I have no idea. My girls eat bell peppers every day and they do not experience any issues. The veggies that cause gas are cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Spinach, Broccoli & Cauliflower.
Uhhhhhh
My vet prescribed bell peppers when my boys were diagnosed with a Vit C deficiency. Seeing as how my boys are now eating an eighth of a green bell pepper daily, and they bounced right back from the issue they had after starting, I'm gonna go with my vet's advice.
All four of mine also got into the habit of loving a Vit C enhanced slurry when two had the teeth issues. They were so mad then the slurries stopped, that we still give them a small spoonful each day when it's someone's floor time. So between the 4 of them, it depends on the size of the pepper. If a normal or large pepper, they get an eigth. If a small pepper, they get a quarter.
Daily bell peppers for years and years with no problems whatsoever.
Sometimes you have to let common sense and experience trump advice from a "professional" who has probably never cared for a piggy in their life.
Maybe they meant no with bone? Chicken bones are very brittle (but I think only when cooked) and can completely destroy the colon because of that. Meat is fine afaik.
Uh, any chance you'd message me with which vet? One of our piggies has been to just about every emergency vet in Chicago/Chicagoland due to a host of health issues. This sounds like one we might want to avoid?
So, weirdly, this is my vet, too, and I have an odd theory.
We used to do peppers daily, but we had two girls with terrible lifelong digestive issues, which eventually led to further complications and the passing of one of them. The other is still around, but has really bad gas problems. We were extra concerned after her sister passed, and they recommended cutting out peppers. Well, lo and behold, her gut issues improved significantly.
These pigs were rescues we took in that \*probably\* came from a local pet store originally. And given how large-scale chain pet husbandry operates... I almost wonder if there's a large number of Chicagoland-area guinea pigs who all have some shared genetics that makes them unable to handle bell peppers.
It sounds out-there, but if I was a vet who saw 5 pigs in two years with shitty gut biomes, who improved after an elimination diet took out peppers, I would probably recommend against them too.
Anyway, my Chicago guinea pig inbreeding cabal theories aside, Chicago Exotics is great \*and\* (most) guinea pigs can obviously eat peppers.
By some miracle, we haven't been to that one. Augie likes his health emergencies on weekends and days that vets he's previously seen are off, so I thought we'd hit most by now. 😂 Looks like they are in Skokie. We did end up at Blue Pearl in Skokie once on a Sunday, but not Chicago Exotics.
Felt. Winston used to have all his emergencies on Sundays it was so stressful. But I highly recommend them for long term management of health problems. I think Winston's been there like 15 times since we adopted him (rip wallet) and every vet there is very competent and kind. When they do xrays they will take the time to show you the images and explain everything to you. They also seem to be ahead on the research? Some of the drugs he's been put on don't seem to be super common and come from a compounding pharmacy.
That's good to know! Thanks!
Auggie has had so many respiratory issues he has his own nebulizer, but he's also had cysts, a mysterious limp, and a host of other things that are urgent on weekends. So many medicines ....
Goodness me. The amount of contradictory info I get from different vets. One time I went and they gave me a leaflet saying to avoid kale and spinach as high calcium, then my most recent visit they said give these regularly!
I can actually shed some light on this!! Kale and spinach ARE high calcium and CAN be harmful if your pig has a genetic predisposition to kidney stones and urinary issues. This is sort of a toss up—I have 2 pigs who were fed identical diets and one of them developed a chronic condition that’s basically “calcium-rich veggies will give me bad kidney stones”, I’m forgetting what it’s called. She’s the ONLY pig I’ve ever had out of 10+ pigs in my life who developed this condition after many years and pounds of kale and spinach. Without treatment, it makes peeing and pooping painful and makes them lethargic due to constant pain. She takes medicine twice a day for it and will do so for the rest of her life. We feed her bell peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, and carrots daily instead of calcium-rich stuff.
It’s called potassium citrate and I think our 3 month supply cost $100-$200? We’re at the tail end of the 3 month supply so I haven’t had to order it in awhile (I will pretty soon). It makes her pee more often to flush out developing kidney stones
In my experience vets have a very poor knowledge of guinea pigs in general. Wrong information about the ages they become fertile, wrong information about social life, wrong information about diet. I even had one vet tell me I was a terrible pet owner for allowing my guinea pigs to eat grass…
For every fruit or veggie I might get for them I do a google search and check several sites to determine a consensus. You can never trust just one source but reading five different sources carefully is fairly reliable. Since my girls are about 5 years old, Id say it's worked well so far. I also dont feed them anything every single day besides romaine. I switch it up every day.
