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can guinea pigs eat purslane

Can Guinea Pigs eat Purslane?

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Also known as verdolaga, pigweed, little hogweed, or pursley, and moss rose, purslane is a plant reach have smooth, reddish, mostly prostrate stems and alternate leaves clustered at stem joints and ends. It can also reach 40 cm in height.

Can Guinea Pigs eat Purslane?

Can guinea pigs eat purslane, if they can how much can they eat?

Let’s take a look at its nutritional data and find out more.

In particular, its acidic, water, sugar, fat, salt, calcium and phosphorus content is of most interest as far as piggies are concerned.

image wikipedia

Purslane, raw
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 84 kJ (20 kcal)
Carbohydrates 3.39 g
Fat 0.36 g
Protein 2.03 g
Water 92.86 g
Vitamin A 1320 IU
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.047 mg (4%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.112 mg (9%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 0.48 mg (3%)
Vitamin B6 0.073 mg (6%)
Folate (vit. B9) 12 μg (3%)
Vitamin C 21 mg (25%)
Vitamin E 12.2 mg (81%)
Calcium 65 mg (7%)
Iron 1.99 mg (15%)
Magnesium 68 mg (19%)
Manganese 0.303 mg (14%)
Phosphorus 44 mg (6%)
Potassium 494 mg (11%)
Zinc 0.17 mg (2%)

source wikipedia

As you can see purslane contains a little calcium, phosphorus, a is a little acidic, it also contains a hint of fat.

The vitamin c content is also very good.

With this in mind guinea pigs can eat common purslane but only once or twice a week due to its phosphorus, calcium and acidic content.

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

can guinea pigs eat purslane

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Purslane?

Guinea pig foods,

Often considered to be a weed especially in the USA, common purslane can be eaten as a leaf vegetable.

It has a taste that is sour and salty but it’s stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible.

It is often used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews.

Food info and image source Wikipedia

So can guinea pigs eat Purslane, and if they can how much of it can they eat?

Lets take a look and its nutritional data and dig a little deeper under its skin so as to really understand this vegetable.

Purslane, raw
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 84 kJ (20 kcal)
Carbohydrates 3.39 g
Fat 0.36 g
Protein 2.03 g
Water 92.86 g
Vitamin A 1320 IU
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.047 mg (4%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.112 mg (9%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 0.48 mg (3%)
Vitamin B6 0.073 mg (6%)
Folate (vit. B9) 12 μg (3%)
Vitamin C 21 mg (25%)
Vitamin E 12.2 mg (81%)
Calcium 65 mg (7%)
Iron 1.99 mg (15%)
Magnesium 68 mg (19%)
Manganese 0.303 mg (14%)
Phosphorus 44 mg (6%)
Potassium 494 mg (11%)
Zinc 0.17 mg (2%)

As you can see common purslane has has a hint of fat in it, some phosphorus and calcium in it, it is also quite acidic.

However it does contain a very good amount of vitamin c.

With that in mind, it can be eaten by guinea pigs but only once a week in small amounts at the most as it is not the best vegetable that they could eat because of its calcium, phosphorus and acidic content.