[Gpdd] Health: Vitamin C

pat schuett bunzella at yahoo.ca
Thu Apr 18 15:38:00 EDT 2019


 Hi everyone,
My piggies get the chewable Vitamin C --- a 500 mg tablet broken into tiny little pieces (I'm aiming for 30-50 mg each but it's not easy to get a standard-sized piece).  I also know the Vitamin C content on the veggies I feed them, and aim to make sure they also get a good amount that way.  Four of the six Prairie Pigs will happily eat their little tablet chunk from my hand; the other two get it along with their pellets from a bowl.
The importance of Vitamin C was really brought home to me when I adopted little Jasper from the local Humane Society shelter; they told me he had not done well at the shelter and they thought something might be wrong with his teeth.  I took him straight to my vet and they were right --- there was something wrong with his teeth.  They were loose and his gums were sore because he had scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency).  A week of living with me and getting lots of veggies along with the daily Vitamin C dose brought about an amazing improvement.  
I called the shelter to tell them what Jasper's problem had been, and one of the staff admitted to me that Jasper had never been fed veggies or Vitamin C while he was there.  She also said he had been fed rabbit rather than piggy pellets (piggy pellets are usually supplemented with Vitamin C, rabbit pellet are not) just because that was what they happened to have on hand.  (Now whenever I see from their website that they have piggies in the shelter, I take a new bag of good-quality piggy pellets out there right away!)
On another matter, Heathcliffe wanted me to let everyone know that his application for Agent Status has just gone up on the Undercover Guinea Pigs blog  https://undercoverguineapigs.blogspot.com/ and he would be happy to hear from any little sows out there who like what they see!  (There is only one girl Prairie Pig, the beautiful Bonnie McSmithers, but there also four other boy Prairie Pigs so the competition for her attention is fierce!)
Pat and the Prairie Pigs


More information about the Gpdd mailing list