Is my guinea pig getting enough enough vitamin C?

Question

I feed my guinea pig a cos lettuce leaf a day, and a mixture of carrot, cabbage, broccoli, celery, cucumber, beans and a few other things, I have tried to get her to eat apple and pear but she does not like them. Her favorite is cos lettuce, she will pick through and remove everything else just to get to the cos lettuce and she has to eat that all first before she will touch anything else. Anyway along with her pellets do you think that she would be getting enough vitamin C with what I’m feeding her? She gets over a cup a day of mix veggies.

Answer 1

It's good that you are feeding a cup of veggies every day, but you may want to incorporate more vitamin-C rich foods. Bell pepper, for example, is excellent for this.  You also seem to be feeding a lot of "gassy" foods such as cabbage and broccoli.  Make sure you don't give a lot of this, as a build-up of gas can be fatal to guinea pigs.  This chart is a good guide to how often vegetables can be feed and will tell you their vitamin C content as well:

http://www.guineapigcages.com/food/Veggi...

Do NOT use vitamin drops like another post suggested.  Vitamin C breaks down rapidly in water, rendering the drops completely useless.  In addition, they change the taste of the water and may cause your pig to drink less.

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/diet...

Answer 2

well i think that as insurance because she doesnt eat the other more vitamin-filled veggies, you should add vitamin drops to  her water. you can get these at any pet supply store.

~g

Answer 3

you can get a vitamin c powder to add to the water...simptoms of not enough are diareah and skinny and boney weight loss.