can guinea pigs eat garlic

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herbie53

herbie53

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i Wondered can guinea pigs eat garlic or onions?

Mine dont like guinea pigs treats but love fresh fruit and vegetables, I'm just looking for new things to feed them for some variety any ideas?
 
How about herbs like parsley, coriander and basil? If you live near fields, you could try picking edible weeds like dandelions, clover, coltsfoot and plantain (these are also commonly found in gardens). Additionally, there's a post on this forum with a list of edible foods which may give you more ideas. Do you grow any vegetables yourself? Guinea-pigs like the parts of vegetables you don't eat e.g. carrot and radish tops, beetroot leaves, pea pods, the silks and leaves from sweetcorn cobs (but not tomato leaves as these are poisonous). As a rule, guinea-pigs can't eat anything from a bulb, which includes onion and garlic (and leeks, although these aren't bulbs), or potatoes.
 
Hi, I was wondering this myself, as my guinea pig is on antibiotics at the moment (and not doing very good) and garlic is known for its powerful antibiotic properties. Obviously I'm not talking about raw garlic which when crushed segregates a very strong substance that can even give you an allergic reaction, it has happened to me when I was cutting garlic once my finger became inflated and it would sting like hell, but I was wondering if maybe boiled garlic could be given to a guinea pig, I'm interested if anyone knows any facts about garlic and guinea pigs, I have heard a lot of people saying "don't" but I haven't heard anything to actually back it up or a any reasoning behind it.
 
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Piggies can't have anything from the 'allium' family: chives, leeks, onions and garlic.

I don't actually know why!
 
I don't think it would kill them, but it's bad for them. They probably wouldn't like it too much either.

It's funny that some brands of guinea pig food have leeks in them . . . I actually tried to give mine some leek years ago, and they wouldn't eat it, same with spring onions.

Fresh fruit and veg are great treats though (especially green leafy veg) :) It's a good idea to try different herbs as treats, and different types of lettuces too (just avoid iceberg, cos too much of it can upset their tummies)
 
I wasn't planning on giving my guinea pigs garlic as a treat, more as a medicine and very seldomly but only if I found out it was totally safe.
I've read about the wonders that garlic does in humans (like decreasing the risk of colon cancer and stomach cancer by up to 50% according to some studies) and its antibiotic properties so if it was safe for guinea pigs it would be interesting to see the results...but yeh, I won't be the one to test it anyway.
 
I think I might have find a reason of why garlic is bad for guinea pigs, according to this page oxalic acid is poisonous for guinea pigs, I quote "oxalic acid poisoning following ingestion of oxalate containing plants, such as beetroot, spinach, and rhubarb" the question is, does garlic contains enough oxalic acid to be poisonous?
I searched for a food chart exposing the contents of oxalic acid in sevearl fruits/vegetables;


Fruit/vegetable--------oxalic acid content according to 3 different sources
name.........¦source1¦ source2¦ source3¦
Amaranth.........¦1.09¦ ---- ¦ ---- ¦
Chives.............¦1.48¦ ---- ¦ 0.00 ¦
Parsley............¦1.70¦ ---- ¦ 0.10 ¦
Rhubarb (stems)¦----¦ 1.34¦ 0.86 ¦
Spinach...........¦0.97¦ 0.66 ¦ 0.68 ¦
Apples.............¦----¦ ----¦ 0.00 ¦
Broccoli...........¦0.19¦ ----¦ 0.00 ¦
Garlic..............¦0.36¦ ----¦ ---- ¦

So not very clear, if garlic is bad because of its content in oxolic acid, toxic for guinea pigs, according to the chart Parsley would be worse than garlic but I haven't read anywhere that Parsley is bad for guinea pigs, to the contrary actually.

Original chart is found here.
 
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