Pine nuts happen to be the edible seeds of pines and there are approximately 20 species of pine producing seeds which are harvested.

They have been across Asia and Europe down the ages and are often added to fish, meat, salads and some vegetable dishes as well as baked into bread.

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Can guinea pigs eat pine nuts?

So if we can eat them, can guinea pigs eat pine nuts and if they can, how much of them can they eat?

Lets take a look at their nutritional data and find out a bit more about them. In particular, the calcium, acidic, fat, sugar and phosphorus content that they have.

Energy 2,815 kJ (673 kcal)
Carbohydrates 13.1 g
– Starch 1.4 g
– Sugars 3.6 g
– Dietary fiber 3.7 g
Fat 68.4 g
– saturated 4.9 g
– monounsaturated 18.7 g
– polyunsaturated 34.1 g
Protein 13.7 g
Water 2.3 g
Vitamin A equiv. 1 μg (0%)
– beta-carotene 17 μg (0%)
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.4 mg (35%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.2 mg (17%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 4.4 mg (29%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.3 mg (6%)
Vitamin B6 0.1 mg (8%)
Folate (vit. B9) 34 μg (9%)
Choline 55.8 mg (11%)
Vitamin C 0.8 mg (1%)
Vitamin E 9.3 mg (62%)
Vitamin K 53.9 μg (51%)
Calcium 16 mg (2%)
Iron 5.5 mg (42%)
Magnesium 251 mg (71%)
Manganese 8.8 mg (419%)
Phosphorus 575 mg (82%)
Potassium 597 mg (13%)
Zinc 6.4 mg (67%)

image wikipedia

As you can Pine nuts are extremely acidic and have a very high amount of phosphorus. This rules them out straight away for guinea pigs.

High amounts of acid content and phosphorus are bad news for guinea pigs and would do a lot of damage if they were to eat a lot of them.

If they nibble one or two of them, they should be fine, but generally, they are a food to be avoided as far as guinea pigs are concerned.

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