can guinea pigs eat quinoa

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Quinoa?

Quinoa is quite a fashionable food to eat at the moment. It seems to be all the rage amongst the health conscious.

So what is it?

image wikipedia

Quinoa are tiny grains that are bead shaped. It has a slight bitter flavour and a texture that is firm and it is known as a complete protein.

This is because it contains eight of the essential amino acids and is packed with other great nutrients which are good for humans. It is also gluten free and very easy digestible.

Source BBC good food

So if we can eat it, can Guinea pigs eat Quinoa?

If they can, how much can they eat?

Lets take a look at its nutritional data in particular it’s phosphorus, calcium, acid, sugar, and fat content are of interest as far as Guinea pigs are concerned.

Quinoa, uncooked
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 1,539 kJ (368 kcal)
Carbohydrates 64 g
– Starch 52 g
– Dietary fibre 7 g
Fat 6 g
– polyunsaturated 3.3 g
Protein 14 g
– Tryptophan 0.167 g
– Threonine 0.421 g
– Isoleucine 0.504 g
– Leucine 0.840 g
– Lysine 0.766 g
– Methionine 0.309 g
– Cystine 0.203 g
– Phenylalanine 0.593 g
– Tyrosine 0.267 g
– Valine 0.594 g
– Arginine 1.091 g
– Histidine 0.407 g
– Alanine 0.588 g
– Aspartic acid 1.134 g
– Glutamic acid 1.865 g
– Glycine 0.694 g
– Proline 0.773 g
– Serine 0.567 g
Water 13 g
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.36 mg (31%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.32 mg (27%)
Vitamin B6 0.5 mg (38%)
Folate (vit. B9) 184 μg (46%)
Calcium 36 mg (4%)
Iron 4.6 mg (35%)
Magnesium 197 mg (55%)
Phosphorus 457 mg (65%)
Potassium 563 mg (12%)
Zinc 3.1 mg (33%)

Source Wikipedia

Checking out the data above, you can see that Quinoa contains a bit of calcium and fat, but it does contain a huge amount of phosphorus. This rules it out straight away as far as Guinea pigs are concerned. They just can’t handle that amount of phosphorus.

So although Quinoa is Fantastic for humans to eat, it is not great for Guinea pigs and should be avoided.

One thought on “Can Guinea Pigs Eat Quinoa?

  1. What about the leaves? They are said to be like spinnach but higher in vitamins. I’m looking at getting some seeds to grow some plants for myself next spring and want to know if my piggies can enjoy it with me?

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