Diet: Can I feed Canned or Frozen Veggies?

[ChelleLovesPigs]

I was wondering if it is ok to give cavys canned veggies? Ive been wondering about this for the longest time and i received some wonderful information from you guys about a couple other questions I had, So i figured id give this one a shot too! thanks

[cookie_gal]

No, they're no good sadly. They have preservatives in them, lots of salt and sugar and the vitamin levels aren't as good as fresh ones.

[ChelleLovesPigs]

Thank you cookie, That is exactly what I needed to know.

[cookie_gal]

Glad I could help, I know it would be so much easier if we could feed canned and frozen veggies, especially in the winter months but they are worthless and unhealthy.

When companies stop messing about with our food but as said they need presevatives to stop them going off but fresh is always better anyway!

[wpgcavylovers]

What about the bags of frozen veggies? Are they ok?

[VoodooJoint]

No canned, no frozen, no cooked veggies. Only feed fresh. The only exception is if you are handfeeding a sick GP that needs vegetarian baby food mixed into it's mash to encourage eating.

[Coopdog]

Why not frozen if they contain no added ingredients? Louise loves thawed peas.

[VoodooJoint]

Frozen veggies are precooked or parboiled. They lose nutrition, lack natural enzymes and can upset an herbavore's system as it is not designed or prepared to digest food that has been altered by heat and missing the essential enzymes necessary to good health and digestion. Just because they like it does not mean it is good for them.

[rshevin]

Ah, one of the few exceptions is actually green (English) peas. They freeze so well that they are simply flash frozen fresh. I give my piggie the occasional frozen pea when I'm having them myself, as a little pea-sicle treat (yes, he eats them frozen, he also will knaw on icecubes, strange pig). Definately not for staple feeding though.

Even if you were to freeze your own spinach, ever seen how icky it looks when it thaws? Blech. Most of the good pig veggies aren't available frozen anyway. But definately no canned. I won't even eat those myself. They're in my hurricane box and shall remain there until they spoil so, forever.

"Just because they like it does not mean it's good for them."
Aye. Says me who eats Twinkies and Fritos with embarassment.

[VoodooJoint]

Originally Posted by rshevin

I give my piggie the occasional frozen pea when I'm having them myself, as a little pea-sicle treat

Please don't give your GP frozen peas. They are just the right size to choke to death on.

Originally Posted by rshevin

Even if you were to freeze your own spinach, ever seen how icky it looks when it thaws?

It's not just heat that cooks fruits and veggies, freezing does it too. It breaks down the cellular make-up and kills the good live enzymes. Essencially, freezing "cooks" food too.

[cavyinhawaii]

Mine eat frozen bell peppers everyday.
You can buy them fresh cut them up and freeze them or buy them in a bag.

[weta!]

Mine love defrosted flash-frozen peas. The quality is reputed to be better than fresh peas as they are frozen close to where they are grown, rather than deteriorate while they travel to markets.

[Percy's Mom]

Vegetables are not frozen raw. They are almost always blanched first and while that might make the peas lovely and pretty, it still partially cooks them and removes a good deal of the vitamins from them. Even if they were not blanched, the freezing and thawing can cause a lot of the nutrients to leech out of them. Peas are quite a starchy vegetable and not really the best to give pigs anyway.

The same generally happens with peppers. The ones purchased already frozen in the store have usually been blanched first to keep their color, and cutting and freezing them yourself typically leads to very wet, slight mushy peppers. The amount of water in a cut pepper will cause them to crystalize slightly when frozen, and those crystals will cause the peppers to soften considerably. Do you ever see liquid the color of the pepper leaking from the peppers when you thaw them? That's your vitamins going down the drain. Either commerically or home frozen peppers are good for sauteeing and using as a flavoring in recipes for humans, but not really beneficial for guinea pigs.

Keep your veggies fresh and completely raw.

[Slave to the Wheek]

Originally Posted by VoodooJoint

It's not just heat that cooks fruits and veggies, freezing does it too. It breaks down the cellular make-up and kills the good live enzymes. Essencially, freezing "cooks" food too.

Entire books are written on this very subject.
I think the key issue is the breakdown of enzymes, this is something that is so important to good gastric health. It also reduces the Vit C. content of frozen foods by 25%.

If you google the topic you'll find more than you ever wanted to know about it. Here are a couple I found.

How nutritious are commercially frozen vegetables compared to fresh vegetables?

Freezing Fruits and Vegetables (190 pages of fun)
frozen food cell walls enzymes - Google Search

[weta!]

Most frozen veggies taste awful if eaten uncooked - and sometimes even once they are cooked, and if I won't eat them myself, nor should my boys. But my boys love peas, and since fresh peas have such a short season, they get defrosted peas as an occasional treat.

[Coopdog]

The peas are great! My kids always wanted a cup of frozen ones to snack on while dinner was cooking.

[Kealie78]

My hub tried this once (glares at him) when I was sick. The piggies used the thawed veggies as toys and then threw them around! You could see the "yuk" distain in their eyes..haha But, I can see why frozen peas might be appealing to some, but they are right, they lose a lot of nutrients in freezing and thawing.

[Popcorn's pet]

Haha, I tried to feed Popcorn frozen (cooked) kale once - and only once. I had read that kale was one veggie that was better served cooked or something. Since I had some in the freezer, I decided to try it out and see if he liked it.

He is a begger, and will wheek to high heavens when he knows it's mealtime, standing on his back legs, little front paws on the bars of the cage. When I put the bowl of kale in the cage, he rushed over to it... and just stared at it. Then he looked up at me, and I could swear he was giving me a confused face, like, "what the heck is this??" He ran over to me and started wheeking again for more food.

He didn't touch the kale all day. He prefers some veggies more than others, but even the ones that he seems to not care for will be eaten in a few hours. Not the kale. Not even one nibble.

I won't be trying that again!

[buttons]

I freeze raspberries from my garden, same with parsley. I understand that fresh is better but is it ok to feed them foods frozen from the garden, they are not cooked or anything. Would this be acceptable for the winter months?

[Ly&Pigs]

Originally Posted by buttons

I freeze raspberries from my garden, same with parsley. I understand that fresh is better but is it ok to feed them foods frozen from the garden, they are not cooked or anything. Would this be acceptable for the winter months?

Not really because frozen veggies tend to lose some of their vitamin and mineral content when frozen. It's always better to feed fresh to ensure pigs get the proper vitamins and minerals they need.