withholding all food until...

[scarymonster742]

My piggies have refused to eat ANY veggies except leafy greens and carrots.

Today, I removed all the hay, pellets and lettuces from the cage and gave them ONLY bell peppers (red, yellow and green). After about 2 hours, they started to eat them. They ate only about 1/16th of a cup, and then no more. I went ahead and gave them theit hay, pellets and greens back and they chowed down and finished off all the greens, and 1/2 the hay.

I know they need the peppers for vit.c. Is it okay to withhold everything else in the morning until they eat those, and then give them the things they like?

[VoodooJoint]

No, Don't withhold food. GPs need to have food going through their guts to stay healthy if they aren't eating their intestines could go into stasis, making them unable to digest food even when they eat, and they could easily die.

At the very least give them unlimited hay. hey can do without pellets for a long time as long as they have veggies and hay.

Some pigs never learn to like peppers. Mine eat them but they save them for last and only grudgingly eat them when all else is gone. There are other ways to insure they get proper Vit C intake. Look at the vegie list to find other foods high in Vit C to try instead.

[PhoenixFeather]

My pigs won't eat their peppers either. You might want to try kiwi a couple of times per week (instead of other fruits). They are quite high in vitamin C and both of our piggies love it.

Ly reassured me here: http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...ts-please.html that if my piggy (only one at the time) was eating a cup of varied fruits and veggies, he'd be getting enough vitamin C even without feeding any specifically "high vitamin C" foods.

Good luck! We keep offering peppers (mostly only when we buy them for the humans at this point) but they haven't gone for them yet (at least not more than a nibble).

I have tried feeding the peppers before the other veggies (while they still have hay and pellets in the cage) and that hasn't made a difference. I think you can't force it, so just give them a nice variety of other veggies and they'll be fine.

[julsie]

Keep in mind that there are lots of other foods high in vitamin C. Many of them aren't every day foods, but even lettuce contains some vitamin C, so you don't need to panic. My piggy doesn't care for peppers either, but have you tried tomatoes? Oranges? Broccoli?

I've seen quite a few other posts from owners who couldn't get their pigs to eat bell peppers, so I'm not too concerned. I just make sure to feed a variety, and I throw in a chunk of bell pepper whenever I happen to be cutting one up for the humans. Sometimes he nibbles it, sometimes he throws it on the ground and tramples on it. He's been thriving since I put him on the HAFF diet, so he can't be missing much.

[thief]

Some guinea pigs don't like veggies at all, which is perfectly fine. Withholding food will land you at the vet's office with a pretty sick pig.

[scarymonster742]

OK. I will try to be less uptight about it!

What is the HAFF diet?

[julsie]

HAFF = Hay and Fresh Foods. No pellets. We switched a little over a month ago, and our five-year-old guinea pig is now happier and more active than he's been since we got him. (He came to us about 18 months ago from a family that had him in a tiny cage with no bedding for over three years.) His coat improved in a matter of days.

It's a little more difficult, since we have to feed him several times throughout the day. Lettuce will wilt in his cage if we give him too much at one time, unlike pellets. But his cage is three feet from the refrigerator, so every time we open it he informs us that he's STARVING and he needs food RIGHT NOW, which is actually pretty funny.

Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack your thread. There's lots of information about the HAFF diet on this forum if you're interested.

[deepelemgirl]

Our first guinea pig had zero interest in bell peppers at first. We stopped offering them after awhile and didn't try again until we adopted two more pigs. Either the months without peppers or the thrill of competition got her loving them this second time around.

Also, I was just reading somewhere (I can't remember offhand where...) that kale is high in vitamin C. All 3 of my pigs LOVE kale and it's cheaper where I live than a bell pepper.

[TX_2_Pigs]

But Kale is also high in calcium so needs to be limited to prevent sludge.