Diet Veggies to feed with mazuri pellets?

[MochiLover]

I’m new to having guinea pigs and I’m not sure what veggies to feed with mazuri pellets. I read that the best Ca ratio is 1.33.1. Does anyone else go by that? What can I feed them to achieve that ratio?

 

[MaiaBex]

I'm not familiar with mazuri pellets, and Amazon didn't list the ingredients/percentages/etc, so I can't really say. Personally, I don't worry about the ratios too much; I just try to make sure that I'm going with pellets that have a good amount of fiber, not too much calcium, and few "junk fillers" (like added sugars).

Veggies... my Tannim gets greens (salad mix from the grocery store) and yellow bell pepper daily, with other veggies rotated in at random as I have them. I know there are posts on here with links to veggie lists (what's good, what's bad, feeding frequency, etc), and there are other sites that have good info too. (I have GuineaPigCorner, GuineaPigManual, and GuineaLynx bookmarked.)

This is a good place to get info... Welcome to the forum, and best wishes to you and your piggy(s)!

 

[MerryFriarTuck]

I'm not familiar with mazuri pellets, and Amazon didn't list the ingredients/percentages/etc, so I can't really say. Personally, I don't worry about the ratios too much; I just try to make sure that I'm going with pellets that have a good amount of fiber, not too much calcium, and few "junk fillers" (like added sugars).

Veggies... my Tannim gets greens (salad mix from the grocery store) and yellow bell pepper daily, with other veggies rotated in at random as I have them. I know there are posts on here with links to veggie lists (what's good, what's bad, feeding frequency, etc), and there are other sites that have good info too. (I have GuineaPigCorner, GuineaPigManual, and GuineaLynx bookmarked.)

This is a good place to get info... Welcome to the forum, and best wishes to you and your piggy(s)!

@MaiaBex is spot on!

I'm not familiar with Mazuri pellets, either; but if I remember correctly the only pellets that are good are Oxbow and KMS Hayloft. Most pellets have "junk fillers" as Maiabex said: too much calcium, sugar, corn, and not enough of other nutrients. And any pellet with added colored biscuits, seeds, or dried fruit is always bad. These things are unhealthy and seeds even dangerous to piggies.

As long as you feed a good, high quality pellet, you never have to worry about comparing veggie ratios to it! The simplest thing to do is avoid greens and vegetables too high in calcium, like romaine, kale, spinach, broccoli, celery, parsley, etc. Some piggies never have a problem with Ca ratios, others will start to get white calcium powder in their urine if they eat too much of something high in calcium, and this can eventually cause bladder or kidney stones. Of my two piggies, one never has a problem with calcium, while my other will get white grit in his urine if eats something high in calcium for more than a couple days in a row. You just have to know your piggy.

For example, my piggies get yellow bell pepper, green bell pepper ( bell peppers are very important for your piggies to get enough vitamin c ) , cucumber, and green or red leaf lettuce every day. For treats they get little bits of carrots, apple, oranges, etc throughout the week. And as long as it's small amounts they can still have things high in calcium like the romaine, celery, etc as treats as well!

Here's the link to the veggie list here Maiabex spoke of: https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...vy-Nutrition-Charts-amp-Poisonous-Plants-List
It tells you everything about every veggie out there!
And here's a link to GuineaPigManual: www.guineapigmanual.com
It helped me so much as a new guinea pig owner!
If you have any other questions ask away

 

[bpatters]

Mazuri pellets contain calcium carbonate, which has been anecdotally linked to bladder stones. If you can get Oxbow or KMS Hayloft, they'd be a better bet.

 

[MochiLover]

Thank you everyone! This information is very helpful. I’ll make sure my piggies don’t eat foods too high in calcium and also get KMS Hayloft pellets as soon as possible

 

[MochiLover]

I was thinking about how to fulfill their vitamin c requirements. Would it be okay to give them more than 2 tablespoons of green/yellow pepper? Would it be bad for them? I tried looking for green leaf lettuce at the store today and they didn’t have any.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I've always given my boys a slice of pepper (colour varies depending on their mood that week lol.) and I've always sliced it lengthwise, roughly 1 1/2 to two inches in thickness. They tend to gobble it in about 5-7 minutes. Yellow peppers are highest in vitamin C, followed by orange, red and then green containing the lowest.

If you can't find green leaf, you can use red leaf and I've also used endive lettuce as an alternative. I'm sure there are others, but I've not used them. Romaine can produce excess urinary calcium and should be avoided.

 

[MerryFriarTuck]

I give mine around the same amount as Guinea Pig Papa, too---I think he described it better than I could have It's not bad for them at all to have more than two tablespoons; it's good for them! The only thing to be aware of is red and orange bell peppers are higher in sugar, so you don't want to give them just those kind constantly. My piggies eat yellow and green every day, and every other week or so I get them red or orange as a treat to mix in.

Oranges are also a good source of vitamin c, but they're very high in sugar so they only have them as treats. They used to be my piggies favorite treat, but now they're on strike with them for some reason lol

I've had green leaf be a pain to find before, too. You can use red leaf or butter head as an alternative--- I didn't know about endive myself, I'll have to remember that!

