Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Beets?

Today we're going to try beets. You can feed us beets 1-2 times per week, and beet greens (the top part of the beets) only 1-2 times per month since they're high in calcium, A, and oxalates. Here are a couple interesting facts about beets before we try them:

1. They can stain human hands pink if they don't wear gloves when cutting them, so if your human has pink-stained hands and hasn't given you beets, they've been holding out on you. Wheek at them loudly until they share!

2. Eating beets can turn your urine pink. It's no big deal, but try to reassure your human that you are not peeing blood, or they probably will never give you beets again!

Should I eat the beets or the beet greens first?
Beets are tasty!
It's too bad you can only feed us beets occasionally since they're so good! 5/5 stars!

10 comments:

  1. I always mean to try mine with beets but never remember to buy them.

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  2. i've looked on many other sites and it seems beets are poisonous to guinea pigs. be careful

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    1. You can't feed them every day, but we've seen no evidence they're poisonous. Which sites are you talking about? We linked to the guineapigcages.com food chart in this post. You can also find beets listed on Guinea Lynx, the Guinea Pig Forum, and the Happy Cavvy.

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    2. I have looked on just about every guinea pig site there is and I haven't come across one that says that beets are poisonous yet. Beets are a good source of vit. C which we know they need.

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  3. I came upon this by accident while looking for someone else. But, because I had experience in this I thought I should reply. I'm now a grandmother, but as a child and teenager I had guinea pigs. One of my favorites and my first, Gretchen, died after eating beet greens I had given her. She had been very healthy and happy and those greens were the only additional factor and I'd never fed them to her before. Her death tore me up and I don't want anyone else to experience this. I guarantee that the beet greens killed my Guinea Pig. PLEASE don't feed your babies this!!!

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    1. When there's a food like beet greens that's listed as 1-2 times per month food, that means it definitely needs to be fed in extreme moderation. We hope our readers take warnings like this seriously; there are health consequences for ignoring them, as you point out.

      Just out of curiosity, how much and how often did you feed beet greens to Gretchen before she had health problems?

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    2. If you see the original comment, it says she had never fed her beet greens before, the first time was right when she died! Just thought I'd answer that for you

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  4. Yes...our guinea just died after feeding beet greens to too! Beware. My daughter is devastated.

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  5. Does this apply to golden beets too?

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