In which someone should call the guinea pig police...

[muffetly]

X-posted to guinea_pigs

"I am leaving guinea_pigs. Every time I post something it seems I am wrong... I should not use lemon juice to stop them biting the plastic of their cage, I should never have kept pigs outdoors when I was a child (when I was only 10 and it was really my mother who was in charge), I should never feed them spinach, or cabbage, or now beets... just

Comments

[roobarb]

I've left similar groups for the same reason, I've never had the nerve to say this sort of thing. You did so well!

[muffetly]

Lol... the comments I got back from it were almost all in flames, so I might have wasted my time. Made me feel better to get it all out though!

[beebarf]

If the late Peter Gurney (either in print or on his site) says "don't do it" - I don't. I don't take what is said on fora too seriously, and PG's advice has always worked for me and my guinea pigs. It worked on Dougal when the vet was thinking there was no hope, and the spinach and kale munching Jasper is now approaching 7 years of age, so I have to be doing something right...

What some of the rigid thinkers don't realise is that, like humans, guinea pigs are individuals. And as their carer, you know what is best for your own pigs.

[muffetly]

Things is I have altered some of my habits based on their advice...
Allegedly all leafy greens are bad to some extent... they contain high amounts of calcium which can lead to bladder stones, and things like cabbage and broccoli give them gas, and since they can't fart, it build up until... I don't know, maybe they pop!

I do notice their wee is cloudy if they are eating lots of spinach or kale, so we have tried to reduce the amount we feed. But they really enjoy it!

My choice of veggies, mostly depends on what is cheap, in season, or leftover... They are spoiled rotten now as most of our veg is from an organic box scheme, and they get to finish off anything left over!

[beebarf]

Guinea pigs can fart. At least mine do! And it's a pretty powerful pong for something so small ...

One time, long ago when I had a piggie called Hector, he gorged himself on broccoli so much he got distended with gas, and was "pooting" every couple of minutes so on Peter Gurney's advice, I ground up a Deflatine tablet and gave him that, which sorted him out - and the experience didn't put him off broccoli!

I think feeding them though it's like humans - everything in moderation. The health benefits of fresh greens outweigh the small risk of calcium buildup, but I do restrict spinach and parsley intake. The current two love kale - others have been less keen. The new discovery though is that these two like parsnips - typically, just as the season is ending!

[pitbull_love]

I don't know what it is about pet communities that attracts so many crazies. I was once on a bird forum (not on LJ) and those people acted like I was the worst SOB in the world if I didn't run my birds to the vet every time they puffed their feathers up. According to them my birds were going to die at any moment because I'm so horrible the way I treat them. I called them on their nonsense and they banned me from the community. It's now several years later and whaddyaknow my birds are still here, happy and healthy. They also had all kinds of other stupid advice and if you weren't as militant about it as they were they were like a hive of angry bees buzzing around your head with OMG ANIMAL ABUSER!!! That's not to say they didn't know some useful things about these animals, but it couldn't make up for their crazy. I just lurk in animal forums now and don't participate. I just try to pick out the good advice from the crazy nonsense, and there seems to be a whole lot of crazy on them.

[muffetly]

Thanks... thats exactly how I felt. Just wondering how you found my LJ though... your name isn't familiar and your user info doesn't give much away! I'm always happy to make new friends though!