Guinea pigs are become one of the most preferable pet from the rodent species beside hamsters. It easy to understand why people pay so much attention to these animals; first thing first, they have fluffy and cute appearance, and second their bodies is small which make them easy to house and taking care. A lot of preparations need to be done if you want to brig guinea pig into your lovely house.
Start from set up guinea pig’s cage to guinea piggy bedding, provide all other toys such as igloos for your guinea pig’s hiding place, exercise ball for guinea pig, and other accessories that would be the perfect and nice medium to having fun inside their new habitat. How about the foods? Yes, of course, the primarily need of all living creatures. Having guinea pig as pet meaning you have to know the perfect healthiest food to feed your animal.
Most of the time, guinea pig prime foods are hays and grasses, but it is recommended to give guinea pig other delicious treat of fruits and vegetables. This method should be applied to prevent eating issue such as saturation which could happen if you only give them one type of food every single day. Saturation symptoms would appear as the lack of appetite, also your beloved guinea pigs have to interest of the food that you bring to them.
If you let this issue keep happened, of course, it would let the animal into other dangerous situation. So, my dear friends, it strongly suggested that you should give your pet occasionally another fresh food for the addition of the main diet. Moreover, there are treats you can make at home for your guinea pig! This could be very fun to make and of course, your animals would love it!
Consider the importance of food for guinea pig, one particular question that often being asked by guinea pig’s owner is do guinea pig safe to eat food that contained with carbs like oats? Today, we would learn deeper about this topic of carbs for guinea pig: can they eat oats?
Oats for Guinea Pigs
Once we opened our eyes in the morning and our stomach was rumbled, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? Of course the cereals and the oats. Yes, these types of foods are typical morning breakfast for majority of people (beside breads). Of course, it depends on the place you lived; the cultures and traditions of every place are totally different. For an example, Asian people would prone to eat rice or bread than oats for their breakfast.
The climate and other natural conditions didn’t really support the oats to grow in most of Asian countries. That’s why, Asian people (most of them) didn’t quite familiar with oats. Back to the topic, for people (human) oats are the nutritious healthy food that would fulfill all the needs of our bodies, but do this meal also the right meal for other creatures than human? Is oat would also be a good and healthy food inside guinea pig’s body?
But, before we answer your question, we would learn type of oats that was available in the markets these days, and it absolutely very easy to find.
- Oat: is cereal grain which grown for the seeds. Oat become one of the most common livestock feed for people and contained with many beneficial sides, such as low of cholesterol and nutrient-rich type of food.
- Oatmeal: is the flour that is made of groats (hulled of oat grains) which have been through some process of milled, steel-cut, and rolled. The rolled and steel-cut oat would be found in most of the porridge and cereals.
Although reviled as one of the most beneficial type of food for human, apparently it’s not applied for other creature such as guinea pig. So, the answer to your question is no, oats are not the good and perfect food to feed to guinea pigs. Oats are contained with substances that could harm your beloved guinea pig, it’s quite surprising isn’t? Furthermore, note this, that oats are contained with high level of phosphorus that known as the substance that could affect urinary system.
Among other nutrients, oats contained with a large level of carbs that could cause weight-gain faster than others. Perhaps, for the underweight guinea pigs, oat could solve their weight problem, but for the perfect healthy weight guinea pig, that’s another problem. But yes, to solve the problem of extreme underweight guinea pig, most of the time the vets and professionals would suggest you to feed your beloved one with oats. Remember, only for this particular case, oats are become a safety food to feed.
Beneficial Side of Oats for Guinea Pig
Beneficial parts of oats are still available my friends, so do not be worry too much, because your breakfast meal could solve some issues of your beloved guinea pig:
- Underweight Guinea Pigs: yes, previously I had mention that oats could help underweight guinea pig to rapidly gain weight. The lack of appetite that occur to guinea pig happened by several reasons, it might be saturation or diseases which impacted to the reducing of the appetite of your pet. Give the guinea pig small amount of oats would help the animal to gain their ideal proportion again.
- To Thicker Guinea Pig’s Coat: based on some owners experiences which claimed that they were given this method from the vets, apply the oats to your guinea pig skin when they were dealt with hair-loss problem would help them gain the thicker and better coat.
The Risk of Oats for Guinea Pig
- Obesity: if you force your guinea pig to eat oats in the healthy state of weight, it might possibly that your pet would gain weight and trapped into obesity. Once more time, oats are contained with high level of calories and carbohydrates.
- Urinary Issues: high level of phosphorus and calcium inside oats would trigger some urinary issues. These types of substances was very good for the bones of young guinea pigs that are in the period of developing their bodies. But, for fully grown one, it could cause several health problems included kidney stone, bladder, blood in urine, and other urinary infections.
This is the end of carbs for guinea pig: can they eat oats? The answer is no my dear friends. So, take a good care of your beloved pet guinea pet so you could be with her for long time!