[Gpdd] CARE: bananas

Sandra Oliver-Poore warmbreath at comcast.net
Wed Sep 4 08:15:35 EDT 2013


Hi Carla and Chipper. The only problem I have with bananas is that they are
very sweet and piggies get diabetes with some frequency; probably like
humans, susceptibility is genetic and affected by diet. Non-organic bananas
have significant pesticides but not high levels, the peels have much more
pesticides. I do teach my piggies to eat bananas, a small slice just big
enough to hide a pill in it, as that is the main reason I make sure they
will eat bananas. As far as feeding frequency, I try to give a mix of foods
every day to make a nutritious diet. 90% of more are hays and Oxbow Organic
pellets. I have one piggy so the cost really is not much of an issue even
though I live on social Security alone. Then the last 8 to 10% of his diet
is mostly mixed greens and lettuce, various fruits, vegetables, and I limit
the sugary ones like carrots, apples, tomatoes, dark grapes and fruit. I
leave everything whole except those with strings (celery) or small round
things he might choke on.  Where I live organic bananas cost 10 to 20 cents
more per pound than non-organic so it's a no brainer for me, but still no
organic is acceptable without peels.

So it's the mix I look at, if he gets banana that's the only sweet he gets
at that meal, he gets two fresh food meal a day. The other thing to look at
is to make sure he gets variety, with Vit C, various antioxidants, and the
potassium in bananas, and not too much calcium, oxalates, and other things
that make stones. You can Google for lists of vegetables and fruits high or
low in specific nutrients. 

I personally would not give banana peel unless they are home grown, maybe
organic if scrubbed first. Bananas mostly grow in former heavily forested
areas that have fire ants, huge invasive snails, spiders and lots of other
really nasty critters. Bananas are sprayed and I believe some treatments are
done in the warehouses or the containers they are shipped in with gasses or
other poisons. It's possible that US regulations to prevent the importation
of invasive species require some of these treatments. Bananas are considered
pretty safe to eat peeled, but the peels themselves are not. The damage from
pesticides used on bananas include lots of materials highly toxic to honey
bees which are in crisis now, plus hormone disruptors, developmental and
reproductive disruptors Non organic, and neurotoxins. The highest rate was
found in 63% of samples. See http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=BN
that has data from the USDA Pesticide Data Program  and the data is mostly
from 2007( you can sign up for updates) Please note that in several
different little research projects I have done I find it takes about 4-5
years for detailed info to become generally available but it's getting worse
as many of these data gathering programs were defunded first in the Bush
years, then from budget cuts, and now sequestration.  Private industry has
little incentive or capability to do wide scale data collection. The
projects I have worked on are not just food related. 

So bottom line is I would continue to  give small amounts of banana and to
determine which foods to spend precious dollars on organic go to the "Dirty
Dozen" and "Clean 15" lists maintained by the Environmental Working Group
(EWG) http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/. You can sign up for their online or
print newsletter. I use these lists for all my shopping as Sammy and I eat
lots of the same food, I just don't eat hay and pellets.  
Don't expect to see results from you piggies diet. Rarely are you going to
feed him in a way that shows short term, these pesticides and too much food,
or too much or too little of a certain nutrient take years to show up, at
least months. If your piggy gets reproductive problems, cancers, infections,
stones or whatever ailment, it is so hard to say this or that feeding or
care practice caused it. Even the worst cared for piggie could get ill from
genetic predisposition. It's just like people, all you can do is the best
you can to learn how to do what is known to be correct and hope for the
best. I think average piggies live about 3 years but our list piggies tend
to do much better and aren't considered senior until age 5, and we have a
lucky few that live 9 or 10 years or even more. My data might be a bit off
but I do think well cared for piggies can live long active lives and that's
when you know for sure you did it right. Some of our piggies don't live
nearly that long  but we also have a tendency to adopt piggies who have come
from bad homes, there are accidents, and genetics, we just exchange best
practice and stories and go from there.
Good and happy piggy parenting,
Sandy, Shipwreck Sam, and AR (a stuffed shirt so to speak)
 





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