can guinea pigs eat pumpkin

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Pumpkin?

This time of year pumpkin is a pretty popular food, what with Halloween and thanksgiving and all the festivities around them.

Families throughout the world will be stocking up on their pumpkins for the festivities this season and making various foods out of their pumpkins and carving them up into amazing sculptures.

So can guinea pigs join in the fun and enjoy pumpkin as well?

For the sake of good guinea pig care and consideration, It would be good to see if guinea pigs can eat it at all.

Lets find out by checking out its nutritional data first.

Nutrition Facts
Pumpkin
Amount Per 100 grams
Calories 26
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.1 g 0%
Saturated fat 0.1 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 1 mg 0%
Potassium 340 mg 9%
Total Carbohydrate 6 g 2%
Dietary fiber 0.5 g 2%
Sugar 2.8 g
Protein 1 g 2%
Vitamin A 170%
Vitamin C 15%
Calcium 2%
Iron 4%
Vitamin D 0%
Vitamin B-6 5%
Vitamin B-12 0%
Magnesium 3%
Phosphorus 44mg

Source: USDA

can guinea pigs eat pumpkinWhat we are looking for is reasonably low amounts of sugar, phosphorus, oxalic acid and then good amounts of vitamin a and c for the perfect veggie for guinea pigs.

As you can see its low phosphorus and has no oxalic acid. But has a reasonable amount of sugar in it.

However it has high in vitamin a, and a smallish amount of vitamin c.

With the above data in mind, Guinea pigs can eat pumpkin, but it should really be fed in small chunks to guinea pigs in its raw state twice a week at a maximum.

Just don’t give them too much of it 🙂

 

What about other parts of the pumpkin?

Can guinea pigs eat pumpkin leaves?

They are ok to nibble on, but they are not a food to purposely feed guinea pigs as they are high in calcium.

Can guinea pigs eat pumpkin seeds?

Unfortunately they are not good for guinea pigs to eat as they can get stuck in teeth and lodged in their thoats.

Can guinea pigs eat pumpkin skin?

Yes it is fine for them to eat, they will find them quite nutritious.

Can guinea pigs eat pumpkin rind?

Another name for pumpkin skin. It is pretty good for guinea pigs to eat.

Can guinea pigs eat pumpkin pie?

Unfortunately they can’t eat it at all.

Pumpkin pie is full of preservatives and sugars and so is not good for guinea pigs to eat.

Can guinea pigs eat butternut pumpkin

This is another name for butternut squash, check out the post here

 

For more foods that guinea pigs can and can’t eat, check out our guinea pig foods section

5 thoughts on “Can Guinea Pigs Eat Pumpkin?

  1. My guinea pig Bailey always picked the pumpkin seeds out of her food mix 1st so I got raw ones in the shell for her as an extra treat. I have noticed her being distressed tho while eating the larger ones! Guess the Unshelled ones would be a safer treat for her per this article? Could cut all the big seeds in half I guess….can’t have her choking on the damned things.

  2. I think the link to the butternut squash article may be down. I was unable to click it.
    This is very helpful information though! Thank you!

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