1 cup a day - given or eaten?

[scarymonster742]

Alright, I am now giving one cup of veggies per day per pig. But...they do not eat most of them. Should I give more of the things they do gobble up, so they EAT an entire cup a day, or just supply a cup of veggies and let them eat what they want?

They DO eat:
kale, cilantro, parsley, romaine, red leaf, green leaf, zucchini (although ONLY the skin, not the flesh), pear (again, mainly the skin, not the flesh), orange peel, carrot and will take an occasional nibble of cherry tomato

They do NOT eat:
bell pepper of any color, strawberries, celery, oranges (the flesh) or grapes

I do not want to give them so much of they stuff they love that they never bother trying anything else...but I do not want them to not get what they need because they only eat a 1/2 cup of what is offered.

Advice?

[newpiggiemommy]

The stuff they do eat is all good for them, however I would not give fruit everyday(to much sugar), and I would not give parsley everyday(too much calcium).

Green leafy veggies are very good for them. I would throw in a piece of pepper (any color) once a day and hope that they will eventually eat it. Besides that one cup of the stuff they do like is good enough.

I hope that helps a little!

[scarymonster742]

I do not give them all of that every day, it is varied, I just listed out all the foods we have tried so far.

So, give them a full cup of stuff they'll eat and a piece or two of other stuff, hoping they'll try it someday?

[newpiggiemommy]

Originally Posted by scarymonster742

So, give them a full cup of stuff they'll eat and a piece or two of other stuff, hoping they'll try it someday?

That is my best advice! That is what I had to do for my piggies and it didn't take long for them to warm up to the green peppers. Now they eat them most everyday. Once in a while I will find one hidden under the food dish. But so far I have not found a veggie they wouldn't eat if it is offered to them for a week in a row. Eventually they eat it and like it!

[julsie]

Do you give all the veggies at once, or scatter them throughout the day? I find that if I give too much fresh food at once, some of it wilts or gets trampled and doesn't get eaten. There's less waste when I spread things out. Maybe your pigs will be more likely to try something new when it's not sitting right next to one of their favorite foods?

With grapes, strawberries, and blueberries, my pigs wouldn't touch them until I broke the skin and they could smell the juice. After I fed a few that way, they started recognizing them as food. I keep hoping the same trick will work for grape tomatoes, but no luck so far!

[scarymonster742]

I feed some veggies first thing in the morning, some leafy greens in the mid-AM and late PM and some more veggies in the evening. Basically, I give them small amounts so that I can give them a bit more whenever I approach the cage and they wheek for it! If it is something they like, it is gone in minutes. If it is something they do not like, I can leave it for 12 hours and it sits, untouched, in the bowl. (I always know they like something if they remove it from the bowl!)

[julsie]

Then I agree with newpiggiemommy. Give them more of what they like and less of what they don't, but keep trying new foods. You never know what they'll like! Kyle hates grape tomatoes enough to pick them up and toss them aside, but he loves kiwi and acorn squash. Your pigs eat the orange peel and leave the flesh; mine eat the flesh and leave the peel.

People focus on bell pepper a lot, but there are plenty of other ways for your pigs to get their vitamin C. Check out the food charts and you'll see that some lettuce varieties have plenty. That was a big surprise to me!

[newpiggiemommy]

Julsie when you feed your piggies squash how do you cut it up. I am assuming they eat it raw, but do you cut it in cubes or slices? do you cut off the peel?

[pigsforlife]

Keep persisting with the foods they do not like, and remove all uneaten foods within a couple of hours. I personally only feed my girls twice a day, but they get as much as they will eat in a hour.

[julsie]

As a rule of thumb, I never feed piggies something I wouldn't eat, which means I would leave the peel on a chunk of zucchini or yellow summer squash, but not on a pumpkin or winter squash. I don't offer any of these very frequently, just when I happen to be carving one up anyway.

When it comes to cutting up any fruit or vegetable, I hardly bother. If it's small enough to be a guinea-pig-sized portion, then I'm done. Do other people chop things up for their piggies?

[pigsforlife]

I chop up capsicum, carrot, fruit (etc) so that they do not fight over their food.

There are some occasions where you rule of thumb really does not apply. For example, do you eat watermelon peel? I do not, but the girls will and it is safe to feed (see nutrition charts for more info).

[julsie]

I know that, but I tried feeding orange peel and they hated it. I hadn't thought about watermelon rind, but we don't really eat watermelon around here.

I double-checked the charts, and sweet potato leaves are the only other weird exception.