broccoli for guinea pigs - yea or nay?

[phdlife]

A couple of people I've spoken to said 'no', because gp's can't fart and therefore cabbage, broccoli etc make them uncomfortable.

otoh, none of the books I've had have said this, and the vet looked at me like I was bonkers.

Yes they love it.

mine eat broccoli, including the stalks. The thing with greens is not too much in one day, but do not give iceberg lettuce.

One of my boars is on a low calcium diet due to previous bladder problems. Unfortunately, most veggies that are high in vitamin C are also high in calcium. On top of this, he's quite a fussy eater.

Broccoli is relatively low in calcium but fairly high in vitamin C. And, the pigs like it. Hooray! They prefer the stalk to the florets though. Not sure w hy.

This link has a list of veggies and fruits and their respective calcium, phosphorous and vitamin C contents. www.guinealynx.info/charts.html It's also got an interactive spreadsheet thingie for calculating daily intake.

Brochilli- yes. Mine like the stalks.

Who said GPs don't fart?
Come and spend an evening with my little GP2 (the sweetest guinea in the history of mankind)
Black, fluffy, tiny, little fatty eye.
And the stinkiest fartiest bottom that he slides under my chin. Then settles and pffffft them out vom.

They cannot vomit.

I always give them the stalks, because we eat the florets ourselves.

My boys like celery leaves and I give the cast off stalks to DH

Oh yes, I always try and find the celery bunch with the most leaves, which the green grocer must think is nuts! :)

Cheesy Broccoli for us tomorrow night. More stalks for the boys for their tea!

Big pig would leave if i stopped giving him broccoli !

WRT celery- I find the organic celery tends to be leafier.
The standard stuff is all nicely trimmed to just the stalks.
I go mainly to Sainsburys, sometimes Tesco. I can get a double pack of really leafy celery- the stalks tend to be skinny and stringier. Pigs not keen on the long fibres. But it's ok for DH

Our GP1 would pack his Pig Bag and hit the highway if I didn't give him parsley. (only a couple of sprigs when they're having cuddles).

But if you go GP1 you'll have to take DD with you

(Imagining guinea pig with ruck sack on back, running away from home and trying to thumb a lift, then realising has no thumb! )

thanks very much, all. am beginning to think quite a lot of advice from former "vet nurse" (now pet shop owner) who sold them to us was what my small dc's refer to as "guinea-pig coffee beans"!

just for the record, here's a list of what I've read or been told NOT to feed them: lettuce, broccoli, avocado, onion, cabbage, potato, rhubarb.

mine LOVE celery, carrots and parsley but as I keep forgetting to water the latter I'm not giving my precious straggly stalks to them!

No iceberg lettuce. - I give mine romaine but you need to give small amounts (iceberg is all water)- can lead to diahorreah (sp)
potato (some people say its ok, but I've never given it.And green skin/leaves is poisonous).
anything from a bulb- so onion, and your garden bulbs
rhubarb- especially the leaves- poison
avocado- don't think they would eat it anyway, too slimy. And very fatty.

You have to be careful with cabbage and brochilli because it can cause bloat (anything that can cause a build up of gas can cause bloat. Careful with lush grass)

My GPs go out on the lawn, but spend most of the time resting, then popcorn and eat a bit.
GP2 (the one who farts vom) usually has a soft eating pooh in his bottom after grazing, but I've never found them in his bedding, so I know he hasn't got the runs.
But I give them a small supper after grass.

Mine love watermelon -just a sliver with the seeds out - and cut strawberries.

Classy boars

Mine love broccoli. I don't give them huge quantities, just the stalky bits that we don't eat. They seem to be fine with it, as were their predecessors who both lived to a grand age!

Mine like apples, the sour hard granny smiths not the kids little sweet apples wouldnt be my choice!!

Mine eat broccoli including the stocks, carrots including the greens, parsley, curly kale, little gem lettuce, spinach, cucumber.

70Lisa do you give them the watermelon skin (is it called skin? the green bit)

Claimed I do leave the skin on but they don't eat it.They like to carry bits of food to their lair-the hunter/gatherer instinct! They're quite good that way. They don't chew paper or clothes and seem to avoid anything in the garden that isn't good for them (like non GP weeds on the grass)

Some owners give banana and oranges to their pigs. I'd definately take the skin off those.

My GPs as a child used to eat the membrane skin from an orange segment but leave the juicy part. And teabags -not the tealeaves- just the bags

And no book, paper, or pair of shoelaces was safe. They would bite the laces from shoes we were wearing.

This pair seem quite refined by comparison.

mine LOVE watermelon rind. turn up their noses at grapes, oranges, tomatoes.

dh built an excellent pen outside and we've been putting them out there for hours at a time, mike really goes to town.

at them nibbling your shoelaces. ours run terrified from our every move. this may have something to do with excitable 3yo dd storming around like bloody godzilla all the time - godzilla on red cordial and crack if we get the pigs out for a cuddle

We had a shoelace shortage in our house when I was a child.
If they were left within guinea reach, they'd take the lace right down to the eyelet. You'd be left with a crusty pointy end (they ate the plastic ends too )
And only the slight pressure of a pair of GP paws then the tugging was a clue- then away went your laces.

They can be flighty with young children around.Some of them think that everything is a cobra or an eagle waiting to swoop off with them

phdlife They will get used to you in time. Ours were petrified to start with, but a month on, and lots of banging and shouting from ds, they don't bat a eyelid!

Little pig is a chewer! Absaloutley bloody everything!! Kitchen roll , newspaper , cushions, sofa !
Big pig however will not chew anything non edible....good pig!

There are a lot of fora online that state that brassicas should be strictly limited because they cause farts & tummy upset.

Luckily I have been piling brassicas into GP bowls for many years before that, so i quietly ignore that view (no problems, yet!). Like potato, great source of vit. C.

I also feed mine potatoes (any parts I deem fit for human consumption).
Avocado: could be fattening?
Lettuce: quality lettuce okay, I think it's the mostly-water varieties of lettuce that should be limited. That's the kind of lettuce I wouldn't eat myself, either.

Rhubarb is seriously poisonous, though. Beetroot tops are bad, too.

There's a theory that carrot tops have too much oxalic acid to be fed in high quantity.

Avocado is a No No. The flesh slows their gut down and the skin is poisonous as is the huge stone.

You'd think with it having a high Vit E content that it would be good for their coat, but no. And the high fat content isn't good for them .

And interestingly (well I thought so ) I read on one website that GPs natural diet would not include root veg -carrot, parsnips, beetroot- because they're not native plants in S.America.And this site proposed they shouldn't have them

But I suppose they adapt to being domesticated and adjust their diet .
Though thinking back to the Horrible Histories "Come Dine With Me" sketch with Maize and Beans- I'll give mine carrot!

we've had them for a month already and they are better at sitting in laps (briefly) but still flee from every movement.

well I'll skip the avocado (more for me!) - there's plenty else in this house. they are mad for cucumber, nibble snow peas, green beans, apple, plenty of pellets and lucerne.

thanks for that - should go rescue dc's now. they've been trapped by hypnotic rays from idiot box.

mine are still very skittish and had them for 6 months, quite happy to have a cuddle though and they know wehn I am going to the fridge -I look over and have 3 little faces looking at me

you need to be careful with apple cores -pips are bad news for pigs