Can Guinea Pigs Eat Chives? (All You Need to Know)

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Can Guinea Pigs Eat Chives? (All You Need to Know)

Guinea pigs make great pets. Their lifespans are much longer than other rodents, and they have distinct personalities.

This means you can easily get attached to them, as you watch them change in size and grow over the years.

Taking care of them is easy. Moreover, they’re herbivores- so the staple of their diet is healthy vegetables. Growing these in your backyard will promote healthy eating habits for you too.

However, there are some vegetables that your pet can’t have. Today we are going talk about them briefly, and provide some tips for preventing any harm to the little ball of fur in your family.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Chives?

Your guinea pigs cannot eat chives, along with other green vegetables like onions, shallots, and garlic. These vegetables contain disulfides. The disulfide is a molecule that contains sulfur. 

Sulfur ingestion can damage the guinea pig’s red blood cells. This means they cannot eat chives, onions, or any similar vegetable containing this acid-forming chemical.

Guinea pigs are very sensitive animals. A change in temperature, for example, can affect their health.

As a pet owner, it’s important to know what foods they can eat and which they can’t. The type of food also matters; you have to be careful about what they’re eating.

Garlic Chives:

Garlic chives are not safe for your pet guinea pig because of the disulfides they contain. Traditional chives also contain this chemical, so it’s important to keep them away from these small animals.

Too much of the molecule, guinea pigs are harmed. As well as other vegetables, garlic is not good for your guinea pig.

Chive Flowers:

If it is part of the chive, then it contains a disulfide molecule that harms the red blood cells of the guinea pig. This molecule isn’t safe just because it’s something else than the flowers of the chive.

Fresh Chives:

We’ve mentioned before that if you feed chives to guinea pigs, it will harm them no matter which part of their body you feed it to.

Despite the health of the chive, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be harmful to guinea pigs.

Dried chives:

Fresh or dried, chives contain the molecule disulfide, which is toxic to guinea pigs. It doesn’t matter whether they’re fresh or dried- they still contain it. Guinea pigs aren’t able to eat food with this molecule either.

Are Guinea Pigs Allergic To Chives?

We have briefly mentioned that guinea pigs are sensitive creatures. Guinea pigs will be at severe health risk when the temperature drastically changes.

They need to be sixty and eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit constantly. However, since they are vegetarians, we might presume that they can eat anything green. This isn’t true, though.

The guinea pig cannot eat chives. This is because they contain sulfur in them. Sulfur can harm the red blood cells of the guinea pig, so it needs to avoid eating chives altogether.

This is not the same as if they had an allergy to chives. They can’t eat them without putting their life in danger.

4 Reasons Why Guinea Pigs Should Not Eat Chives

Chives are related to onions, garlic and leeks. They add flavour in our cooking but guinea pigs don’t eat them.

The following are reasons why guinea pigs should not be fed chives and why eating them is harmful to small creatures.

Weakness & Dizziness:

The problem is that chives will damage red blood cells, which in turn results in low red blood counts. This means your guinea pig may be dizzy and vulnerable to injury from falls.

Digestive Problem:

Eating chives can cause gastrointestinal problems in guinea pigs that might lead to vomiting or diarrhea.

This is because chives contain sulfur, and guinea pigs have delicate stomachs.

Urinary Malfunction:

Spicy food, regardless of what consistency it is in, can be harmful to living beings. In addition, if a creature’s digestive system is weak or they are fragile.

The high level of potassium in your chives can wreak havoc on a guinea pig’s fragile body.

Their diets should be void of high levels of calcium, which has been linked to kidney stones and urinary stones in guinea pigs.-

Causes Anemia:

Guineas pigs have a sensitivity to Allium, which adds to the damage already done on their red cells.

It will soon lead to them having breathing problems. Furthermore, there will be a lot of RBCs and this eventually leads to anemia.

What Could Happen To A Guinea Pig If It Ate Chives?

The paragraph above might have given you a clear idea about why a guinea pig shouldn’t eat chives.

To clarify such an occurrence, you have to know that the ingestion of these herbs can be harmful to the animal.

The fact that guinea pigs eat chives or not is something that makes people think they are allergic to them.

However, the strong smell of the chives cause the guinea pigs to avoid them. The rodents will be curious and often eat them, regardless of the consequences.

When this occurs, they will soon experience dizziness, weakness and digestion problems. In serious cases, the animals will become anemic if they ingest too much of these beans.

What To Do If My Guinea Pig Ate Chives?

Guinea pigs rarely eat chives on their own. Although they normally wouldn’t eat them, they often get curious and do so.

For a fragile animal such as a guinea pig, these are harmful situations that should be known. Here is a list explaining the necessary steps to take in those situations.

Observe:

If the number of chives your pet guinea pig took was low, then you should stand by and observe if there is any change in their activity.

Let Them Rest:

When they consume chives, they should feel dizzy. As a future owner, provide them with a place to rest and care for them.

Sometimes clickbait articles get clicked on by readers and end up in places they are not supposed to be. Sometimes this is harmless, but other times it is harmful for little guys.

Provide Fresh & Healthy Food:

These toxic chives will slow your stomach from producing any more acid. Give them something healthy and fresh to eat and see if they can digest it or not.

Visit a Vet:

Even after all the above steps, your guinea pig’s health may not improve and they will not be able to eat anything. In this case, you should visit a professional vet sooner rather than later.

How To Prevent Chives Poisoning In Guinea Pigs?

As guinea pigs cannot digest chives, we should create a plan to prevent them from getting poisoned by chives. Below are some ways to protect your guinea pigs from being ingesting chives:

Keep them in a safe place:

To keep your guinea pigs safe, put them in a cage. This ensures they will be unable to access any chives on their own.

The one thing you’ll want to remember if you’re letting your guinea pigs out is to always keep an eye out for any chives nearby.

No allium family foods:

Guinea pigs should not be fed any food belonging to the allium family. This will ensure that their food is not toxic or harmful to them.

Healthy diet:

A healthy diet will make your guinea pigs stronger. Providing a sufficient diet ensures that they can survive the poisoning of chives.

Prohibit garden entrance:

Be careful not to let your guinea pig explore your backyard garden because there may be herbs and veggies that could be harmful to the little guy. Always be sure to have an eye on them when he’s exploring outside the cage.

Final Thoughts

Guinea pigs cannot eat chives. They have to avoid it because chives are what snakes or bees inject venom with. If they eat chives, they’ll get all kind of problems like infections and heart failure. 

Sometimes, consuming just a few bites will do the trick and cause major problems. Chives should be avoided as well as vegetables that contain allium.

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