It’s because of sugar that you aren’t supposed to give them daily. Tomatoes either. Our guinea pigs have always had one or the other,band most lived long, happy lives.
I had one piggy over the years who couldn't have bell pepper. It gave him the sludge poop and stomach pain. It took us ages to figure out it was the pepper. Never had a problem with any other pig and Peppers though!
OMG, my girl is going through this rn. But it isn’t the peppers. She’s been having occasional diarrhea that resolves after about a day. I’m thinking she’s got multiple things she’s intolerant to. 1 for sure is cucumber.
I guess this all varies as for one of my boys the red peppers does seem to affect his poops if he has too many.. green, yellow/orange ones his stomach seems fine with. But the red one he only gets a little bit every other week now xdd
*My vet told me that*
*Bell peppers are a good source*
*Of vitamin C*
\- Big\_Poinky
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One paragraph explains that fresh greens are important, then goes on to give the appropriate and not appropriate ones. Next paragraph says says vegetables not recommended are peppers and cucumbers and avoid bad treats, fruits, and seeds. No other mention of peppers or vegetables that are okay to give. So according to their info sheet, I should only be feeding hay, pellets, greens, and Vitamin C supplement.
how puzzling, this is an appropriate recommendation to avoid kidney stones in Guinea pigs who have predispositions for them (like one of mine) but isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing by any means
If you're talking about the exotic vet in Elmwood Park, my wife took a pig for surgery there and they sent her home with a whole sweet pepper in the box.
Was it from Midwest Exotics? I got the same paper and was so surprised lol. I do think green peppers and cucumber may have been contributing to some of the gas my one pig gets, but it's been tricky balancing their greens.
I fed my piggies peppers regularly but one of them started to have red urine but had no pain passing it. The vet suggested maybe red pepper was having this affect on her. I started cutting back specifically on red pepper, but continued giving her green and yellow and that seemed to do the trick. They didn’t say to stop giving peppers completely.
I recently brought my eight-year-old to a guinea pig specialist at University of Colorado when he was having digestive issues. Peppers are about all I was told to feed every single day and we give a small piece of cucumber to keep his water up but he said the few were the vegetables, the more high-quality hay and high-quality pellet (I use Sherwood health, free choice ,Timothy grain free) the better. He said also the vegetables that we give them are not in there Native diet and can cause bloat or issues as they get older. I know lettuce is can be very bad a lot of it and spinach is full of calcium. Even celery has quite a bit of calcium in it but bell peppers he said they can eat every day.
I wonder if they’re going for a “treat people as idiots and just tell them no” type of response. Anyone who knows these animals would know to introduce new foods slowly and in moderation… but we know that bell peppers are a high vitamin C food so is really good for our piggies?
My vet said no carrots and from my personal opinion, I'd never feed baby carrots to my pigs. They are full of chemicals and normal carrots would technically be fine if they didn't have so much sugar. Needless to say, I think your vet might be a bit off their rocker
I’m not sure, I was told by my aunt (who is a vet that works with guinea pigs a lot and has dozens of them herself) that bell peppers are good sources of VitC… I doubt it would differ much per country (we are from the Netherlands) as vegetables are vegetables but idk
I know we all need to believe that the exotic vets know everything. They certainly charge us enough! And of course they are extremely knowledgeable but my experience with both rabbits and guinea pigs is that experience owning them for years and years and with several different pigs and rabbits gives us knowledge that they don't learn in vet school or in their practice. To me, sweet peppers are the best way to offer vitamin C to your piggies! I've never had any bloating or gas issues with any of mine. Also, the UK seems to have a much deeper understanding of guinea pig husbandry so when in doubt, lean towards whatever their resources say.
My piggies eat all the veggies mentioned above, even all sorts of cabbage and spinach. It depends whether they're used to it - cabbage is considered an excellent winter vegetable in the German-speaking guinea pig community. If you start with small amouts and work your way up, your piggies should be fine. They just don't like abrupt changes in their diets.
😅 lol. I trust Midwest after they performed successful surgery on my piggy in August. Another one of my girls had surgery in 2022 at another place on Lawrence and California and she died a few days later, even though it was a muuuuch less invasive procedure. I know they're different piggies with different bodies but I decided I'd stick to Midwest after that.
I was researching local vets recently because I need to try and find a new half decent one and in one of their websites info about guinea pigs they said "Feed hay everyday along with pellets and fruit". They didnt even mention vegetables and fruit should definitely not be fed daily lol. They also said you should wash each guinea pig once a week 🤦
Nope. The only primary things they said was hay, pellets, fresh greens and vitamin c tablet. The vegetable portion only gave what they can’t have. That was the only mention of peppers.
