Hates Veggies

I adopted a piggie a couple weeks ago. He is supposed to be about 1 years old from what I've been told. He is now happily living in his new C&C cage with his new fiddlesticks tunnel and Link-N-Lodge house so I think I have the basic housing necessities done but my question/concern is that since I have had him he won't eat any veggies. I've tried carrots, parsley, mustard greens, cabbage, nice new dandelions greens, and fresh picked grass. He just won't touch it. I did find out that his previous owner never ever feed him any type of veggies! He eats his pellets fine and he has lots of timothy hay available and I give him his vitamin C daily so does anyone have any ideas/recommendations on how to get him to eat his veggies? Is it O.K. if he never eats them? Can you tell me what your piggies favorite veggie is? Thanks

I think the best thing to do is try all kinds of different veg and re-try ones after a week or so. It's better if he has his vit c from veggies and if you are putting vit c drops in his water he won't be getting much as vitaminc is destroyed by sunlight. My pigs favorites are parsley, grass, dandelions, cleavers, clover, sweet peppers, carrots, kiwi and romaine. Leafy green are best. Kiwi and peppers have quite high levels of vit c and so does parsley but it also has a high level of calcium which can be bad for pigs. My pigs used to just eat the kiwi skin but now they eat the whole thing. Either way is ok Is he happy otherwise? He could be lonely, so sad. Piggies love the company of other pigs. Also if you could get another and it ate veg he might to. I had one pig at first but she was much brighter and seemed happier when I got her a friend.

No he doesn't seem unhappy, just the opposite. He is very friendly and sociable. I think he thinks my dwarf bunny is another GP. Their cages are fairly close together. I don't give him vit C in his water because I heard that was the wrong thing to do. He gets 1/4 of a vit c tablet. I have been thinking about adopting another male for a friend but I'm worried about them fighting or not getting along.

ah, didn't know you had a rabbit too. Rabbits and pigs can get along but it's best not to keep them in a cage together. Nice he has a friend nearby though I had a lone male and worried about getting another too. Generally getting a younger pig works best. You can bath them both to give them the same scent or put a small amount of essensial oil or perfume on there grease spots. Also throughtly cleaning out the cage helps. Best too intoduce them slowly where you can closely supervise on neutral territory. I had problems at all with my two and they were 9 and 12 weeks. Sometimes it takes more than one introduction but most get along. But it does come down to the personality of the pigs and some prefer to be alone.
Vitamin tablets are much better than putting it in the water

so far my boys just inhale lettuce, I give them green leaf lettuce, not icky iceberg. I've also given them carrots and broccoli stalks, both which they loved chewing on but I don't know how much actual eating really happenned. I tried some pineapple, and they had ZERO interest in that. I only tried it because there was a picture of piggies eating pineapple in a guinea pig book I was reading, so I thought it might be a treat, but you would've thought it was a rock from how little my piggies cared.

Keep trying to give your piggy veggies. I was told by my rescue group that the piggies learn to eat veggies from their mom. Since the former owner did not give veggies it might take a little while to get them to eat it. It took about a month for my baby (now about 5 mo. old) to finally eat veggies. But now he eats everything that I give him except tomatoes, I think he's scared of em, cause he runs from them when I put them in his piggy salad. Anyway this is what mine eat everyday. (I call it thier piggy salad)
lettuce (any kind but iceburg)
parsley, cilontro, carrots, oranges, apple, kale, spinich, mustard green, collard green, broccoli, cabbage.
good luck, don't give up and hopefully he will start eating his piggy salad as well.

most pigs love parsley and carrots so you could try those first. Once he starts eating one kind he will properly be happy to try others. It's best not to feed too much fruit due to the high sugar content and the fact that it can cause mouth sores in some pigs.

Maybe he just doesn't like tomatoes, trogers1964 mine don't

My piggie loves celery! It is her favorite. It is supposedly a risk for diarhea, but it has never bothered her. She loves apple, but no all piggies can handle it, I put her vitamin drops on the piece of apple and she devours it. Baby carrots, watermelon rind, brocoli, strawberry greens, wheatgrass(LOVES this). But at a year old, only ever on pellets, he may never want to have any. As long as he gets his vitamin supplement, he's active and sociable, I wouldnt' worry alot about it.

celery strings can also be a choking hazard if not remove or cut into small pieces. Grass is another good thing to try

[Marlania]

When feeding grass to your pig, does the type of grass matter as long as its pesticide free? Do they prefer any particular variety?

Carrots have always been a fav of my two piggies. At one point, my oldest pig even liked purple cabbage. They've also finally started to like romane and parsley. I find that the more I introduce the veggies into their cage, the more they are interested in what I'm bring them.

To get my youngest to eat veggies, I actually placed her in a shoe box (just try some other enclosed area) with carrots. She was barely a month at the time I got her, and she was also blind. I was afraid that she would have a hard time finding her food in the cage, so that's why I started putting her in a shoe box for veggie time. Since she has learned the smell of different veggies, she can now find them in her cage and chow down. Maybe that is something you can try.

Marlania
www.hopeforanimals.com