Picky Pig?

[tinam5]

Ok so I think I have a really picky pig. She will not eat anything but red bell pepers and Im worried that this is not good for her. She eays pellets and hay of course but wont eat anything else Ive tried (carrots, lettuce, tomato, oranges, ect...)

What should I do? Can this cause problems?

[steve_and_pigs]

I recently adopted a piggie that didn't eat vegetables at all. Once she got used to her cage-mates (who were big time veggie eaters), she started eating vegetables. It wasn't immediate. It took about a week for her to start nibbling, and now she eats veggies like the rest of them. There are several threads that recommend using other pigs to teach veggie eating. It worked for me. If you don't have another guinea pig, adopt one. Get one that is known to love her vegetables. Feed them veggies together in a group. For me the break-through veggies were carrots, italian parsley, and red-green lettuce. Lawn clippings are also a big hit.

It's also worth mentioning that trying to hand feed her veggies got me nowhere. What did work was holding a carrot in the cage and having my other pigs munch on it. After doing this several times on multiple days, she decided to come over and try a bite. The first time she just took one bite and that was it. The second day, a couple of bites. A week later, and she was a carrot munching machine.

I don't know if holding back the red pepper while doing the above is a good idea. Perhaps hold out until all the other veggies have been fed to the pigs would be better. If she will eat a slice of a chewable vitamin c tablet, you could deprive her of her red pepper for a little while. I wouldn't do this as the sole course of action. I would do it in combination with the use of other pigs.