggies in there only to have Goldie gobble it all up while Brownie and Oreo stay clear of the bowl. They want nothing to do with it. They just kind of watch Goldie eating everything up all by herself.
I'll just keep trying! Laura |
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singht |
still picky stuart | #28 | ||
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Posts: 17 12/03/06 07:46 PM |
U r right location is a problem. we dont get all those leafy veges here and where ever they are available - they are verrrry expensive. the ones that he likes are the ones he shouldnt have- fenugreek leaves and spinach.
wheatgrass is liked a lot by him and i have planted a few pots for him. apart from that its capsicum, coriander. i have introduced pellets (finally managed to find a place which keeps these!) but he isnt particularly liking them. eats only when he runs out of capsicum. |
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Rosalee |
#29 | |||
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Posts: 234 02/02/07 08:45 AM Moderator |
Testing...
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PattiNYC |
#30 | |||
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Posts: 197 11/19/07 07:44 PM |
Hi all-
Thanks for pinning this topic so I did not have to look for it :) I had Spike for 4 1/2 years and he was a pig for fresh veggies and hay and pellets. I have had Domino three days now and she will only eat red leaf lettuce and hay so far. Very few pellets (maybe 1/16 cup, about half her daily allottment) and no red pepper or cranberries or asparagus :( I thought htose were a slam dunk as Spike loved them, but I suppose this is a lesson in the fact that they are not the same piggy (sigh). How long should I worry about the fact that she may not be getting enough vitamin C? Becuase Spike always ate such a variety I never supplemented him, but if she will only eat hay & lettuce I am sure that I iwll need to... don't want scurvy... |
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PooksiedAnimals |
#31 | |||
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Posts: 4114 11/19/07 09:12 PM Moderator |
If you're feeding a good quality guinea pig pellet, I wouldn't sweat it too much, at least to start. Eating habits can change a lot in the next few
days-to-weeks as she adjusts to her new surroundings. You may find in a week or two, she's eating more pellets and greens. I know when I brought home
Willow and Pippin, they ate hardly any pellets, just a lot of hay. But after three weeks, just when I was about to give up giving them pellets, they suddenly
switched, and ate a ton of pellets.
If in three weeks she still has these eating habits, we can brainstorm what to do next. |
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PattiNYC |
#32 | |||
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Posts: 197 11/19/07 10:31 PM |
Thanks for the reply. It's been so long since I had a new pig in the house that although my brain knows to be patient, my heart fears the worst. Already
in looking at how vigorous she is, I can see now how Spike slowly declined. It's sad to know that I missed it. The last few weeks of his life were such
ablur, I hope to never repeat that and miss the signals that all is not well.
Thanks for talking me off the ledge. PS - Oxbow cavy cuisine, always, she is supposedly 9 months old, so I did not bother with anything alfalfa based. |
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PooksiedAnimals |
#33 | |||
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Posts: 4114 11/20/07 09:29 AM Moderator |
That's good stuff then (the oxbow). Isn't it tough, trying to be patient, when you just end up worrying? Oy!
Slow declines can be so sneaky. It wasn't until after Athena passed away, that I realized how she didn't wheek when being picked up for the last few months of her life. I figured she was just getting used to it, but I realize now that it was a symptom of the mass in her chest. We had a pig show up at a pignic, once, who was in really poor condition. The owner had been dealing with two declining pigs (both with heart conditions and getting older), and the owner was mortified to see what healthy pigs should look like. It was a stark contrast. But until then, she didn't realize how bad things were. It happens. |
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skippy000 |
picky piggies | #34 | ||
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Posts: 40 02/29/08 08:27 AM |
I have three at home, all young ladies. The first 2 came from a home breeder who had a large pen and they were fed loads of vegtable leftovers. But they are
finicky and won't eat everything at all. They turn their noses up quite often at new things. The 3rd one, Billy, came from a petshop and was obviously only
used to pellets. She even took a while to work out how to eat vegetables but took to it like a duck to water when she worked it out. I would give her bits of
carrot and endives cut into small pieces and it seemed to help. It didn't take long for her to start enjoying the vegetables though. Funnily enough, she is
now the one that eats anything you give her. Bunny and Betty are extremely fussy and only eat endives, carrots, very crunchy apples, cucumber, celery, lettuce
stems, broccoli stems, baby spinich, parsley, melon and very dry crunchy french bread. Billy loves all that and bananas and strawberries and raspberries.
I'm too scared to give them lettuce leaves as one of our neighbours had a piggy who chocked on a soft piece. So I tend to tear the leaf off and just give
them the stem and crunchy bits.
If you know of any other foods they may like, please let me know as I find their menu a wee bit boring. They probably do too. All 3 said blah to turnips and tomatoes. But they do tend to love crunchy things. |
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PooksiedAnimals |
#35 | |||
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Posts: 4114 02/29/08 09:44 AM Moderator |
Greens, like chickory, chard, green-leaf lettuces like boston, bib, romaine, red-leaf and escarole should be part of their bulk of greens. I am not certain
what happened with your neighbor's pig, but choking usually happens from eating seeds or something small and hard. Some pigs are prone to choking (I had
one pig that would choke after every meal, because she'd inhale it so fast), and often its a symptom of a heart condition (which often goes undiagnosed in
guinea pigs). The soft dark green leafy part has the most nutrients! My girls would not be happy if I gave them only the "bones" of the lettuce.
Tomatoes can be an acquired taste. I had one pair of pigs that were well over a year old before they'd touch them. |
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skippy000 |
They love lettuce now. | #36 | ||
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Posts: 40 04/02/08 09:58 AM |
Since the last message I have given the ladies some lettuce and they love it. The only thing is that they especially love iceberg lettuce which, apparently,
has no nutrients...oh well it's a start I suppose.
Hope all your piggies are well everybody. |
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PooksiedAnimals |
#37 | |||
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Posts: 4114 04/02/08 10:48 AM Moderator |
Do not give your pigs iceberg lettuce. On top of having no nutritional value whatsoever, it can cause diarrhea.
Have you tried romaine, especially the stalks? It looks like they like the crunchy stuff. |
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piggylover9 |
#38 | |||
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Posts: 8 12/02/08 04:57 PM |
Hey there! Thats awesome you've adopted! When I adopted my at the time was my 4 year old female. She was SO picky, she didn't eat anything but her
pellets and timothy hay. But we put the veggies and fruit in her cage everyday for 4 months, and one day she tried it! And she loved it :) Just give them time,
they probably have not ever had it before as people said, but my Reesey... she is a little piggy now.. she will try everything.. so don't stop giving it to
them. Just set it in their cage and one day they will probably try it!
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