Guinea pigs should have a cup of veggies and greens every day, so that's the easiest way to measure what you're giving them. ( One cup that's both greens and veggies; not 1 cup of veggies plus 1 cup of greens ) hope this helps!

 

[MochiLover]

I've always given my boys a slice of pepper (colour varies depending on their mood that week lol.) and I've always sliced it lengthwise, roughly 1 1/2 to two inches in thickness. They tend to gobble it in about 5-7 minutes. Yellow peppers are highest in vitamin C, followed by orange, red and then green containing the lowest.

If you can't find green leaf, you can use red leaf and I've also used endive lettuce as an alternative. I'm sure there are others, but I've not used them. Romaine can produce excess urinary calcium and should be avoided.

Yeah I looked for red leaf and they didn’t have that either I’ll have to look for endive too! Maybe they’ll have more to select from next time I go. Thank you!!

 

[MochiLover]

I give mine around the same amount as Guinea Pig Papa, too---I think he described it better than I could have It's not bad for them at all to have more than two tablespoons; it's good for them! The only thing to be aware of is red and orange bell peppers are higher in sugar, so you don't want to give them just those kind constantly. My piggies eat yellow and green every day, and every other week or so I get them red or orange as a treat to mix in.

Oranges are also a good source of vitamin c, but they're very high in sugar so they only have them as treats. They used to be my piggies favorite treat, but now they're on strike with them for some reason lol

I've had green leaf be a pain to find before, too. You can use red leaf or butter head as an alternative--- I didn't know about endive myself, I'll have to remember that!

Guinea pigs should have a cup of veggies and greens every day, so that's the easiest way to measure what you're giving them. ( One cup that's both greens and veggies; not 1 cup of veggies plus 1 cup of greens ) hope this helps!

I’ll have to look for butter head too. So glad to know there are so many options! I was worried about giving them too much pepper but I’m glad it won’t hurt them. Thank you!

 

[SSLee]

If you are near a Costco, they sometimes carry butter head. I have three Costco stores near me and only one carries butter head which sells out quick. Luckily butter head is now more common in the supermarkets and many carry the "living" ones with the roots so it lasts longer. Recently I discovered frisée, another confusing lettuce, as it is also known as curly endive and chicory. I've read conflicting information on whether frisée/curly endive/chicory is a daily green suitable for guinea pigs.

@Guinea Pig Papa, is the endive you mentioned the same as escarole? If yes, my piggies love it but it is very hard to find in my area. So far, I've found them in a few farmers markets occasionally so they are considered as a treat. Sometimes I get confused when I see the word endive as I also buy belgium endive for the piggies and they are totally different vegetables.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

@Guinea Pig Papa, is the endive you mentioned the same as escarole? If yes, my piggies love it but it is very hard to find in my area. So far, I've found them in a few farmers markets occasionally so they are considered as a treat. Sometimes I get confused when I see the word endive as I also buy belgium endive for the piggies and they are totally different vegetables.

Endive and escarole are chicories of the same species. I have fed my boys all three, endive, belgian endive and escarole.

 

[Spotakiss]

I use hartz from chewy.com.

 

[bpatters]

Those Hartz pellets are made with calcium carbonate, which has been anecdotally linked to bladder stones. I'd switch to KMS or Oxbow.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

@Guinea Pig Papa You mentioned that you've given your boys Belgium Endive, can you tell me how often you've fed it? My girls love it and would probably eat it everyday if given to them. I was feeding it often, but then I noticed how high the calcium content was, and I just stopped it altogether. I wonder if giving them a small leaf every few days would be too much? It's very difficult to find in my area. There's only one natural food market that carries it. Trader Joe has it but it isn't the organic variety.

I'm lucky in that I have never not been able to get red or green leaf lettuce. They have all gotten it as an occasional treat but really no more than that.

 

[MerryFriarTuck]

I use hartz from chewy.com.

I've always read Hartz is not good; glad to have that confirmed! Oxbow, which is what I've always fed my piggies ( they love it! ) is on chewy.com, too. They might have KMS as well.

 

[MerryFriarTuck]

@Guinea Pig Papa You mentioned that you've given your boys Belgium Endive, can you tell me how often you've fed it? My girls love it and would probably eat it everyday if given to them. I was feeding it often, but then I noticed how high the calcium content was, and I just stopped it altogether. I wonder if giving them a small leaf every few days would be too much? It's very difficult to find in my area. There's only one natural food market that carries it. Trader Joe has it but it isn't the organic variety.

My boys like cilantro the same way, but I ran into the same issue with it's calcium content. I decided to get it for them as a tree every week or two, and then they could have 2 or 3 sprigs every day for a week ( or until it was gone ). That way they get at least a week break, or sometimes two week break from it, and then still get to enjoy it when I do get it My Friar Tuck is prone to calcium issues, but he seems ok and I never see any calcium powder in his urine as long as I do this! It's also the only high calcium thing he gets, except a tiny bit of romaine once in a rare while.