Something for Nothing

We have two guinea pigs, Hercules and Thunder. We rescued them as soon as we moved to North Carolina last summer. They were skinny, unhappy, and very sick. However, we spent three months feeding them, loving them, and nursing them back to health. Since then Hercules and Thunder have provided us with endless entertainment and joy.

And those pigs can eat! Along with hay and commercial pet food they need fresh fruits and vegetables every day. When I plan my grocery shopping each week, I have to remember to get what Hercules and Thunder need too. Recently, we gave them some fresh spinach for the first time. They had a hard time figuring out how to eat it, which the kids giggled endlessly over. But, yesterday, while making a spinach salad for our dinner, I had a brainstorm. Instead of feeding them the leaves of the spinach, why not give them just the stems. They gobbled those stems up in no time and I was so pleased to find another way to make use of something that might otherwise have gone to waste.

Do you feed your pets food scraps?