What do YOU supplement your guinea pig's Vitamin C with?

Question

I was giving my piggies multivitamin drops, but then I noticed that one of my guinea pigs wasn't drinking any water, I guess because of the taste? And THEN I read on guinealynx.info that you shouldn't use multivitins in their water because then you have no idea how much they are getting. So I tried a slice of orange yesterday (with the peel), and she seemed to like it, but this morning she wouldn't even take a bite. I know she is healthy because I just took her to the vet on Thursday and she ate her other vegetables. *Sigh. Anyway, what else can I use to supplement her vitamin C? I know other vegetables and their pellets/hay aren't enough, so can I get a tablet, or what? What do you do to supplement their vitamin C? Any help?!

Answer 1

I give him oranges and I also have a dropper that puts vitamin c in his water you can buy it at most pet stores

Answer 2

Its great you did some research & found that putting vitamins in the water is no good. Vitamin C is unstable and when exposed to light and/or water, it degrades rapidly.

Your piggies should get enough Vitamin C from their diet if you are feeding a cup of fresh veggies each day, in addition to high quality pellets containing stabilised Vitamin C.

You can buy Vitamin C tablets from Oxbow:

http://www.oxbowhay.com/Shop/showProduct...

Alternately, you can go to a health food store and purchase human grade, chewable Vitamin C tablets in 50mg strengths. Cut the tablet in half so you end up with two 25mg pieces. Give your piggies one 25mg piece each day. If you're lucky, your piggies will eat them from your hand (they're usually pretty tasty!). If not, crush the tablet up into a powder & sprinkle it over some wet Romaine lettuce. They should eat it. If worst comes to worst & they won't eat the "doctored" Romaine, you can dissolve the Vitamin C in 1cc of water & administer it using a 1cc syringe or a child's medicine dropper.

Answer 3

The liquid vitamins are good for them.  I have two guinea pigs and they drink their water with the vitamins in it.  The tastes doesn't seem to bother them but one of my piggies drinks a lot more than the other.  I give my piggies nutriphase pellets with Vitamin C added.  Kale is great for them.  It has lots of vitamin C.  I don't know about giving guinea pigs oranges.

Answer 4

My Guinea pig Coco Puff, loves mandarin orange slices, grapes, lettuce, melons, and baby carrots.  She also eats a guinea pig food that's already supplimented with vitamin c- it comes from Walmart.

Answer 5

Guinea pigs CAN get plenty of vitamin C from their pellets and vegetables.

If you feed plenty of veggies, you shouldn't need a supplement, but if you choose to use one, the tablet form is the best option.

Here's a chart with the vitamin C content of different fruits and veggies:

http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_order-c....

I've never used a supplement - my pigs get about 2 cups each of fruits and veggies a day, and I've never had any nutrition problems in 6+ years of having guinea pigs. I try to give them three different "leafy greens" each day, a small piece of bell pepper or carrot, and a few pieces of whatever fruit I have around. Dandelion greens are high in vitamin C and I've never met a pig who didn't love them.

Answer 6

A proper diet can be enough. Multivitamin drops should NEVER be used with guinea pigs. Yes, guinea pigs need vit C, but they don't need extra calcium b/c this can cause kidney stones. Most guinea pigs will allow you to put a small amount of crushed vit C tabs in their water, but too much and they won't drink it. However, this water has to be changed daily b/c the vit C goes bad quickly. Also, you can crush some up and mix it with water or room temp chamomile tea and draw up into a glass dropper and deliver that way. Guinea pigs need around 20-25mg daily, so 1/20th of an average vit C tab is all that is needed to provide a daily supply. However, most quality pellets have vit C in them as long as not expired, kept air tight, and out of the sun/heat. Also, your guinea pig should receive 1 cup of fresh veggies daily that give quality vit C. Good examples include oranges, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, green peppers, red peppers, orange peppers, etc. I generally put 1/4-1/2 a crushed vit C tab into a 16 oz water bottle. Mine seem to drink fine.