Help with variety

[PiggieNewbie]

My pigs are fussy

They like leaf lettuce, kale or romaine, and carrots, sometimes if their desperate they eat green peppers and grapes and parsely
I have had no sucess with zuchinni or squash or strawberries or cucumber

I want to give them something different and not too expensive but what could I try?

[monikah]

How about trying forages? There's a list of suitable ones in the veggies page.

Grass, for instance, is free, just introduce slowly so they don' get diarreah. Dandelion leaves and chickweed are widely available and my pigs love those.

[PiggieNewbie]

I suppose I could buy some dandelion leaves at the grocery store as our condo treats the lawn

[ortal]

Originally Posted by PiggieNewbie

I suppose I could buy some dandelion leaves at the grocery store as our condo treats the lawn

They arent that expensive. Also, try cilantro, and parsely (in small doses)

[Ly&Pigs]

If you can find different varieties of lettuces then you could try those. Butterhead, endive, frisee, etc.

Forages are good but make sure they come from an area free of pesticides, chemicals and animal feces/urine. There is a wide variety of forages you could try but start slowly and build up. Cilantro is a great everyday veggie that most pigs love.

[envisionary333]

You can often get corn husks for free from grocery stores since most people don't use them anyway, and they are a great addition to your piggy's diet.

[kwene_2009]

You could try corn silks as well. My piggy loves them as a "garnish" on his other veggies. I guess they are like piggy versions of bacon bits or croutons for salad.

[Pandora4co]

My boys seem to like snap peas and beans. They are fairly inexpensive;
I give them one each every other day. My boys love parsley too.

[pigsforlife]

The key is persitence. Keep providing new foods and eventually they should eat them. The girls used to get an unvaried diet, when I realised my wrong doing I started including extra vegetables, particularly leafy greens like cos lettuce. I started with vegetables like cherry tomatoes and bok choy, adding extra things each week and then changing everything around, to start with they were quite stubborn. But now-a-days they will eat alot of things and as a result their diet is very varied.

[PhoenixFeather]

Originally Posted by PiggieNewbie

My pigs are fussy

They like leaf lettuce, kale or romaine, and carrots, sometimes if their desperate they eat green peppers and grapes and parsely
I have had no sucess with zuchinni or squash or strawberries or cucumber

I want to give them something different and not too expensive but what could I try?

Since your piggies seem to like the leafy stuff (ours too), try other kinds of lettuce, cilantro, carrot tops & dandelion greens (but between those two, only a couple times per week), celery tops & celery chopped small, maybe chard (haven't tried it yet). We give dill occasionally -- really only if we buy it for the humans to use, and save a bit. Ours wouldn't touch tomato until we cut a cherry tomato in half the first few times. As others have stated, corn husks and silk are a big hit, and while there's still corn in the grocery stores, you can often get it free!

We have minimal luck with zucchini, cucumber, apple and we keep offering green pepper, but so far no luck on that.

We are finding that, other than the green pepper, if we keep offering things, they do get tried eventually.

Good luck!

[CRAZY4guineapig]

Yes, PiggieNewbie, I have the same problem! My new guy does not like lettuce or bell pepper or parsley. He only likes grass, carrots, and apple! My other piggies love everything, but Charlie is just SO PICKY!

[envisionary333]

Eating the foods they don't like right in front of them will sometimes spark their interest. You can also try placing the food up to their mouths so they inadvertently get a taste, and then they realize it's good stuff! Try offering the less popular foods first before the ones you know they like so they will be less likely to just pick out the good stuff. You can also chop things up into small pieces so they have a hard time picking certain foods out and end up trying a variety.

[Love4Piggers]

I have one boy that is very picky, which is my fault since I basically fed them the same 3 veggies for years; romaine lettuce, parsley, and cilantro.
I realized how much more variety they needed after finding this board, and I am trying lots of things right now to try and get my boys to expand their variety. They like several kinds of lettuce, (Red Leaf, Green Leaf, & Romaine,) and also still love parsley & cilantro, (though they don't get parsley every day anymore,) and they also like baby carrots, kale, and corn husks. And so far, I am introducing other new things a little at a time, and one of my boys is loving grape tomatoes and bell peppers and learning to like some other things as well, but with my other pigger, I am not having much luck so far. But I'm not giving up. I was concerned about the picky pig's vitamin C intake, and was told that kiwi's had a pretty good amount of C. So yesterday at the store I bought a couple of kiwi's. Gave them some for their breakfast, and they both ate it! Woohoo! I also learned that he loves radicchio, because the couple times I have bought them a spring mix, he picks it out and eats it. So don't give up, our piggy's will learn to expand their palate if we are persistent. Good luck!

[Love4Piggers]

Originally Posted by envisionary333

Eating the foods they don't like right in front of them will sometimes spark their interest. You can also try placing the food up to their mouths so they inadvertently get a taste, and then they realize it's good stuff! Try offering the less popular foods first before the ones you know they like so they will be less likely to just pick out the good stuff. You can also chop things up into small pieces so they have a hard time picking certain foods out and end up trying a variety.

Some great ideas that I might try with my Bear, thanks!

[Piggersrule]

My pigs get a huge variety of of different foods to eat. Here is a list of some of the stuff they get:

romain, red&green leaf, endive, escarole, boston, radiccluo, cilantro, dill, parsley, basil, thyme, parsnips, eggplant, green&yellow beans, peas, all squashes, zuccini, yams, tomatoes, all bell peppers, corn husks and silk, beets, cucumbers, corn on the cob, radishes occassionally, carrots(of course) turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi and anise.

[Ly&Pigs]

Hey Piggers, how do your pigs like anise (fennel)? Mine love it and they've had almost everything on your list and everyone else's (with the exception of eggplant, yellow beans, turnips and kolrabi) at some point or another along with artichoke, green leek tops, green onion tops, cauliflower, turnip/mustard greens, frisee lettuce, and asparagus.

Things my pigs have refused to eat: most don't like strawberries, (only strawberry tops), collard greens, most don't like oranges, and yellow squash. They pee on the yellow squash but they like zucchini.

I think I am going to try them with butternut squash to see if they like that. At some point in time or another my pigs have had almost every veggie on the charts and most fruits that I can find. I used to be able to get heads of endive and frisee locally but haven't seen those in over a year. I wish I could find it again in heads as my pigs love both dearly. I can only find it in the pre-packaged spring mixes. Same with radicchio. I can find boston/butterhead/butter lettuce in nearby towns when I go so I usually pick up a couple heads for the girls.

In the summer months, the girls get forages such as grass (a few varieties including fresh bermuda grass), dandelions (leaves and flowers), broad leaf plantain, and red and white clover.

[Piggersrule]

Hey LY, my piggies just love the anise but they don't get