Vitamin C Quest. - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**lovemypiggy** · #1 07-26-07, 05:39 pm

Okay, I know that I read about this somewhere on this site yesterday but I can't find it for the life of me. When using liquid vitamin C how much does my 1.5 year old piggy need?

I thought they would be easy to find but was worried about finding a syringe. Well to my surprise I found the syringe right away (at the Tractor Supply Company just in case your wondering), but couldn't find the liquid vitamin C anywhere, so if you have any suggestions for that I would be very grateful. Thanks!

**Ly&Pigs** · #2 07-26-07, 09:54 pm

If you are providing a good quality pellet and 1 cup of veggies per day, there is no need to supplement at all unless your pig is not eating due to illness or hasn't learned to eat veggies at all.

The dosage would be 10-30 mg per kg a day. Try a health food store for the liquid C if you need it.

**Piggersrule** · #3 07-27-07, 06:28 am

You can also try looking for it at drug stores, grocery stores and feed stores.What kind of diet is your piggy on? We maybe able to help you with that. It's better to provide their nutrition needs through a good diet than having to syringe feed it to them.

**Wheek Weak** · #4 07-27-07, 08:01 am

Just a quarter of a green bell pepper provides about 40mg of vitamin C. We give our piggies an eighth to a quarter everyday. Along with all their other veggies and pellets, we never have to worry about enough vitamin C.

A pharmacist worked out this calculation for us when Ruby had surgery and we had to hand-feed her until she started eating on her own again. We couldn't find vitamin C drops or 25mg vitamin C tablets.

This is for using a 500mg chewable tablet with no rose hips (or anything else) added. For a 25mg dose:

*Crush the tablet (between two spoons if you don't have a pestle and mortar).
*Mix with 4 teaspoons of water.
*Give 1cc (ml) by mouth daily.

**lovemypiggy** · #5 07-27-07, 11:57 am

Okay I've got to be quick because I'm running out the door. Zacchy eats timothy hay, piggy pellets and a baby carrot and some parsley every day. He hasn't seemed much interested in oranges lately so I haven't given him any slices the last day or so. I am very interested in finding some other Vit. C sources, but in the past he has repeatedly refused everything I have tried. He also is very suseptible to respiratory infections so it is very important that I know he is getting a good amount of vit. C. More later...

Thanks for your suggestions!

**Wheek Weak** · #6 07-28-07, 02:00 pm

Ly's Nutrition Chart

Here is a link to Ly's chart that I use every single day. It's the bible of guinea pig foods/nutrition. Check it for all the higher vitamin C foods (keeping in mind to hold down on the sugar consumption).

Keep offering foods that Zacchy refuses. A lot of times, piggies will slowly adapt to new foods over time. They don't have the physical ability to vomit, so they are usually very careful about trying anything new until they're sure that it won't make them sick.

Keep us up to date on how he's doing, ok?

**Lemonjello** · #7 07-28-07, 04:20 pm

It took two weeks for my piggies to try the bell pepper and now they love it! At first the only "veggie" they would even try was corn husks. Every day I offered a little bit of all the veggies on that list and they are starting to eat more and more variety. They still won't try broccoli.

**lovemypiggy** · #8 07-29-07, 11:34 pm

Thank you all for your suggestions and encouragment. I gave Zacchy his first taste of bell pepper tonight and he inhaled it! I have also given him some pieces of cherry tomatoes which he eventually ate. So tonight I gave him a whole cherry tomatoe which of course rolled around when he tried to take a bite. It was so funny! Who would of thought, exercise and eating at the same time! In a couple of seconds he rolled it up against a gathering in the sheet I have covering the floor for floor time, but he only took one bite so far. I think he's not sure if he should play with it or eat it!

Anyways I am so excited that he seems to like the bell peppers! I think I'll look for some of the Vitamin C chewables to have on hand just in case, but I'm relieved to finally get rid of the Vitamin C drops in his water

(which I know are awful to use but were suggested by his previous vet as a last resort...now I know better). And I will keep trying some of the other things on the chart too.

**Sugar** · #9 07-30-07, 12:26 am

Hello,

There is a vegetable chart on the link below. It lets you know much vitiman c is in the vegetable, and I have found it very healthy. The advice everybody else gave you is very interesting, and I have even learnt something!

Guinea Lynx :: Vegetable Chart

**Ly&Pigs** · #10 07-30-07, 11:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheek Weak

Here is a link to Ly's chart that I use every single day. It's the bible of guinea pig foods/nutrition.

I'm glad you like the charts. I find they are easy to use because of the color coding. I do have to say though that this is the first time I've heard it referred to as the bible of guinea pig foods/nutrition. That's a great compliment. Thanks.

**Wheek Weak** · #11 07-31-07, 11:11 am

You're welcome!

It's the best chart/information that I have found (and I had done a LOT of searching). It's constantly at my fingertips. It hangs in the kitchen, and it even goes with me to the farmer's market and grocery store.

I like the convenience of having all of the pertinent information per veggie/fruit right there at a glance. I don't have to check one chart for calcium, another for oxalic acid, another for vitamin C, etc.

Not to mention the at-a-glance color coding. When I'm pulling something out of the fridge, I can just look up and see by the color whether, or not, it's ok to serve such-and-such for the second (or third, etc.) time this week.

Thank you for the work you put into it. I really do appreciate it. I will continue to recommend it to anyone, and everyone, who needs diet information.

