Guinea pig food myths? (Celery, apple seeds, bell pepper seeds)

[PerceptorII]

I ran across this YouTube video last night where a woman from the Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue discusses some "myths" (as she calls them) guinea pig lovers tend to share on the internet.

The tl;dw version:

Myth #1: The veins in celery are a choking hazard. She says piggies can chew up the little strings just fine.

Myth #2: Apple seeds are poisonous and should be removed. She says that while it's true apple seeds contain a tiny bit of poison (amygdalin, which releases cyanide when it chemically breaks down) the amount is far too small to do any harm.

Myth #3: Bell pepper seeds are a choking hazard. She says guinea pigs have excellent molars for grinding food down and if they can handle hay, they can also handle pepper seeds.

I thought I'd share this here and see what our own resident experts have to say.

 

[Bill & Ted]

My two boys eat all parts of celery with no problems
I do take out the seeds from Apple cores
Mine hate peppers so not a problem
I’d say “If in don’t leave out!”
but I think she is probably right x

 

[AD12]

I always remove seeds if giving apple to any of my animals or eating one myself. I always removed pepper seeds as well, but have no idea about how safe they are. I always just erred on the side of caution. My last piggies never had a problem with celery. I had no idea that that myth was even a thing.

 

[Janey]

I'd always remove seeds from anything, including peppers, even though I know someone who gave their piggy all the seeds without any known problem. I did used to cut up celery really small, when I first got piggies, but I don't anymore.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Sorry there “if in Doubt, leave out” that autocorrect is nuts and is always catching me out!

 

[4GorgeousGuineas]

I don’t feed my piggies the apple core or the seeds from an apple, same for peppers; I always take the seeds out just in case. Celery has never been popular with my bunch so I don’t tend to feed it.

 

[Kylie80]

I have never de seeded or de veined anything for the piggies but they only have a small chunk of apple occasionally which never has seeds in it anyway but I can't imagine apple seed tastes the best so I would remove them.

 

[Gem789]

I've got to admit I sometimes put a whole pepper in for the girls to share and they've never had a problem with the They're also fine with the celery strings.

 

[Guineautopia]

I’ve fed whole sticks of celery for over 20 years, no problems so far....
I do cut out cores of apples and peppers but that’s probably because that’s how I would prepare them for my human son

 

[Reenie]

I kind of see this as a bit like children with lollipops and hard sweets. They can be a choking risk, but many young people eat them without ever having a problem. Choking on a pepper seed is a potential risk, as is the chance of the fibers of celery causing a problem, but it's rare and some people are more risk averse than others. Personally I chop up celery, but I do feed the whole pepper, seeds and all.
Apple seeds do contain a tiny amount of cyanide which is unlikely to be harmful for us, but it is comparatively more to a guinea pig, so I wouldn't give them apple seeds, although I'm sure the risk is very small.

 

[RicoandRocky]

I remove seeds from everything but my boys have no problems with celery

 

[Elthysia]

My sister has 9 guinea pigs living outside (bad) (with indoor enclosure) living with chickens (bad), feeds them things which are unusual/bad like rhubarb (bad), throws in random stuff (bad) I wouldn’t think about like apple and willow branches from her garden, does all the things I wouldn’t dream of doing and yet most of her pigs live to ripe old ages of 8, 9 and even 10 years old. I marvel at her pigs ages whilst maybe I’ve had bad luck of my pigs living half those years and I take super care of them.

Still I wouldn’t dream of doing what she does, as I’m so risk adverse. Point is, there are probably things which aren’t as bad as they are made out to be, but do we want to take the risk? I rather take the seeds out and be safe.

Maybe I’m doing it all wrong after all

 

[Merab's Slave]

I usually cut everything into chunks so seeds get removed.
The main reason is that with 3 piggies it stops one hoarding every morsel if there are several pieces of celery, pepper, cucumber or whatever

 

[Hannah_xx]

I’ve seen and heard a piggy choking on stringy celery.
I always chop my pigs celery into little chunks, it’s Better to be safe than sorry. No harm in being cautious.

 

[Black piggies]

That's reassuring about pepper seeds as I worry about people remembering that, if someone else if feeding my pigs.

My 3 pigs do a kind of choking noise when they've put too much in their mouth and they definitely make that noise with celery in long pieces. Guess they're all different.

 

[PigglePuggle]

I usually cut everything into chunks so seeds get removed.
The main reason is that with 3 piggies it stops one hoarding every morsel if there are several pieces of celery, pepper, cucumber or whatever

Me too! I chop everything so there are 3 or 4 pieces in every food dish in case of dinner thievery. Even a slice of cucumber or carrot gets chopped into 4 bite-size pieces. I couldnt imagine my greedy lot sharing a whole pepper, either swift-footed but surprisingly strong little Puggle would drag it up to the loft on her own, or big pig Clover would sit on it and lunge at anypig wanting a bite! 6 food dishes and 24 cucumber chunks between 6 pigs are still not enough for my 'orrible lot to share nicely

 

[Seven7]

I cut celery into small pieces and give it to my Finn and Lara. They are used to eating celery now, but in the beginning, they would leave it until they finished other veggies then come back later for celery.

Since my Finn and Lara live in seperate cages, I don't have to worry whether one is getting all the vitamins and nutrients while the other one isn't getting enough veggies, herbs, and fruits.

I have never fed my piggies any seeds of any kind.