Can I feed my guinea pigs fresh grass, dandelions, and other forages?

[JarBax]

Yeah - buttercups - I have to go over the patch of lawn with a fine toothed comb, digging any out, as we have a few in there.

[sihschris]

That's a great list! I have been looking for more variety for Izzy! Thanks!

[masher]

Are daisies poisonous to guinea pigs??

[Ledasmom]

What about the other species of mint besides peppermint and spearmint? Citrus mint and apple mint are apparently different species from either. I'd assume pennyroyal is a no-no due to toxicity, but are the others okay?

[Ly&Pigs]

Are daisies poisonous to guinea pigs??

I am not seeing daisies on the poisonous plants list but I am also not seeing it on the edible plants list either. I'd be safe and tell you to avoid it because I don't know how safe they are for the pigs.

What about the other species of mint besides peppermint and spearmint?

Mint, Purple (Perilla frutescens) is poisonous but that's the only variety I see on the poisonous plants list.

[masher]

Thanks ly&pigs - I have a few daisies starting to come up on my lawn, although they only seem to be in slight patches. To be honest I don't really think the guinea pigs would actually even touch them, but I'll make sure anyway there are none in the run

Thanks.

[Ledasmom]

Queen Anne's Lace appears to be the same species (Daucus carota) as domesticated carrot; I would assume therefore that the tops are safe to feed? I certainly hope so, since we have a heck of a time growing carrots here but cannot get rid of the Queen Anne's Lace.
It would probably be unwise for those who live in areas where water hemlock (genus Cicuta) grows to gather Queen Anne's Lace for food unless they are experts at telling the two apart, as the two are similar in appearance.

[gpigluver14]

Can pigs have Mesclun lettuce? (Lactuca sativa)

Lettuce - growing Lettuce - how to grow Lettuce - Mesclun Lettuce - Mixed Lettuce

[Ledasmom]

All lettuces of which I am aware are Lactuca sativa; your mesclun mix should be fine, as long as it's an all-lettuce mix - iceberg is rarely a component of mesclun. If it's a mixed-green mesclun with other species, you would want to look up those species to make sure they were acceptable. If you harvest the leaves at a young age, as is commonly done with mesclun, the oxalic acid content of such plants as spinach would be considerably lower than in the mature form, though I would think you would still want to avoid feeding them every day.

[Ly&Pigs]

Can pigs have Mesclun lettuce? (Lactuca sativa)

There are a couple members here on the board who feed this so I'd say yes.

[gpigluver14]

Okay, thank you! We have a garden where we grow it, so they'll be getting some fresh from there soon.

[masher]

On the "guinealynx" site are the cleavers mentioned as being edible, the same as "sticky willy?"

Also, it mentions wood sorrel as being okay to feed in small amounts, but what about normal sorrel? I seem to vagualy remember reading somewhere it wasn't good, can somebody verify this please?

[jabberwock]

Cleaver, sticky willy goosegrass (and a few other variations) are all the same thing.

I know that guinealynx says that young wood sorrel leaves are OK in small amounts, but I would be slightly wary because there are a LOT of different plants called wood sorrel (according to wikipedia there are over 800 oxalis species and "many of them" are called wood sorrel), so unless you know that your wood sorrel is exactly the same as the one guinealynx is talking about (and the wood sorrel near me is definitely different!) I would avoid it.

Ordinary sorrel also has quite high levels of oxalic acid so I avoid that too, I've got easy access to lots of better leaves to give.

[JarBax]

I was really pleased when I saw that pigs can eat sticky willy, as I have it growing all over the place - but will my pigs go near it?

Ditto wood sorrel - I looked into it a good while ago, and came to the same conclusion as jabberwock - there are so many types of oxalis, there is no way of telling if the safe one is the same as the one mentioned as safe on a US site. The wood sorrel in our woods has white flowers, but the one OK for piggies has yellow. Don't risk it, when there's grass galore at the moment, with all this rain!

[masher]

Okay, I'll leave the sorrel then

Me too Jarbax, sticky willy is in great abundance in my garden too - when I first read they were allowed it I thought it sounded really strange and the pigs would never like it. But I thought I'd try it - and they actually really like it Strange!

[chewysmom]

Hi, I just found this forum and so far I love it! Already I have learned so much from these threads just in this section my daughter is going ot be so happy at all the new foods I found that we can feed Chewy but I have a question we live in an apartment in the city so I really wouldn't want to pick up grass clippings here for her but where my husband works is rural and lots of fresh grass and dandelions and we go out there weekly can I pick bags of both the grass and dandelions to bring back with us to feed her here?

(and yes she comes with us when we travel)

thanks again

[Ly&Pigs]

The thing about forages is you need to know the area where they come from. The area needs to be free from feces and urine by other animals both domesticated and wild. It needs to be free from pesticides and other chemicals. It also needs to not be from along the roadsides because of gas/oil/etc. contaminating it from vehicles.

So when you make your trips to the rural areas, if they meet the above criteria you could pick some fresh grass and dandelion leaves and give them to Chewy. Dandelions should only be fed 2-3 times per week in smallish amounts because they are pretty high in calcium. Fresh grass can be fed daily but you should start slow and build up if your piggie has never had it in order not to cause tummy upsets.