Many people nowadays wonder about the question: can guinea pigs eat green onions?
Are you one of the many people?
Well, this article is written for that purpose, and if you are interested, keep reading.
This article will inform you everything about green onions, whether you give them to your guinea pigs or not.
Assumptions About Green Onions
Do not ever give green onions to your guinea pigs before you read this.
Picking a proper diet for your guinea pig is challenging, especially if you are new to this; it can be difficult.
It isn’t easy because you have so many food options to choose from in the marketplace.
Therefore, you are not sure which one of these options is best for your guinea pig.
When most guinea pig owners first adopt their guinea pigs, they try to feed them what is available in their kitchen.
They don’t try to think what they are feeding their guinea pig is suitable for their health or not.
The problem is that not every food is the same; not every food we eat is suitable for our pets.
For example, do you eat dog foods that are available in the marketplace?
No?
Why not?
It’s because this food is made only for animals; it only contains specific nutrients that only animals need.
Anyway, when it comes to your guinea pig’s diet, there are so many misconceptions going on for greens onions on the internet.
In fact, go online and search for the answer to this question are green onions healthy for guinea pigs?
You will see, some people are saying, green onions are healthy for guinea pigs.
And also, you will see, some people are saying it’s toxic.
What Are Green Onions?
So, before you know whether the green onions are safe for your guinea pigs or not, let’s know first what these green onions exactly are.
But don’t get confused with this because most people also called these greens onions scallions.
So, when someone is talking about scallions, think, they are talking about these green onions.
Now, green onions are just another green vegetable that is available to everyone and everywhere.
However, most people don’t know yet that these green onions are parts of the family Allium.
Allium is a family category of plants with a group of plants – like leeks, garlic, chives, green onions, and more, but there are differences among them.
This family is known for its strong flavor and aromatic nature.
If you take a close look at these green onions, you can see, these onions are just shooting off the bulb onions.
It contains a small but undeveloped white bulb, and from that, some long green stalks are coming out.
The great thing about these green onions is that you can eat both of their parts.
Okay, that was a tiny little description of the green onions.
Now it’s time to let’s look at the most interesting question.
Can Guinea Pigs Eat Green Onions?
Nowadays, the Internet is filled with the misconception of whether guinea pigs eat green onions or not.
Some people are saying yes, and some are saying no, but what’s the real truth?
The real answer to that question is both yes and no, and in just a moment, you know will discover why it is so.
You see, your guinea pig is an herbivorous animal, and so, he only eats plant-based foods.
For example, they eat food like high-quality hay, pellets, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit.
So, because almost everyone knows that these guinea pigs eat vegetables, they try to give them those available vegetables in their kitchen.
For example, green onions are one of the vegetables that are available to everyone in their kitchen.
So, without thinking much enough, they give these onions to their guinea pigs, and soon, when their guinea pig got seek, they wondered why this happened.
These people don’t realize that green onions have two parts; one of these parts is the leaf, and the second is the bulb part.
You have to give your guinea pig only the leaf part of green onions because the second part of the green onions is not healthy for your guinea pigs.
If you go to other websites, you can see some people are saying green onions are toxic, and they are saying guinea pigs can not eat these green onions.
But that’s not true; in fact, in just a moment, you know the top benefits of feeding green onions to your guinea pigs.
So keep reading, and let us discover together the real truth of using green onions.
Health Benefits Of Feeding Green Onions To Your Guinea Pigs
There are several benefits of feeding green onions to your guinea pigs.
Some of them are proteins, different vitamins, and nutrition.
Therefore, let us take a look at each of them particularly.
Proteins
It contains carbs, proteins, and fiber.
These are nutrients that your guinea pigs get when you feed them green onions.
Among the above nutrients, carbs and protein supply your guinea pigs a quick burst of energy.
On the other hand, nutrients like fibers help your guinea pigs with the fast digestion of foods, and at the same time, it allows them to improve their bowel movements.
Nutrients Fats
The second benefit of giving green onions to your guinea pigs is that it contains healthy nutrients like fats.
When you feed them these green onions, these fats dissolve in their blood, enhancing their brain functioning and brain performance.
Therefore, the most important benefit of giving green onions to your guinea pig is that it contains no cholesterol.
So, because it contains no cholesterol, your guinea pig’s blood vessels will be unclogged.
Therefore their cardiovascular health will be improved for an extended period.
Vitamin C
Another benefit of why you feed green onions to your guinea pigs is that it contains a massive amount of vitamin C.
So, when they eat these green onions, they absorb these vitamin C in their blood, and then these vitamin C prevents them from some significant diseases like scurvy.
If you don’t know, scurvy is one of the conditions that occur because of a lack of vitamin C.
When this disease happens, it damages the guinea pig’s skin fur and makes them bleed, and it causes them to have loose stool.
