Experience with fresh green?

[davx]

Hello,

I'd like to ask you, if there is experience with fresh green: vegs, herbs, pasture green, etc.?

There was a chinchilla story some years ago about a chinchilla called Basil and how he recovered from tooth disease with the fresh vegs offered:
www.chinchillas4life.co.uk/basil.html

The story attracted the interest of german chinchilla owners.
In Germany there is a trend of some owners to feeding green in larger amounts and it was this story some years ago, encouraged them to try out a more natural diet replacing the once common pellet diet.

[fred]

My experience with fresh greens is probably not a typical one as my two girls seem rather exceptional connoisseurs of fresh food ;D So far cucumber is the only veg/herb which they don't eat fresh. Usually Mäuschen takes to any new fresh green at first bite. Ratte sometimes needs a bit of encouragement by first offering her the new veg/herb partially dried and/or having to watch her sister munch away. I would estimate that fresh stuff makes up about 40% of my girls' diet.

Here I have a question for our friends from the German degu community. During winter I am very much dependent on bought herbs but I have noticed that aromatic herbs are not very popular amongst German degu owners. What are the reasons for this and do you see any problems with what I am feeding my girls at the moment? They get basil, chives, parsley and salads in larger amounts and coriander, dill, rosemary, sage. tarragon, thyme and water cress in small amounts. On a given day they get two, occasionally three, different herbs and variety is achieved over several days.

[Maravilla]

Dec 19, 2011 9:13:50 GMT @fred said:

During winter I am very much dependent on bought herbs but I have noticed that aromatic herbs are not very popular amongst German degu owners. What are the reasons for this

Well, my very personal reason is the price. Until now, I only tried basil (their favorite), dill, lemon balm and parsley (no way to convince them). Herbs when bought at the supermarket are just too expensive to give them in bigger amounts. With 9 degus, I could easily spend 10-15 euros in herbs per week... In winter, my degus get mainly dried leaves and flowers. Fresh green is only of minor importance.

[davx]

Originally I posted this in the Chinchilla section, because I intended to ask chinchilla owners.

Of course we also can discuss this for degus, but I think its perhaps better to split this two topics.

Apropos feeding aromatic herbs, chinchilla owners in Germany do so with indoor fodderplants (Callisia, Tradescantia, banana/Musa etc.). It is costly but it is also possible to cultivate plants indoors and, if possible to regenerate them during the summer outdoors (balcony, window board, besides the front door etc.):
www.degupedia.de/board/viewtopic.php?p=57264#p57264 --> banana (Musa)
www.degupedia.de/board/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3393 --> creeping basketplant (Callisia)