[Gpdd] HEALTH: Nettles

[Milton]

Hello,

Has anyone got any tips about how to feed nettles (ie. stinging nettles)
to guinea pigs?  I have some nettles right at the bottom of my garden
which are growing up from the stream running down there, and the Lads
love dried nettles in highly expensive treat form, so I was wandering
whether my homegrown ones could be utilised in any way?

Picking them should not be a problem as I have strong gloves for that
purpose, I just don't want the Lads to get stung.

On another topic, I thought I might amuse you with a story.  We moved
here at the start of June after this house had been empty for one and a
half years.  The grass at the back of the house was hopelessly overgrown
and I had no lawn mower until the back end of June, so instead I just
got the pig runs out and they started work on the grass themselves.
However, since it's been so hot here the stream at the back nearly dried
out and my back garden, with the long grass, had become a haven for
dozens of frogs.  So the pigs were out in the evenings being leapt on by
little frogs (and not noticing, mostly, as they were too busy stuffing
themselves with grass).

After a few weeks of this it became obvious that the Lads weren't eating
enough grass to make much of a dent in the meadow at the back, as it's
been so hot that they were just chomping for a few minutes and then
snoozing in the grass.  However I was reluctant to cut the lawn because
it was really easy to pop out in the morning and gather a huge armful
for them to munch on during the day, plus I knew that if I did cut the
grass I would be condemning the frogs to death as well as killing all
the grass.  Also, the long grass is perfect for dandelions and I've been
feeding handfuls of these every day too.  So I let it grow.  I then got
a snooty anonymous note put through my door asking me to cut the grass
(I live on a street containing lawn snobs, evidently, and it's pretty
obvious who wrote the note as only my next door neighbours can see into
my back garden), which I have of course ignored.  I was intending to cut
the grass when it got cooler, but after getting that note have decided
to let it stay long.  I also have grass at the front of the house but
have been cutting that normally.

It's odd how people can be so fussy about other people's lawns isn't it?
I let my back and front garden grow incredibly long sometimes when I
lived in Oxfordshire, and none of my neighbours seemed to mind!!

Milton and the Lads:
Captain Noodle, Wigwam "The Lamb", Big Rumble, Scallywag, Pepperpot and
Poppy the Werebunny
"We have an average age of seven"


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