**Wheek Weak** · #12 07-31-07, 11:31 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by lovemypiggy

Thank you all for your suggestions and encouragment. I gave Zacchy his first taste of bell pepper tonight and he inhaled it! I have also given him some pieces of cherry tomatoes which he eventually ate. So tonight I gave him a whole cherry tomatoe which of course rolled around when he tried to take a bite. It was so funny! Who would of thought, exercise and eating at the same time! In a couple of seconds he rolled it up against a gathering in the sheet I have covering the floor for floor time, but he only took one bite so far. I think he's not sure if he should play with it or eat it!

Anyways I am so excited that he seems to like the bell peppers! I think I'll look for some of the Vitamin C chewables to have on hand just in case, but I'm relieved to finally get rid of the Vitamin C drops in his water

(which I know are awful to use but were suggested by his previous vet as a last resort...now I know better). And I will keep trying some of the other things on the chart too.

Yay! Way to go lovemypiggy and Zacchy!

I'm still trying to get my girls to eat tomatoes. I've been trying for a year-and-a-half. I'm encouraged though, because Ruby started eating not one, but TWO, new things this week that she wouldn't eat before.

Sometimes having patience pays off!

Keep up the good work, you're doing great!

**TwoOfaKind** · #13 08-03-07, 02:47 pm

I buy my vitamin C at the grocery store. Someone on GuineaLynx had shared with me about the type of children's vitamin C to get and the range of how much to give the piggies each. I buy Nature's Plus Orange Juice Jr. 100 MG Tablets and I cut the tablet in half and they each get a half. They LOVE the way it tastes, so they gobble it up

I get mine at Central Market, but you can order it online as well. It's pretty cost effective too, I pay somewhere around $8.50 for an entire bottle, and the bottle lasts me for quite a while.

**lovemypiggy** · #14 08-03-07, 04:07 pm

Hello All!

I gave Zacchy his first taste of zuccini last night and he practically ripped the slice right out of my hand! He ate the outside edge right away and saved the middle for later. I also gave him half of a cherry tomatoe which I haven't found anywhere yet so I'm assuming he ate it, even though he hasn't touched the other half which I gave him this morning. I figured cutting it in half would give him a chance to taste the inside since he never does more than peel off a teeny tiny piece of skin when I give him a whole one. Next I am planning on introducing him to lettuce as he's never had any except for kale and mustard greens when he was a baby and which he never liked. But I think parsly will always be his favorite veggie!

I have looked at several grocery stores and a vitamin store and can not find any chewable vitamin C tablets without rosehips and other crazy stuff, in anything less than 500mg. I've looked for children's but all I can find is multi-vitamins. But I'll look into the Nature's Plus stuff. Thanks for the info!

**TwoOfaKind** · #15 08-03-07, 10:41 pm

Here is a link for you where you can buy it online

Vitamins: Alternative Health Supplements & Vitamin Nutrition Supplements - VitaminShoppe.com

In the search bar just type in Nature's Plus Orange Juice Jr.

At this specific site, they sell the 100mg tablets (and they are easily cut in half with a pill cutter or something similar) So it's just 1/2 chewable per piggy per day. The 180 count bottle is $9.29, and the 90 count bottle is $4.99

For a while I had tried doing the Oxbow small animal vitamin C, but that was not only pretty expensive, but they would turn their nose up at them.

I have seen the Nature's Plus 100mg several places on the internet. I would guess you can buy them in a vitamin/suppliment store as well. I Just happen to by mine when I go grocery shopping since they sell it at the HEB I shop at (b/c it's a Central Market store)

**lovemypiggy** · #16 08-04-07, 10:09 pm

Thank's for the link! I'll look into it! I was wondering if HEB carried it. Maybe they were just out of it or something when I looked last time. I'll check again. Zacchy is doing great so far! Only a sneeze once in a great while. When he had a respiratory infection the only symptom he had was sneezing lots and lots. He didn't stop playing or eating, and even the vet said he didn't look sick! (but he did have a fever and congestion) I'm really hoping that he can just get his vitamin C from his veggies and stuff, but I want to have a back up handy!

Oh, and he didn't eat the tomatoe. I found it on the other side of his hidey. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

**jilovecavies** · #17 08-05-07, 08:01 am

Ly, it really IS the guinea pig bible! I take it with me everywhere I go. Forget pictures on the fridge...we just have your chart and our grocery list! Thank you SO much for compiling that and color coding it. It's a lifesaver.

Piggies, like us, are picky about what they eat some days and not so much on others. My piggies' favorite foods are romaine lettuce (they LOVE this stuff), green peppers, and cantaloupe (which, to their dismay, they only get once a wheek!)

What I do is crush an Oxbow Vitamin C tablet up and then sprinkle it on a moist veggie (a fresh green pepper works great for this) and if need be, rub it in a little bit.

Good luck with your piggies!

**Ly&Pigs** · #18 08-05-07, 11:13 am

I'm just glad that people find my charts useful and helpful. That was my main goal. To provide you all with an easy to use, color coded chart so it would cut down on the amount of questions asked about how often something could be fed, if it was good for C, bad in other things, etc. We still get those questions now and then because people haven't seen or discovered the charts but they are no where near the amount of questions that we used to get.

I do want to say that I got a lot of input for the charts from Teresa (CavySpirit) and the other mods. We eventually will get those up as a webpage with sortable tables and photos of each veggie/fruit so you all can look something up by C content, calcium content, etc. Teresa is working on so many projects already and I haven't worked on formatting the charts for the webpage lately, but I need to get back to work on that soon.