Won't Eat Veggies New Pigs Won't Eat Veggies AT ALL

[dramallamaduck]

I've been reading threads on here the suggest mincing veggies, which I plan on trying... But I'm a bit overprotective and hyper-vigilant with my boys.

Flanagan is 2 years old and shows ZERO interest in veggies. I got him from a family that swears they did their research and fed veggies, but I'm not buying that. I've tried Romaine and Green Leaf lettuce, carrots, and apple. He wouldn't touch it.

Seamus is about 8 weeks old. He's more interested in the carrots and apple, but only a couple nibbles. He won't touch lettuce either.

Is this normal for piggies that have never been exposed to veggies before? They eat A TON of hay and usually finish their pellets, but I can't get them to eat veggies.

With their evening meal I'm going to try mincing some bell pepper. Can you mince lettuce or other leafy greens?

 

[bpatters]

You can mince anything except really juicy stuff -- that just dissolves the pellets. But just do one vegetable at a time, for several days, before offering it in a larger piece. When they'll eat that one, keep feeding it in larger pieces and start mincing another one.

 

[dramallamaduck]

Any idea how long it could take for the boys to get used to eating the veggies?

I'm especially worried for Flanagan, because he hasn't really had a proper diet.

 

[bpatters]

It depends. Some pigs will take to everything right away, others seem to regard any new food as an attempt at murder by diet and avoid vegetables for as long as possible. Some will eat some veggies but not others.

You may have to be creative with it. If they've got one vegetable they really like, use it to mix with one they don't. You can wrap lettuce around things like carrot sticks, smear apple juice or blueberries on another food, put cilantro with green beans in the food processor, whatever. You get the idea.

 

[CavyMama]

One of my pigs never used to touch green peppers unless I diced them up and mixed them with his pellets. If I tried to give them to him as a slice or a chunk of pepper, he would ignore it as if he had no idea what it even was. Nowadays, he will gladly take a chunk of pepper. So you just never know. They do sometimes adjust.

 

[dramallamaduck]

What's the easiest way to mince the veggies? I tried mixing some lettuce with the pellets, but I think my pieces were too big. Plus they just flipped the food bowls over and refused to touch the pellets when I mixed the lettuce in. I'm at a loss...

 

[Rywen]

It's hard to mince lettuce, bell pepper is a good one to start with.

 

[bpatters]

With a knife? See https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-un...d-dice-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-188523 for how to do it. But I'd mince the vegetables for the guinea pig even finer than that.