Won't Eat Veggies My Guinea Pig will eat NOTHING but hay and pellets

[auntylinda]

I have tried romaine lettuce, carrots, bell peppers, cauliflower, tangerines, apples, and pears and Einstein will touch none of it. I always put it in her food bowl and she will sniff it but will not eat it. Any suggestions?

 

[bpatters]

Start with one veggie -- red or green leaf lettuce is good. No other veggies for the time being. Chop the lettuce very fine (think a pencil eraser in 6-8 pieces). Sprinkle it on her pellets. Feed her the lettuce this way for about a week, or less if she starts eating it. She'll get enough by accident to get used to the taste, and then you can feed it in larger pieces and start on another veggie. Green bell pepper should be next. Then cilantro, but you might try just sitting her on your lap and feeding her cilantro -- most pigs love it.

When she will reliably eat lettuce, bell peppers and cilantro, you can add other things -- a slice of tomato, a baby carrot, endive, dill, parsley (not much parsley if she's over 6 months old), basil, corn husks and silks (all she'll eat, but strip the outer husks and silks off to get rid of the pesticides), zucchini or other summer squash, green beans.

You can teach her to eat fruit the same way, but fruit should be a treat only, a little bit a couple of times a week. It's too high in sugar for them.

 

[lovemyguineas]

This trick that bpatters told you is starting to work for me. I have 2 guineas. Twix loves her green lettuce, bell pepper, cilantro, carrot, endive. She hasn't seem to like the cherry tomato. I gave it whole the first time (then tried cutting it) either way that was the thing she left! However my Snickers is fussy. He would not eat anything. I would get in his cage and try to hand feed him a piece of green lettuce and he would literally walk over and sniff it and run (like it was poison) It was crazy. So I of course mentioned this and bpatters told me the same thing she told you. I have been doing it for several days now. The first time I did it, I had just given him pellets so I just added the green lettuce and he saw me. Well he sniffed and ran from his food dish. He seems to be pretty smart! SO I figured I would NOT let him watch me do it....I took his food dish out of his cage, washed it and added the lettuce where he didn't see me, then went back over by his cage and gave him his pellets then stirred it up and put it in his cage. He went right at it. I did chop it up nice and fine(there were a couple pieces a little bigger and sure enough they were laying on the floor of his cage by the food dish). he had picked them out. He did however eat the others so it is working. Slowly but surely. I will have patients with him. I am sure in a couple more days I will try to give him bigger pieces and see what he does.

 

[fcdairygoats]

I have noticed that Piglet may not eat a new veggie/fruit right away but after trying to feed her it a few times she slowly takes to it.....She didn't use to eat cucumber and zucchini but I kept offering her it and she did finally eat it.