If you want to prevent your guinea pig from this disease, you have to give them certain foods containing enough vitamin C.
For example, daily, they need 30 – 50 mg of vitamin C.
Also, foods like green onions, pellets, hay, and many other foods contain high amounts of vitamin C that you can give them.
Vitamin B
Green onions are also a great source of vitamin B; specifically, it contains two particular vitamin B types.
First is vitamin B6, which helps your guinea pigs to produce more serotonin.
And second is Folate, which helps your guinea pigs to grow their fetus during their pregnancy.
Besides these vitamin B, green onions also contain some other vital nutrients.
For example, it contains manganese and selenium.
Both of these help your guinea pigs to protect themselves from unwanted diseases.
It also contains healthy nutrients like zinc and iron, vital for your guinea pig’s proper DNA metabolism.
Okay, that was some of the top nutrients available in the green onions.
Besides those, there are several other nutrients available in the green onions; let’s see them in more detail in the next section.
Nutrition Facts of Green Onions
The above section you have just read informs you of some of the top benefits you get when you feed green onions to your guinea pigs.
This section will go even deeper and uncover every single nutrients component available in the green onions.
Now, let us see precisely what nutrients you get in every 100 g of serving of green onions.
In every 100 g of serving of green onions, it contains carbs 3g, sugar 3g, fat 2g, Protein8g, vitamin A 20%, vitamin C 31%, vitamin E 3%, vitamin B6 3%, folate 16%, calcium 7%, iron 8%, sodium 1%, zinc 3%, copper 4%, manganese 8%, selenium 1%, and cholesterol 0mg
What Risks Should You Avoid?
Before you ever decide to feed green onions to your guinea pigs, you should watch out for a couple of things.
It would be best if you did not feed green onions to your guinea pigs in excess.
It’s because those green onions that you are feeding your guinea pigs contain calcium.
Now calcium is a good mineral for our bones, but for your guinea pigs, it’s a problem.
As I said before, you have to feed only leaf parts of green onions.
However, it would be best if you remembered, and you have to give these green onions in little amounts.
It’s because an excess amount of these green onions overflow calcium in your guinea pig body.
Therefore, it leads them to cause some painful problems like kidney or bladder stones.
So, these problems cause your guinea pigs to have bloody urine, painful urination, and even renal failure.
Not only that, an excess amount of green onions overflow fibers in their stomach, and it will lead them to some serious issues such as loose stool, gas, diarrhea, and flatulence.
Besides the fact that these green onions have nutrients that give your guinea pig some profound health benefits, it contains a big sugar chunk.
First, you have to understand your guinea pigs don’t have a strong digestive system as we have, and their metabolism is not designed to process a big chunk of sugars at one time.
In fact, their digestive system is so sensitive that you have got to be serious about their diet.
So, to help you do that, we have selected several foods that you have to eliminate from your guinea pigs’ diet.
Foods You Should Never Give Your Guinea Pig To Eat
Like many other pets, also guinea pigs are not keen on some particular types of food.
For example, chocolate and other “human treats,” dairy products, meat, corn, iceberg lettuce, tomato leaves, potatoes, anything that has sugar, rhubarb, raw beans, and multi-vitamins.
Each of the foods in the above list is a big no for your guinea pigs.
These foods can cause some severe problems if you give them food, so make sure you avoid these foods no matter what.
Okay, that was the list of foods that you have to avoid.
Alternative Food For Green Onions
Now let’s see some of the foods that you can add to your guinea pig diet.
If you think green onions is something you are not okay with, you can choose the foods from the list that I will show in just a second.
These lists of foods are alternatives to green onions, so if you want them to give it a try, then go for it.
It would be best if you considered when you are picking these new foods, test them with your guinea pigs.
It may be possible some foods that you have selected may not be a top priority in taste for them.
Some food is beetroot leafy greens, lettuce, asparagus, cucumber, chopped peppers, pumpkin, carrots, and letting.
That was the list of foods that you can select in the place of green onions.
However, if you want to give green onions to your guinea pigs to eat, here is an important thing I want you to remember:
As I said before, if you are giving greens onions to your guinea pigs to eat, you have to provide them in little amounts.
If you give them an excess amount, it will cause them some serious health problems.
So, make sure you give your guinea pig a properly balanced diet.
Final Thoughts
As you have read above, the answer to the question, can guinea pigs eat green onions is both yes and no.
Only yes if you are giving the leaf part of the green onions, and no if you are giving them the bulb part of green onions.
Then, we see some of the health benefits you get from feeding green onions to your guinea pigs.
We cover all possible health benefits of feeding green onions to your guinea pigs.
After reading this brief article, if you have any questions about guinea pigs, make sure you comment below.
We will check them and answer them as quickly as possible.
