Won't Eat Veggies My piggie wont eat veggies!!!

[<3PinkysMom<3]

I've had my GP since Aug. 26th. Since ive had her she hasn't eaten any veggies. She doesn't even pay attention to them when I put them into her cage. She eats pellets and hay like crazy. And she drinks enough water. She just wont eat her veggies. She doesn't act like shes sick. She is about 5 weeks old. She was just weened from her mother when I got her. ***I bought her from a pet store. I bought her before i saw this website.***

 

[banjosnotbombs]

It's not abnormal for guinea pigs to take a little while to figure out what veggies are. It took Odetta a few weeks, even after moving in with Chubbles.
Just keep offering them in small amounts. She'll eventually realize it's food.
Adopting her a buddy, who already understands veggies, will help teach her too.

 

[<3PinkysMom<3]

Yeah, I wanted to wait till she adjusted to me and her new home and till I got a C&C cage till I adopted her a new buddy. Thank you for the info. I will keep you posted.

 

[MapleOwl18]

Depends on which type of veggies it is to sometimes. I have one pig, who lives on his own, who refuses to eat anything that is not green and leafy other than carrots.

I gave him a grape tomato from my garden with the stem still on it the other day. The other piggies scarfed it up. He just ate the stem, and the little leaves around the top.

Try carrots I have yet to meet a piggy who doesn't like them. Also, if they won't eat the vegetable right away or out of your hand, try putting it in their food bowl. We had to do that with Linus to get him to figure out it was edible. Also some piggies, specially new ones, are to scared (or prissy :crazy to eat it out of your hand. This also gives them time to think about it, and eventually they realize, that you only put edible things in their food bowl.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Do not feed tomato stems or leaves. They are toxic to pigs.

I would not start with carrots. They have very little nutritional value and are more of a treat type veggie. You need to start with lettuce, bell pepper and cilantro. Just offer small amounts everyday and leave the lettuce and cilantro in the cage until they get wilty. The bell pepper can be left in there longer. You may have to nibble on the veggies to show your pig that these are safe things and that you aren't trying to kill her. It can take some pigs weeks to get used to veggies.

In the meantime, you need to supplement with Vitamin C. Get a plain vitamin C tablet (100mg or less) with no added stuff and very little or no sugars and give 1/4 a tablet a day or get plain liquid C from a health food store and give about 25mg. per day. Do not get the drops you put in food or water as they do no good.

 

[MapleOwl18]

Sorry about that with the tomatoes. I guess you learn something new every day. I had fed my guinea pigs the little cherry tomatoes, with the little 5 leaves around the stem still on. They didn't exhibit any odd side effects, but thats probably because the leaves where so small and they had plenty of other food like hay and pellets.

Although Butterscotch did eat only the leaves as I noted previously. I also got the type of tomato mixed up, because I do grow both. It was a cherry tomato.

I'll definitely take them off next time, so don't feed your piggies tomato leaves or stems. Sorry about that.

 

[<3PinkysMom<3]

Thank you Maple and Ly for your reply. So far ive tried to introduce her to cucumber, carrots, green and yellow bell pepper, romaine lettuce, and a little bit of apple. I cut up the veggies and place them on a small plate in her cage in the morning and take it out in the evening. Nibbling on veggies in front of my piggy is a good idea. I did not know you could give a vitamin C tablet to GP's. I was getting very concerned about her vitamin C intake. If I were to give her a 1/4 of a tablet to her do I just place it in her food dish with her pellets? Or would you recommend the drops?

 

[Ly&Pigs]

If I were to give her a 1/4 of a tablet to her do I just place it in her food dish with her pellets? Or would you recommend the drops?

You could just give it to her and see if she will eat it from your hand. If that fails and she won't eat it from the dish, then you will need to crush it and mix it with a tiny bit of water and syringe feed it to her. If you get liquid C from a health food store then you could give it directly to her via the dropper.

I've already stated to not use the C drops (found in petstores) that you put in water or food.

 

[<3PinkysMom<3]

In the meantime, you need to supplement with Vitamin C. Get a plain vitamin C tablet (100mg or less) with no added stuff and very little or no sugars and give 1/4 a tablet a day or get plain liquid C from a health food store and give about 25mg. per day. Do not get the drops you put in food or water as they do no good.

Sorry, that was what I was referring to. Thank you.

 

[PigurLuvr]

Tomatoes belong to the Nightshade family. Very toxic (except the fruit, obviously).

It took my little guy about 3 weeks to eat his lettuce(s). Persistence paid off. Grow some wheat grass, when it grows hand feed it to her. I'm sure she'll change her mind after that

 

[theresaj]

From my experience just take little bits and give them to your piggie even if she doesn't eat them the first few times. She'll eventually figure out, ohh it's food hmm *nibble* hey this stuff ain't bad. At least that's what happened with my Frankie. I didn't start him on veggies for a while till after he warmed up to this new home and environment. But I started with little bits in his dish frequently, removed them if he didn't eat them after a few hours. He eventually came to enjoy any veggie I introduced to him once he really tried it.