Iceburg Lettuce?

[pigsforlife]

Do a forum search and check out the Diet and Nutrition Section, particularly Lys Charts ( http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...arts-info.html ) and you will find an answer.

I surfed through Lys Charts and checked out the sticky on forages to see if I could feed the girls mint just this morning. I could only find stuff on spearmint and lemon mint, not normal mint, so I did a forum search and got an answer.

[Ly&Pigs]

1-2 grapes per pig once per week is ok. They don't really need more than that because of sugars.

As far as the iceburg lettuce debate- I don't like seeing bad info given. Telling people it's ok to give iceburg when it clearly isn't is treading on dangerous ground around here. There is nutrition in iceburg but not much and it is comprised more of water than anything else. It also will cause diarrhea in guinea pigs. There are so many other lettuces that people can give instead of iceburg. Why not give them something that would benefit them more instead of giving them things with very little value.

[Alyndra]

I think I've inadvertently hit a hot spot. Or perhaps everyone's love for piggies makes them a bit quick to criticize? It certainly doesn't help if I hand out ammunition by not being clear. I have no wish to misguide anyone. When I said "iceburg lettuce is ok", I meant that YuselinMaikel who began this thread about his piggies who are eating iceburg lettuce and not having diarrhea is not giving his piggies something toxic. I should have spoken more generally. I give our piggies a piece of iceburg lettuce about the size of my thumb maybe once a week as a small part of a balanced diet of other greens and veggies. Please do not hear me say that iceburg lettuce should have anything more than a very small part in a piggie's diet.

That is a very nice chart you pointed out, pigsforlife and Jenni. Very thorough. One thing is has is serving size! Hooray! It's so nice to see charts with serving sizes. When planning a piggies diet serving size is very important. Apples, for example. A serving of 10.39g/1-2 times per week approximately equals a serving of 3-4g/3-5 times per week. We keep lots of veggies and fruit in the house, so I just prefer to give our piggies a lot of variety daily with smaller amounts of each veggie than to give a full serving at one time.

[YuselinMaikel]

Originally Posted by Ly&Pigs

1-2 grapes per pig once per week is ok. They don't really need more than that because of sugars.

As far as the iceburg lettuce debate- I don't like seeing bad info given. Telling people it's ok to give iceburg when it clearly isn't is treading on dangerous ground around here. There is nutrition in iceburg but not much and it is comprised more of water than anything else. It also will cause diarrhea in guinea pigs. There are so many other lettuces that people can give instead of iceburg. Why not give them something that would benefit them more instead of giving them things with very little value.

Thanks I totally agree with you.

[YuselinMaikel]

Originally Posted by Alyndra

I think I've inadvertently hit a hot spot. Or perhaps everyone's love for piggies makes them a bit quick to criticize? It certainly doesn't help if I hand out ammunition by not being clear. I have no wish to misguide anyone. When I said "iceburg lettuce is ok", I meant that YuselinMaikel who began this thread about his piggies who are eating iceburg lettuce and not having diarrhea is not giving his piggies something toxic. I should have spoken more generally. I give our piggies a piece of iceburg lettuce about the size of my thumb maybe once a week as a small part of a balanced diet of other greens and veggies. Please do not hear me say that iceburg lettuce should have anything more than a very small part in a piggie's diet.

That is a very nice chart you pointed out, pigsforlife and Jenni. Very thorough. One thing is has is serving size! Hooray! It's so nice to see charts with serving sizes. When planning a piggies diet serving size is very important. Apples, for example. A serving of 10.39g/1-2 times per week approximately equals a serving of 3-4g/3-5 times per week. We keep lots of veggies and fruit in the house, so I just prefer to give our piggies a lot of variety daily with smaller amounts of each veggie than to give a full serving at one time.

I am a girl not a boy "his piggies" don't worry I did not misguide what you said.

[Ly&Pigs]

That is a very nice chart you pointed out, pigsforlife and Jenni. Very thorough. One thing is has is serving size! Hooray! It's so nice to see charts with serving sizes. When planning a piggies diet serving size is very important.

Thanks for the compliment on my charts. I do have to say though that those aren't serving sizes. Basically it's a list of how much of a particular thing (such as A, C, Ca, etc.) is in a serving of that size. If you notice most of the weights for the veggies are in 100 gram portions. That doesn't mean you should give 100 grams of that particular veggie per feeding. Fruits need to be severely limited to once or twice per week in very small amounts, ie: 1/8th of an apple per pig.

For a truly balanced diet, you'd want to use the Ca : Ph ratio calculator. Serving size isn't quite as important as making sure you have a good ratio. I've studied piggie nutrition for 2-2 1/2 years now and am considered by many around here to be this forums guinea pig nutritionist.