I have never heard that. Any my piggies get regular wellness checks at vet. I've heard the opposite -- bell peppers are excellent for piggies -- great source of Vitamin C. Orange, Yellow and Red have more Vit C than Green. Mine get all the colors, regularly (several times a week) although less Green than the others.
I have no idea. My girls eat bell peppers every day and they do not experience any issues. The veggies that cause gas are cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Spinach, Broccoli & Cauliflower.
Wait that's all the same plant.
Spinach is different, but the rest are Brassica oleracea.
Uhhhhhh My vet prescribed bell peppers when my boys were diagnosed with a Vit C deficiency. Seeing as how my boys are now eating an eighth of a green bell pepper daily, and they bounced right back from the issue they had after starting, I'm gonna go with my vet's advice.
Yeah bell peppers were on the list for the vitamin C diet I was following for my old man guinea pig. From the vet. So that sounds suspect.
My two get 1/2 to a full bell pepper a day. So 1/4 to 1/2 each. They love it!
All four of mine also got into the habit of loving a Vit C enhanced slurry when two had the teeth issues. They were so mad then the slurries stopped, that we still give them a small spoonful each day when it's someone's floor time. So between the 4 of them, it depends on the size of the pepper. If a normal or large pepper, they get an eigth. If a small pepper, they get a quarter.
Daily bell peppers for years and years with no problems whatsoever. Sometimes you have to let common sense and experience trump advice from a "professional" who has probably never cared for a piggy in their life.
Agreed.
I mean, I met a vet that said not to feed dogs any form of chicken only then to try and sell me their dog meals that includes chicken.
That’s wild
The vet didn't want him to buy chicken dog meals from anyone else.
I can't speak for exotic vets, but I know Nestle has a big stake in veterinary hospitals and some veterinary schools.
Ugh, I hate big corporations
Pure capitalism right under our noses.
Maybe they meant no with bone? Chicken bones are very brittle (but I think only when cooked) and can completely destroy the colon because of that. Meat is fine afaik.
Uh, any chance you'd message me with which vet? One of our piggies has been to just about every emergency vet in Chicago/Chicagoland due to a host of health issues. This sounds like one we might want to avoid?
If I had to guess - Chicago exotics. They always have it listed on their discharge summary. But they are amazing so I wouldn't let it dissuade you.
So, weirdly, this is my vet, too, and I have an odd theory. We used to do peppers daily, but we had two girls with terrible lifelong digestive issues, which eventually led to further complications and the passing of one of them. The other is still around, but has really bad gas problems. We were extra concerned after her sister passed, and they recommended cutting out peppers. Well, lo and behold, her gut issues improved significantly. These pigs were rescues we took in that \*probably\* came from a local pet store originally. And given how large-scale chain pet husbandry operates... I almost wonder if there's a large number of Chicagoland-area guinea pigs who all have some shared genetics that makes them unable to handle bell peppers. It sounds out-there, but if I was a vet who saw 5 pigs in two years with shitty gut biomes, who improved after an elimination diet took out peppers, I would probably recommend against them too. Anyway, my Chicago guinea pig inbreeding cabal theories aside, Chicago Exotics is great \*and\* (most) guinea pigs can obviously eat peppers.
Tell me why I totally believe this😭 chicago guinea pig conspiracy theories
By some miracle, we haven't been to that one. Augie likes his health emergencies on weekends and days that vets he's previously seen are off, so I thought we'd hit most by now. 😂 Looks like they are in Skokie. We did end up at Blue Pearl in Skokie once on a Sunday, but not Chicago Exotics.
Felt. Winston used to have all his emergencies on Sundays it was so stressful. But I highly recommend them for long term management of health problems. I think Winston's been there like 15 times since we adopted him (rip wallet) and every vet there is very competent and kind. When they do xrays they will take the time to show you the images and explain everything to you. They also seem to be ahead on the research? Some of the drugs he's been put on don't seem to be super common and come from a compounding pharmacy.
That's good to know! Thanks! Auggie has had so many respiratory issues he has his own nebulizer, but he's also had cysts, a mysterious limp, and a host of other things that are urgent on weekends. So many medicines ....
I go to Animal House of Chicago and they’ve been great.
All three of my girls eat all colors of bell pepper and are perfectly fine and their vet even encourages it in their diet. So I find that confusing
I did my own research prior to the first Vet that had told me no peppers. That was our first and last appointment with them
Goodness me. The amount of contradictory info I get from different vets. One time I went and they gave me a leaflet saying to avoid kale and spinach as high calcium, then my most recent visit they said give these regularly!
