[Gpdd] HEALTH: Food--hay and parsley

[chrystal at fas.harvard.edu]

Hi Craig,  It's very nice to hear you and Lulu have become such firm friends--
how can one resist them?  One thing slightly alarmed me though, which is that 
guineas need to have access to timothy hay all the time, not just at certain 
times of day.  That should really be their main food, though of course they 
need fresh veggies, etc. as well.  Lulu sounds like she's a very lucky girl to 
have such a loving family.

Just my two cents' worth on the parsley question--obviously every pig will be 
somewhat different.  But as in general they develop stones so easily, and it 
seems there's really only one option for treating them if they do get them to 
any pronounced degree, namely surgery, I personally think it's worthwhile 
avoiding parsley altogether, because it's so high in calcium.  Also because one 
can't really tell if they have stones without an Xray, so they may be 
developing them without one being aware of it.  I'm unfortunately speaking from 
personal experience here because we lost our Dulcie-girl after surgery for 
stones just a few months ago.  Her ureter got a tear in it from one of the 
stones, and we had to have her put down.  It was totally devastating to see her 
in so much pain.  We had avoided parsley for a couple of years after 
discovering it was so high in calcium, but even so, just a diet of Oxbow 
timothy hay and a range of veggies with low calcium but high vitamin C was 
enough for her to develop 2 quite large stones.  Maybe she was particularly 
prone to getting them, but the vets said that it's very common in guineas.  So 
I'm just saying that, even though they love it, I would definitely encourage 
people not to feed parsley, especially when there are so many other options out 
there to keep a piggy palate from getting jaded.

Best wishes to all,
Beatrice