Nutrition Which is better for guinea pigs, romaine lettuce or read leaf lettuce?

[Crystal Lee]

I'm just wondering which one because at my local grocery store their heads of romaine lettuce are the same price as the red leaf lettuce yet are bigger. So they'd last longer than the red leaf lettuce considering how much my guineas eat.
Does anyone know which one is better for guineas?

 

[lissie]

I buy both and rotate them. My pigs also like curly lettuce too.

 

[Peggysu]

My girls always get at least two different kind of lettuce a week. Their favorite is red leaf though. I give them red leaf, green leaf, romaine, endive, swiss chard, escarole and cilantro. I haven't bought butterhead because it's expensive here and doesn't even look that good. There are a lot of choices and switching it around keeps it interesting and gives them a variety, which is important.

 

[pigsforlife]

They are probably both pretty even in terms of their nutrition levels, but I am no expert. The important thing is variety. I buy 4 different kinds of lettuces a week which I use as a base point for their salads. I add 1 or 2 different leafy greens on top of that (basil/mint/bok choy/parsley etc) and a few different veggies (carrots/cucumber/capsicum etc). Above all, they go crazy for romaine lettuce but it is important to rotate/alternate veggies to provide them with the most variety.

 

[Crystal Lee]

Thanks everybody for the tips I wasn't sure, but now I know I'll just alternate them throughout the week.

 

[Jasper_Hale]

Like everyone else, I would alternate them. I give mine lots of fruits and veggies, too. Be sure to give them a variety.

 

[Crystal Lee]

Like everyone else, I would alternate them. I give mine lots of fruits and veggies, too. Be sure to give them a variety.

I'll make sure to do so. And I've been making sure to give them variety of veggies. I've been giving them parsley, red leaf lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, and carrots, and alternate them throughtout the week. I always put lettuce and parsley in their salads, and I alternate the bell pepper, cucumber, and carrot portions. Today I'm trying them on salads with a bit of romain lettuce, a bit of red leaf lettuce, cucumber, parsely, carrots, and some celerey.

 

[CritterCraze]

I alternate between romaine lettuce, butter lettuce (which remind me of cabbage patch kids lol cutest veggie I've ever seen lol) and green leaf lettuce.

Then they also get veggies I alternate with cilantro, bell peppers, celery, tomatoe's, cucumber, chard and I may be drawing a blank on one. But they get these switched up every day.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Variety, variety, variety is the key to a good veggie diet.

 

[lissie]

I always put lettuce and parsley in their salads, and I alternate the bell pepper, cucumber, and carrot portions.

Based on Ly's chart, parsley should not be fed everyday, except you have pigs younger than 6 months. Lettuce and bell pepper can be fed everyday.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

You need to always put lettuce, bell pepper and cilantro in if they will eat those and then rotate the others plus add more variety. Bell pepper is a daily staple that is great for C content. They can't make their own Vit. C so you have to ensure they get it through the veggies because pellets just are not dependable.

 

[Crystal Lee]

Ok. Will do.

 

[louie_joey]

It's really strange one of my pigs is a picky eater, he looks at lettuce like it is an alien, while the other one gobbles it up. They both won't touch bell peppers and I am a bit worried that they won't get the nutrients that they need that they get from bell peppers. Is there any other veggies that have the same nutrients as bell peppers that I could try?

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Keep trying with the bell pepper. Sometimes it can take pigs days to weeks to eat new things. The bell pepper is for C content so look on my nutrition charts for other things high in C. There are other things high in C but nothing that can be fed on a daily basis.

 

[hurleyslave]

I was just wondering because I was dancing around the idea of growing my own lettuce in my backyard this year (fresh, organic, and a constant steady supply right in my backyard without having to run three blocks down the street to the markets!) and I just wanted to know if I could feed the piggies ANY kind of lettuce (except for iceberg - I never feed them iceberg; I know it's bad for them)? For example, red leaf lettuce as someone already said is okay. And butterhead. What about Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce? Has anyone ever tried that before? It'll be in the category of leaf lettuce from what I googled.