If you are an owner of a Guinea Pig, you may be wondering what exactly they can eat. As herbivores, they can eat all sorts of different food but of course, not everything is safe and healthy for your Guinea Pig to eat. This leads us to our primary question today, can Guinea Pigs eat celery?
If you have some type of celery lying around you may think to give it to your Guinea Pig as a meal but hesitate due to not knowing whether it is good or not for them, we will look to answer that today.
Can Guinea Pigs Eat Celery?
To keep the answer straight and simple, yes, your Guinea Pigs can definitely eat celery but that doesn’t mean that you should make it a full-time diet for them either. Just like any food, you need to use proper moderation to ensure that your pet has a balanced diet.
But even more than that celery contains some compounds and minerals that can be dangerous to your Guinea Pig if given too frequently. Make sure to read on for a more in-depth explanation of what exactly celery can do to your Guinea Pig if you feed them too much as well as just what you should do when feeding your Guinea Pig.
Despite all of this, do not completely neglect celery either as it does contain many nutrients that your Guinea Pig requires to be healthy. This makes celery quite the versatile option whenever it’s safe to feed to your Guinea Pig.
Celery Leaves
The leaves of celery are definitely edible for your Guinea Pigs, but also pose the same risks as the rest of the stalk. Just because they are leafier doesn’t mean that it doesn’t contain the same trace compounds that make the overuse of the stalk unhealthy for your Guinea Pig.
Expert Tip: Once more, you can feel safe feeding your Guinea Pig the celery leaves as it provides good nutrients for your pet but always make sure to be careful and use it as food in moderation.
Celery Stems
As above, the celery stems provide the same pros and cons as the rest of the plant and should be looked at the same way. This is important to say because while you may think different parts of the celery stick have different properties, this is not the case and you should be aware of this before feeding your Guinea Pig celery whatsoever.
How Much Celery
Whenever you are giving your Guinea Pig celery, ensure that it is only receiving a single bite-size piece of celery at any one time. More than this could prove dangerous to your Guinea Pig’s health and its diet should never consist of more than just this small amount.
However, this is not an invitation to feed it one bite-size piece every single meal, as the Guinea Pig will need time to digest the previous bite of celery before you can feed it any more celery.
You may think this isn’t enough food to constitute an entire meal for your Guinea Pig, and you would be right, but that doesn’t mean giving them exclusively celery for an entire meal is what you should do.
Instead, make a mixture of other various fruits and vegetables to ensure that your Guinea Pig is getting all of the other nutrients it needs instead of overfeeding it celery or starving it.
Of course, you should make sure these other foods are also healthy for your Guinea Pig but celery, in particular, can lead to many other issues for your Guinea Pig that will be detailed further below.
How To Prepare The Celery
Celery can be prepared quite easily for your Guinea Pig. Simply prepare the celery as you would for a regular meal and wash it thoroughly to ensure no external germs are stuck to the celery. Then, cut a single bite-sized piece off of the celery for your guinea pig and mix it in with the rest of its meal. Your Guinea pig will appreciate the treat.
Benefits & Risks of Celery
As stated before, despite how much you need to consider before feeding your Guinea Pig celery there are also benefits to giving this to them as a treat. Keep in mind that these benefits only really matter if you take the proper precautions as to how much and how often you should be feeding your Guinea Pig celery.
Below you may read a list of various benefits and risks to your Guinea Pig’s health that comes from feeding them celery.
Health Benefits
- Digestion: One of the simpler benefits to giving your Guinea Pig the occasional celery piece is that celery is a vegetable that contains a lot of dietary fiber, this provides roughage in the body that can help with digestion for your Guinea Pig.
- Vitamins: Celery contains some key vitamins that can aid your Guinea Pig in various ways. Vitamin A in particular, can preserve your Guinea Pig’s eyesight for longer, paired with beta carotene these Vitamins can keep your Guinea Pig’s eyesight healthier than normal.
Additionally, Vitamin C can be found in celery which can keep the organs healthy and also assist in maintaining connective tissue, making Vitamin C an important part of your Guinea Pig’s diet. - Inflammation: Guinea Pigs are quite prone to inflammation, and celery contains many compounds that can aid your pet in the reduction of inflammation, allowing it to feel better sooner.
- Immune System: Various antioxidants found in celery can help your Guinea Pig’s immune system to fight against disease as well as strengthening it for the future.
All of these benefits together make celery an excellent treat to give your Guinea Pig every now and then, so do not overlook celery as an option when deciding what to feed your Guinea Pig. Just make sure that you follow the proper rules to not bring harm to your pet.
Health Risks
- Oxalates: Celery contains enough oxalates to develop kidney stones in your Guinea Pig regardless of prior issues, when fed in high amounts. If your Guinea Pig is known to have bladder issues before even feeding them celery, it is best to avoid celery altogether as this can possibly make it worse. Otherwise, just ensure to not overfeed your Guinea Pig celery.
- Sodium: Celery contains high amounts of sodium, which can be harmful to your Guinea Pig’s overall health. Always make sure to monitor your Guinea Pig’s health when feeding them celery to make sure that they aren’t being poisoned by the high amount of sodium.
One such issue that your Guinea Pig can run into due to the high sodium contents is high blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure is a serious issue and can even leave your Guinea Pig prone to heart attacks. - Bloating: An unhealthy diet can lead to bloating in your Guinea Pig, which can be easily caused if you feed too much celery to your Guinea Pig. Make sure to check your Guinea Pig for bloating whenever possible and change its diet accordingly if you notice any symptoms.
Most of these risks are primarily caused by feeding your Guinea Pig too much celery rather than the recommended amount As such, do not worry about these if you are being careful with your Guinea Pig’s diet but it doesn’t hurt to check just in case.
How Often And What To Avoid
When feeding your Guinea Pig celery, you should only give it to them a single time every few days, if you are giving your Guinea Pig celery more than two to three times a week, you are giving it too much celery and this could have some serious health risks for your Guinea Pig.
As said above, this should also only be a single bite-sized piece of celery during these brief periods where they are being treated to the celery. It can be understandable to think that this is being too conservative.
But please know that the health risks of feeding your Guinea Pig more than one bite-sized piece of celery only a couple of times a week are incredibly high and nobody wants to see harm brought to their own pet.
Even on these days that you give celery to your Guinea Pig, make sure that they have a lot of other food options available for them so that they have a healthy diet.
A healthy diet for a Guinea Pig will never consist of celery every single day, nor will it consist of large amounts of celery, as the Guinea Pig will lose out on many of its required nutrients while also proving quite dangerous to your Guinea Pig.
Expert Tip: Make sure to do research into what foods you should be giving your Guinea Pig other than celery, to make sure that its diet is healthy.
Conclusion
As a quick refresher to all of this, all you need to do when feeding your Guinea Pigs celery is watch how much you are giving them and how often you are doing so. Feed them a single bite-size piece one time, a maximum of two-three times per week, and your Guinea Pig will be able to enjoy the treat without any serious consequences.
You should still watch over your Guinea Pig just in case to make sure any underlying health issues aren’t sprouting up from the celery, but otherwise, the celery is certainly edible for your little Guinea Pig.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment.
In summary, yes, you can feed your Guinea Pigs celery but you should never do this too often. Too much celery can harm your Guinea Pig so exercising caution is for the best if you want to keep your Guinea Pig healthy when feeding them celery.
