Too many carrots?

[jsidhu1986]

Hello!

For the past three days I've been giving my boys one baby carrot per pig, once a day. The issue of vitamin A toxicity popped into my head, and I was wondering if they've been getting too many carrots?

My boys *love* carrots. I remember when I first got them. I put some diced carrots and cucumbers in their cage before I went to bed. When I woke up in the morning I saw they pushed the cucumber bits out of their cage and ate all the carrots.

Thank you for replying.

[bpatters]

Well, if a carrot a day will kill them, it takes a very long time. I've always given all my pigs a chunk of carrot every day, and they've either lived to be six years or more, or died of something totally unrelated to vitamin A toxicity.

[jsidhu1986]

Thanks a bunch!

[pigjes]

Some pellets contain a lot of it, about 4x more than others. Personally, I never buy pellets over 15000 I.E per kg pellets.

Here is a great article about it:
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abs ... edFrom=PDF

Too much can cause dizziness, nausea, headaches, coma, and even death. As piggies can't speak, to be on the safe side: I will only feed 3 baby carrots per pig a week, if I have any after groceries.

[Lynx]

Though older, looks like a good article to refer to regarding vitamin A levels.

I'm going to add some details here. The whole article is not available to me to read but the summary is.

Vitamin A Requirement of the Guinea Pig
A. Gil G. M. Briggs J. Typpo G. Mackinney
The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 96, Issue 3, 1 November 1968, Pages 359–362, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/96.3.359
Published: 01 November 1968

Abstract
This study was undertaken to establish the dietary level of vitamin A best adapted to the growth and maintenance of the young guinea pig. Growth records were kept and plasma and livers were analyzed for vitamin A. Histological examinations of tissues of the eye, trachea, kidney and liver were made. Optimal growth occurred when the level of vitamin A was between 1.67 and 9.9 mg/kg of diet. Significant storage of the vitamin in the liver began at a level between 6 and 7 mg/kg of diet, and the quantity stored increased rapidly with further increase in the level of vitamin A in the diet. No such pattern was found in the levels of vitamin A in the plasma. Levels of 1.67 and 3.3 mg of vitamin A/kg, although maintaining normal growth, did not prevent metaplasia of epithelial tissue in all animals.

[jsidhu1986]

Thanks guys!