Diet Bell pepper or no bell pepper?

[kourt1313]

He doesn't like tomatoes either... :grumpy:

 

[bpatters]

Have you tried dicing the pepper very finely and sprinkling it over his veggies? If you do that for a week or so, he'll get enough by accident to get used to the taste, and then you can feed him pepper in bigger slices, and start dicing something else for him to get used to.

They're like kids -- you have to teach them to eat veggies, and you have to serve them over and over again before they get the idea.

 

[kourt1313]

I'm thinking that's what I'll have to do. I did try that with the pepper and he would push it away. Maybe the smell is turning him off. He does LOVE romaine lettuce and celery but I'm hearing celery doesn't have much value, it's mostly water. Right now he's having some floor time with a little tomato in a bowl chopped up, but he'll go to the bowl, turn his nose up, and go straight for his hay.

 

[bpatters]

Also watch to make sure that he's not leaving white spots when he pees. If he is, you may need to take him off romaine and put him on red or green leaf lettuce.

 

[kourt1313]

Ok will do. I haven't noticed any yet but will keep an eye out. I also just read something that said under 12 months they should get alfalfa based hay, but my vet said no alfalfa. He currently gets Timothy hay. Wow, seems I have more questions than I thought! (Sorry OP, didn't mean to hijack your post! lol)

 

[Frapplove]

That's perfectly alright! I'm glad this became so popular and more than just myself benefited!

 

[bpatters]

Your vet is right. Alfalfa isn't hay -- it's a legume, like peas. Young pups and pregnant and nursing sows usually get alfalfa pellets for the extra calcium, but still should be eating a grass hay.

 

[beachgurl_1988]

My piggies like Parsley, Cilantro, Red/ GReen and that artisan lettuce. They have gotten used to kale and collard greens, and like the leaves from celery.

Sometimes they get apple and carrot etc. But I can't get them to eat tomatoes!

I second (or third or fourth) the chopping it up to go in their food. I started off with orange peppers because they are supposedly sweeter. I chopped them super fine and mixed them in. After about a week, I started using green. They still wont' eat strips of it, but they prefer them diced...

 

[kourt1313]

Maybe I'll give the peppers another go then. I just hate to keep spending money on stuff he may not eat... I did get him to eat the tomatoes. I just left them there till he realized he wasn't getting anything else till they were gone. Discovered today he's not a fan of grapes either.

 

[bpatters]

Grapes might be toxic to guinea pigs. They are to some breeds of dogs -- they can cause kidney failure. So I wouldn't worry that your pig doesn't eat them.

 

[kourt1313]

Oh wow, I didn't know that. I've seen them on the food lists so figured why not, but I'm glad he doesn't like them!

 

[bpatters]

Nobody really knows if they are toxic to guinea pigs or not, as far as I know. But there are lots of warnings about dogs, and a good many about cats. My guess is that grape toxicity hasn't been tested in guinea pigs, but you do see warnings about not feeding them grapes, while others say it's ok. Mine like melon and blueberries better anyway, so I just cut the grapes out.

 

[kourt1313]

Yeah I think of everything blueberries are the biggest winner with my guy. By the way I think we have a white spot you were talking about... But from the research I've done cloudy urine is calcium being excremented and cloudy urine is normal (this spot is already long dry in the photo)... Is this what you mean about the Romaine? If so I'll stop feeding it. Noticed this when I was changing his fleece yesterday.

 

[bpatters]

Yes, that's what I mean. And I realize that a ton of sites say those white spots are normal. But I think that's just because so many pigs have them.

Those white spots mean that there's excess calcium in the urine, which is a contributing factor to kidney stones. The whole stone formation process is complicated, and not very well understood in guinea pigs, but my theory is that if you don't have excess calcium in the urine, you're less likely to have the stones.

I've also been keeping an informal tally of all the stone pigs I read and hear about, and of several dozen so far, only ONE has had a stone without having had powdery or sludgy urine beforehand. And that one was a rescue who didn't have powder/sludge after being adopted, but may have had his stone before adoption. So the jury's out on that one.

Here, at least, romaine costs the same, or is a little more expensive, than red or green leaf lettuce. My two definitely get the powdery urine when they're eating romaine, and definitely don't have it when they're not. I just don't think the risk is worth it.

 

[kourt1313]

Thank you for your super fast response! I'll pull the Romaine immediately and pick up some other lettuce on the way home from work. If he's only had Romaine for about a week and a half (not even every day) should I be concerned? And what should I watch out for as far as symptoms of kidney stones? Thank you again!

 

[aislynn99]

I just tried tomato with my boys last night, but they aren't interested in all. They would eat red leaf lettuce and carrots 24/7 if you let them. They also like green/red peppers, grapes, black raspberries, cilantro, dill, baby strawberries, and Bogart likes celery but Squishy does not. Whatever they don't eat or I have excess of I toss in my Jack Lalanne and drink

 

[guineapiggymom]

My Quincy didn't eat pepper either, what I did, is I wrapped a pepper into a green leaf burrito and he was forced to eat the pepper in it and now it's his favorite veggie.

 

[kourt1313]

I just tried tomato with my boys last night, but they aren't interested in all. They would eat red leaf lettuce and carrots 24/7 if you let them. They also like green/red peppers, grapes, black raspberries, cilantro, dill, baby strawberries, and Bogart likes celery but Squishy does not. Whatever they don't eat or I have excess of I toss in my Jack Lalanne and drink

LOL, I like how you think!

 

[Kiwisoo]

My two little sister GPs are babies and would not eat any veggies when we got them from the rescue. I diced up the veggies to pellet size and mixed them with the pellets. I only had to do this twice. They ate all of it and now they each get their own separate veggie/salad bowls every night. I still cut the pieces up small, but that is no big deal if they are eating it and enjoying it. They have pellet bowls, veggie bowls and all the hay they want. It's working out really well.