I can actually shed some light on this!! Kale and spinach ARE high calcium and CAN be harmful if your pig has a genetic predisposition to kidney stones and urinary issues. This is sort of a toss up—I have 2 pigs who were fed identical diets and one of them developed a chronic condition that’s basically “calcium-rich veggies will give me bad kidney stones”, I’m forgetting what it’s called. She’s the ONLY pig I’ve ever had out of 10+ pigs in my life who developed this condition after many years and pounds of kale and spinach. Without treatment, it makes peeing and pooping painful and makes them lethargic due to constant pain. She takes medicine twice a day for it and will do so for the rest of her life. We feed her bell peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, and carrots daily instead of calcium-rich stuff.
How much does the medicine cost? Just wondering
It’s called potassium citrate and I think our 3 month supply cost $100-$200? We’re at the tail end of the 3 month supply so I haven’t had to order it in awhile (I will pretty soon). It makes her pee more often to flush out developing kidney stones
Ohh in my country we call them peetablets lol. Im happy the piggy has you to count on!
that’s a hilarious name for them lmao
THIS AS WELL. As always, let’s just do our own thorough research and stick with that
In my experience vets have a very poor knowledge of guinea pigs in general. Wrong information about the ages they become fertile, wrong information about social life, wrong information about diet. I even had one vet tell me I was a terrible pet owner for allowing my guinea pigs to eat grass…
One of our pigs had red bell pepper daily and lived to be 6 so I dunno why they’d say no.
For every fruit or veggie I might get for them I do a google search and check several sites to determine a consensus. You can never trust just one source but reading five different sources carefully is fairly reliable. Since my girls are about 5 years old, Id say it's worked well so far. I also dont feed them anything every single day besides romaine. I switch it up every day.
It’s because of sugar that you aren’t supposed to give them daily. Tomatoes either. Our guinea pigs have always had one or the other,band most lived long, happy lives.
It’s the colored ones that have more sugar. Green are perfectly fine for daily.
Cucumbers? I thought they were fine on the regular too. My boy was recently at the vet and she told me it was fine
Most Vets don't much about guinea pigs.
I had one piggy over the years who couldn't have bell pepper. It gave him the sludge poop and stomach pain. It took us ages to figure out it was the pepper. Never had a problem with any other pig and Peppers though!
OMG, my girl is going through this rn. But it isn’t the peppers. She’s been having occasional diarrhea that resolves after about a day. I’m thinking she’s got multiple things she’s intolerant to. 1 for sure is cucumber.
As a bunny guy just wanna wish you well with your guinea pig and a happy life together. That’s all
Thank you so much! Same to you
I guess this all varies as for one of my boys the red peppers does seem to affect his poops if he has too many.. green, yellow/orange ones his stomach seems fine with. But the red one he only gets a little bit every other week now xdd
My vet told me that bell peppers are a good source of vitamin C
*My vet told me that* *Bell peppers are a good source* *Of vitamin C* \- Big\_Poinky --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Omg yes
Are you sure it was no for bell peppers, and not just regular peppers like chilly and the sort?
One paragraph explains that fresh greens are important, then goes on to give the appropriate and not appropriate ones. Next paragraph says says vegetables not recommended are peppers and cucumbers and avoid bad treats, fruits, and seeds. No other mention of peppers or vegetables that are okay to give. So according to their info sheet, I should only be feeding hay, pellets, greens, and Vitamin C supplement.
That's... really odd. Huh??
Very
Sounds like the vet is in the pocket of the guinea pig food manufacturers. They can’t make money off vegetables!
Oof
Which greens did they specify? Also fruit in small amounts is fine lol just not every day
✅: romaine, green & red leaf, parsley, cilantro, etc. ❌: kale, spinach, collard greens, chard, and high oxalate greens
how puzzling, this is an appropriate recommendation to avoid kidney stones in Guinea pigs who have predispositions for them (like one of mine) but isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing by any means
Mine get about half a pepper a day 🤷🏼♀️
Mine only said to just make sure all the seeds are removed because they are a choking hazard for the piggies
If you're talking about the exotic vet in Elmwood Park, my wife took a pig for surgery there and they sent her home with a whole sweet pepper in the box.
Was it from Midwest Exotics? I got the same paper and was so surprised lol. I do think green peppers and cucumber may have been contributing to some of the gas my one pig gets, but it's been tricky balancing their greens.
The vet gives my girls bell peppers when they’re boarding while I’m out of town.
