Piggie social skills

crowcrash

Post   » Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:16 am


Congrats! It took me some time to get a harmonious herd of boars, but it is possible! The best way I found to keep the most dominant one from bullying is to have more houses/hides than there is pigs. Its so funny how it works with personalities, my alpha is a small Abyssinian but has such a Napoleon complex 😆 Good luck!

jatean

Post   » Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:28 pm


Things are pretty peaceful, from what I can tell. 2 questions: We were told to not interact with them for a few days - just how many is a few days?
And the bag of alfalfa hay for the baby....it's awful, and bought another one. Is alfalfa supposed to be so tough and stalky??

User avatar
lisam

Post   » Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:18 pm


Most alfalfa is pretty stemmy, and the leaves fall from the stems.

I'm of the opinion that babies don't need alfalfa hay. No pigs really do. I might use a tiny bit if I have a malnourished pig and am trying to add weight, but for the most part I don't feed it.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:21 pm


Ditto lisam on the alfalfa hay. Babies need extra calcium, which you can get with parsley. Forget the alfalfa hay.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:05 pm


Most pellets for guinea pigs have alfalfa hay added. When guinea pigs get older, switching to a grass based hay works well.

jatean

Post   » Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:01 pm


Hi everyone! Our new baby doesn't eat parsley, alfalfa hay or pellets. He also doesn't eat the Oxbow vit C pellets. Any suggestions?

User avatar
lisam

Post   » Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:03 pm


Is he eating any pellets at all? What is his diet?

User avatar
GrannyJu1
Supporter in '21

Post   » Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:00 am


My baby is doing the same - won't eat parsley, alfalfa hay, but will eat the pellets. She does eat the KMS timothy hay and pellets, and eats lettuce but won't eat other veggies that I can tell. She's almost too big to fit through the grids now, so I can start separating the adults from Dusty. Maybe then I can get her to eat the pellets undisturbed, and find out for sure which veggies she is and is not eating. I do know she won't eat the parsley.

jatean

Post   » Sat Jan 13, 2018 8:49 pm


He's 5 weeks old now and growing by the day! Took him and our other pig in for check ups and they are both very healthy!

He has started to eat a little parsley, loves peppers, doesn't know what to do with a tomato. But he never touches the alfalfa hay or the pellets. Can he get enough calcium from only veggies?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:43 pm


I would give primarily grass hay and skip the alfalfa hay. Standard guinea pig pellets generally have adequate amounts of calcium for young guinea pigs.

CavyGirl04

Post   » Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:58 pm


You can also give some high-calcium foods (like parsley) during lap time. For some reason, this makes it much more appealing, at least for my pigs. It also means the older pig won't get it. If you just leave it in the cage, he'll probably end up eating some and getting more calcium than he should, and the smaller one will get less.

jatean

Post   » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:31 pm


Thank you everyone for your input! He's quickly learned to enjoy parsley which we give him at each meal - he's also learning to eat as fast as possible because the big pig tries to steal it!! We give him his bell pepper to keep him distracted!

Took both pigs in for check ups and both are healthy!

Post Reply