It's Time For Another Guinea-Pig Food Thread - The A/W Edition

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

So, the supermarkets/markets have stocked up now with the Autumn/Winter veg.
No more grazing for the piggies , they rely more on hand cut grass ,dandelions and loads of hay.

Popular with the 70 piggies:

Kale (wish my DS would eat it too)
Carrots with leaves, none of your peelings thanks.
Brocilli stems
Herbs- parsley,mint,coriander (not fight inducing with these ones, thankfully)
Sweetcorn- mini,regular,in leaf
Romaine
Chicory- red or green
Chard
Those little lettuces , especially the red topped
Spinach/watercress/rocket salad but not rocket alone
Pea shoots (I grow them now)
Cucumber
Red/yellow/orange peppers
celery leaves
banana in skin
watermelon in skin

They don't like- turnip peel, cauli,lambs lettuce,rocket,basil, grapes, normal carrot/peel

[starlight2007]

Wow you have 70..

My one g.pig eats banna skin but not banana's, Apples If I chop in half he will eat the middle and leave the skin.. He prefers the carrot peelings to the carrot and will leave the top of strawberries but eat the leaves...

My friends G.pigs love tomatoes..I have tried mine he turned his nose up at them.

[clippityclop]

Thank you! Always on the look out for ideas. Mine like all of the above plus cauliflower leaves, pear (cutted up of course) and green beans. Instructions on growing pea shoots please, window ledge? Is it ok to give them cress, the sort you can grow on damp kitchen roll? And what about sprouts? I read somewhere about the occasional satsuma segment being OK? Big news here is that the little madams have finally decided that strawberries are not weirdy food from out of space.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I grow a few peas on damp kitchen paper (in an old plastic tub) on the kitchen windowsill, then crop them when they get leafy. I need to start a new batch soon.

I tried a tub of cress , they were

Sprouts+ guinea-pigs = wind My GP2 used to get the most eye searing gas , bless him (He was my funny little fatty eyed boar who did poohs the size of a Ferrero Rocher - the vet was most surprised )
But Christmas meant sprouts for GP2 , he loved them.

They will eat a segment of orange or tangerine/satsuma/clentine but it is messy (ours are the membraney bit , left the fruit). It's good Vit C but leaves sticky little throats.

One of ours ate tomato (GP1)

Ours were very wary of strawberries but discovered they are delicious.

[dontstopmenow]

Thank you for the list 70!
It is good to have new ideas. Our piggies love those little gem lettuces, cucumber and occasional bits of French green beans. They also like all peppers and squeak very loudly for them!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Our GP5 and GP6 (my Himmy Sow and our boar) were having a Chuckle Brother Style fight (To Me To You) over a long stem of mint today.
They smelled lovely and my piggie went off with the spoils (our boar is really soft ) so it keeps them active too.
He is first to the food dish What's the old bat brought today then , nom nom nom

[987flowers]

Went to a farm today and all their piggies were running around outside eating the wet grass. Everything I've read is to not put the pigs on wet grass, I feel I need to tell them!

(I must say they looked very healthy but I did feel a bit about it)

[FernieB]

Ooooo going to try pea shoots. I can put them on the utility windowsill and the boys can watch them grow

Scruffypig and Gingerpig like:

Kale (only at bedtime and always at bedtime otherwise they're not happy)
Cucumber
Basil, parsley, lavender (although lavender is probs finished now for the year)
Celery
Broccoli
Lettuce
Spinach
Green pepper
Apple
Watermelon peel

Gingerpig also eats:

Carrot
Red/yellow pepper
Tomato (plays football with it first)

Tried them with pumpkin but apparently it's as evil as strawberries and I was clearly trying to kill them

[FernieB]

987 - if it's warm enough I put my boys out on damp grass, but I do put a couple of old towels down so they have a dry spot to lard about on.

[DeathMetalMum]

Mine love cauliflower leaves, which is brilliant as I get a good supply of those from my Mum same goes with savoy cabbage she saves the outside few leaves for them which is very handy, as we don't eat it much.

Another surprise was sugar snap peas in their shell, not a favourite but they do eat some of them, celery as mentioned above particularly the more leafy pieces, I often run the vegatable peeler along the back so it's not too stringy for them. They love kale but I try make sure they don't eat it often.

What herbs can they eat other than parsley and coriander? We have mint and rosemary in the garden that I haven't tried them with yet, and we also regularly buy things like thyme and sage and wondered if they could have what's left of those?

[Spottyladybird]

My three like:

Peppers- especially green
Spinach
Carrots
Apple
Melon
Cucumber
Beans
Peas in pods
Lettuce whatever way possible

One does not like rocket, the other two love it.
They do not like courgette- what is this pretend cucumber?
They'll take or leave broccoli

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Mine love marrow (I was given one, I thought "Okay , try them on a slice" without the seeds ). Scoffed !


Who will be tempting the hogs with some Pumpkin? (I bought 2 edible small pumpkins to make soup with the innards, rather than those mahoosive decorative ones. We'll see what they think )

[987flowers]

Id never thought of sugar snap peas, will get some when they're on offer next!

Ours like parsley, coriander, mint and basil. I find having a growing pot handy when I'm running low on other veg!

They've had a graze today though as we desperately needed to clean the whole hutch (we'd been poo picking and cleaning out the sleeping bit) and it gave us a chance easily!

[clippityclop]

Thanks 70! We'll set some peas to sprout at the wheek end. I'd heard that apple was not a good thing for piggies so avoid? 'Tis a minefield, slaves we are, slaves...

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Apple is fine as a treat cut up (cutted up ) into small pieces.

I'm wary of apple since our GP3 died (I cannot blame apple entirely but they'd had a bit much and I think (not 100% sure) that it kick-started a bowel-fermentation.
The sows ate the same so I'm puzzled.

But with most pig food (except hay/pellets/water) small amounts is key

[Spottyladybird]

Apple is a rare treat in our house, usually when my mum has been here and she pops half an apple in all chopped up.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Bumping for glen

[FernieB]

Bumping for lottielou

[clippityclop]

Is it OK to feed our girlies with courgette please? I need to get our greenhouse back in production and thought these would be a good idea. Can't wait for dryer, warmer weather.

[FernieB]

I've tried mine with courgette but they weren't impressed. Your piggies may like it though. It is on the list of allowed foods.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Cavelo Nero (dark long leaves , like a kale x cabbage) is very popular with our hogs.
I bought one reduced in Waitrose once to try them.

(M&S sell it too)

One of those Living Salads was scoffed .

(We need a Spring / Summer Food Thread )

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Ours tried courgette, they ate the skin but left the middle (unlike cucumber where they eat the middle and leave the skin [confised] )

I bought some Chinese Leaf for them, they ate the edges and left the central stalk bit.

[PurpleDaisies]

Mine aren't fussed on courgettes either 70. They've had purple sprouting broccoli leaves from the veg box tonight. They almost took my hand off when I put it in the cage!