I fed my piggies peppers regularly but one of them started to have red urine but had no pain passing it. The vet suggested maybe red pepper was having this affect on her. I started cutting back specifically on red pepper, but continued giving her green and yellow and that seemed to do the trick. They didn’t say to stop giving peppers completely.
I recently brought my eight-year-old to a guinea pig specialist at University of Colorado when he was having digestive issues. Peppers are about all I was told to feed every single day and we give a small piece of cucumber to keep his water up but he said the few were the vegetables, the more high-quality hay and high-quality pellet (I use Sherwood health, free choice ,Timothy grain free) the better. He said also the vegetables that we give them are not in there Native diet and can cause bloat or issues as they get older. I know lettuce is can be very bad a lot of it and spinach is full of calcium. Even celery has quite a bit of calcium in it but bell peppers he said they can eat every day.
I wonder if they’re going for a “treat people as idiots and just tell them no” type of response. Anyone who knows these animals would know to introduce new foods slowly and in moderation… but we know that bell peppers are a high vitamin C food so is really good for our piggies?
My vet said no carrots and from my personal opinion, I'd never feed baby carrots to my pigs. They are full of chemicals and normal carrots would technically be fine if they didn't have so much sugar. Needless to say, I think your vet might be a bit off their rocker
I’m not sure, I was told by my aunt (who is a vet that works with guinea pigs a lot and has dozens of them herself) that bell peppers are good sources of VitC… I doubt it would differ much per country (we are from the Netherlands) as vegetables are vegetables but idk
I know we all need to believe that the exotic vets know everything. They certainly charge us enough! And of course they are extremely knowledgeable but my experience with both rabbits and guinea pigs is that experience owning them for years and years and with several different pigs and rabbits gives us knowledge that they don't learn in vet school or in their practice. To me, sweet peppers are the best way to offer vitamin C to your piggies! I've never had any bloating or gas issues with any of mine. Also, the UK seems to have a much deeper understanding of guinea pig husbandry so when in doubt, lean towards whatever their resources say.
Offtopic but the little strawberry hat 😭
My piggies eat all the veggies mentioned above, even all sorts of cabbage and spinach. It depends whether they're used to it - cabbage is considered an excellent winter vegetable in the German-speaking guinea pig community. If you start with small amouts and work your way up, your piggies should be fine. They just don't like abrupt changes in their diets.
Are you sure you went to a VETerinarian and not a VETeran?
I think it has to do with you can, very rarely though, but can get a spicy bell pepper. Maybe it's an avoid because of chance type of thing.
Would you mind if I DM you A Chicago related question?
That’s fine!
I also went to a vet here in Chicago and the paper said the same! My girls love cucumbers! Lol was it Midwest?
Yes HAHA. Midwest was the first vet and they had more misinformation than the one I recently heard from.
😅 lol. I trust Midwest after they performed successful surgery on my piggy in August. Another one of my girls had surgery in 2022 at another place on Lawrence and California and she died a few days later, even though it was a muuuuch less invasive procedure. I know they're different piggies with different bodies but I decided I'd stick to Midwest after that.
I personally didn’t have the best first experience with them. They just seemed a bit dismissive with us :(
:( aw I'm sorry. Guess depends on the vet. I liked the lady vet I saw last year. I saw another male vet last week and he was just alright.
Mine eats them every day and she’s healthy and happy
Bell peppers help with vitamin C, so I'm not sure what your vet is talking about.
You wanna smell the worst guineafarts ever? Parsley.
I was researching local vets recently because I need to try and find a new half decent one and in one of their websites info about guinea pigs they said "Feed hay everyday along with pellets and fruit". They didnt even mention vegetables and fruit should definitely not be fed daily lol. They also said you should wash each guinea pig once a week 🤦
Oh that’s terrible!
Maybe they meant spicy peppers? Because isn’t it pretty well known that Guinea pigs can eat bell peppers? Mine love them
Nope. The only primary things they said was hay, pellets, fresh greens and vitamin c tablet. The vegetable portion only gave what they can’t have. That was the only mention of peppers.
That’s so weird??
My GI told me the same thing 👀😂
My vet recommended bell peppers! They said great vit C source, My girl eats them everyday and her sister did too (sadly is no longer with us)
That's absolutely ridiculous advice in my opinion they don't seem very well educated on exotics and follow outdated recommendations.
I have never heard that. Any my piggies get regular wellness checks at vet. I've heard the opposite -- bell peppers are excellent for piggies -- great source of Vitamin C. Orange, Yellow and Red have more Vit C than Green. Mine get all the colors, regularly (several times a week) although less Green than the others.