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Diet Chinese vegetables?

Cogni

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I went to Chinatown today and got some veggies from a large Chinese supermarket. I went because although it's a bit of a drive out to the west side, some of the produce is about half the price of in-town where I live. I loaded up on lettuces, green pepper and cilantro. (Unfortunately the Chinese don't eat western parsley, so that was not available.)

I also got a few Chinese vegetables, thinking I could see which the boys liked and if they didn't like them I would stir-fry them for us.
One I got is called yu choy. Choy means 'greens' in Chinese. I found a picture of this vegetable on a seed packet in the same store translated to English as "Edible Rape". This site describes it: Yu Choy (Edible Rape, Green Choy Sum)
The piggies eat it, but not eagerly. They like it better than cilantro.
I am wondering if I can give this to them instead of cilantro? One of the piggies won't touch cilantro at all, the other eats a bit of it when first put into the cage but most of it just wilts.

Second, I got some greens with purplish leaves. Again I could identify the vegetable by means of a picture on a seed packet. They call it Red Leaf, but it is amaranth, Red Stripe Leaf variety. I found it on the same seed site as above, at Edible Amaranth, Red Stripe Leaf
They like this one so I'm wondering if I can feed it to them regularly.
I got a third veg, a packet of fresh green leaves called on the label "Bean Leaf". But unfortunately the boys are not interested in that one.
 

Rnd210

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The yu choy is a cabbage type so would check Ly's chart for cabbage and feed occordingly.

The Red Stripe Leaf one I think is more of a forage leaf most similar to a lettuce type so it could probably be fed daily.

I am not an expert in this area, might be best to wait for Ly to answer but she can correct me if I am wrong.
 

Ly&Pigs

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When it comes to things that can or cannot be fed and they aren't listed in the charts, the forages list or the poisonous plants list, it's much better to not make guesses. Mainly because if a guess should happen to be wrong and the particular item asked about being fed is poisonous or toxic, it could have very bad results. Even some things that are fine for humans to consume are not ok for cavies to consume.

The first thing I do when someone asks about if something can or cannot be fed is to check it out on various poisonous plants list to make sure it's not poisonous or toxic. Then I check out the nutrition data to see if it's worth feeding and how often it can be fed.

Amaranth happens to be toxic. It can contain high levels of nitrates. I hope you have not fed that one as of yet. If you have, discontinue immediately.

The Choi sum/yu choy is similar to broccoli and contains high amounts of A and moderate amounts of calcium so it cannot be used as a substitute daily for cilantro. It can however, be fed once or twice a week in small portions.

I can't find info on this "bean leaf" so I would not feed it until it's known if it's safe.
 

Rnd210

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I am sorry, I missed that about the nitrates.

Cogni, if you cook that for yourself and family it should not be reheated to eat as the nitrates will be higher when reheated. It is one of those things that when cooked it needs to be ate then and left overs need to be tossed. It becomes poisonous to people when reheated or recooked.
 

Cogni

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Yes I see now it makes more sense to ask first and feed later, if there is this toxicity problem. I have to learn to get my mind around the fact that some fresh delicious-to-humans greens might be very bad for our sensitive little greens-loving piggies. Luckily I tried only a leaf of each with them. Amaranth poisonous! OMG.

I'll keep trying with cilantro. At first they would not eat green peppers but on the advice here I kept with it and they don't get any lettuce until they finish their portion of peppers. I give them the freshest youngest bell peppers I can find, sliced into strips which they like better, for breakfast, to the lugubrious tune of "All the Little Piggies in the World, must eat their pe-e-ppers, must eat their pe-e-ppers." And they eat them happily now.
 
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