Nutrition Expanding the Menu

[iblastbigrocks]

I started following a "Menu" that has been posted on the site. It works great as far as being able to give my piggers a well rounded diet. I like it very much, but there's a few problems: my piggers don't seem to like anything but cilantro, lettuce, and carrots. I want to make sure that they get enough vit C and other nutrients but i can't seem to get them to eat some of these things!

Also, started noticing that there are some white spots on the fleece, sometimes they are smooth other times they are slightly gritty but not alot. What should I take out of their diet to help with this? Like i said they reallly like carrots, lettuce, and cilantro, along with their pellets and hay and alfalfa. I do give them fruit, usually apples, on occasion.

 

[kirsty91]

If they are over about 6 months they shouldn't be having alfalfa. That sounds like your problem, the white things are too much Calcium. Also I'd cut back on the carrots as they are high in sugar and calcium I believe. They should have timothy hay.

 

[CLV71]

What kind of lettuce are you feeding them?

 

[bpatters]

You have to teach them to eat veggies. Take one veggie they don't now eat. Chop a small serving very finely (like a pencil eraser in 6-8 pieces) and sprinkle it on their pellets. They'll get enough by accident to become accustomed to the taste, and they you can feed it in larger amounts and start on a new veggie. They need a more varied menu. I'd start with bell pepper as it's high in vitamin C.

What kind of lettuce are you feeding? If it's romaine, switch to red or green leaf lettuce. Romaine causes some pigs to have powdery urine.

What kind of pellets are you feeding?

Carrots are too high in vitamin A to be fed often -- at a maximum, they should get one baby carrot every day or so.

They don't need alfalfa -- they need a long strand grass hay, like timothy, orchard grass, bluegrass or brome. Alfalfa is high in calcium, and can be contributing to the white spots in your cage.

 

[Paula]

Just an aside. Actually, you might want to avoid overfeeding carrots due to the higher sugar content, but Vitamin A toxicity wouldn't be a concern. They'd have to eat absolutly mega amounts to suffer adverse effects. Moreover, it's virtually impossible for an herbivore to suffer Vitamin A toxicity, and the biggest concern anyway is with the over use of supplements, which are very concentrated and can potentially overload the liver.

I'd definitely try peppers. Mine absoutely love those little mini red, yellow and orange peppers that are quite popular right now. I do a "pepper salad" every morning with those, green peppers and cilantro. For me, it's usually successful to get a picky pig to eat something by just offering it, leaving it in the cage overnight (or all day, depending on the time you put it in) and continuing to offer it like that until they finally decide to give it a taste. There are a number of ways to do it, but it takes a lot of patience sometimes. Good luck!

 

[iblastbigrocks]

Thank you for putting so cut and dry. Sometimes I over think things.

HAY: I did start using a timothy hay, by default as the pet store was out of alfalfa. And they are eating it so we'll just stick with that! Yeah, that was an easy switch.

PELLETS: Using a KayTee Forti diet Pro health thats also fortified with Omega 3 and Vit C. (i just noticed that. Didn't see it when i bought the bag a few months ago. It's a pretty big bag.

I have started to cut back on the carrots, about everyother day and tried subbing other things in place of it. I will the veggies smaller and see if that works. and i will try the romaine switch and see if that helps. Thanks a REAL REAL lot. Any info is helpful!! We want happy piggies!!