[CF#5]

The foods highest in vitamin C all have to be fed in moderation for a variety of reasons. Peppers have an inverse Ca:Ph ratio and can cause mild gas problems. Kale is a cabbage and can cause significant gas problems. It's also very high in calcium, as is parsley. Broccoli is one of the worst vegetables for causing gas. Also, only organic broccoli should be fed to guinea pigs because it's difficult to wash the pesticides out of the florets in broccoli. Other vegetables don't have to be organic as long as they're washed well. Peppers tend to end up with a huge amount of pesticide on them, but they're easy to wash. Parsley is very high in oxalic acid, and like kale, is high in calcium.

The solution to all this is to use green and/or red leafy lettuce (Ca:Ph ratio 2.7) and romaine lettuce (Ca:Ph ratio 0.8) to balance out whatever negative effects are attached to the high-C foods your pigs eat. Generally, I don't like for gas-inducing foods to comprise more than 1/3 of a plate of vegetables, and I don't like for the high-calcium foods to comprise more than 1/3 of a plate of vegetables. These two requirements I have are mutually exclusive and don't really have anything to do with each other. Obviously the total Ca:Ph ratio should be around 2:1.

Also, red, orange, and yellow peppers have about double the vitamin C as green peppers.