Seeds - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Wiebke]

Overview
1 Seed based diets - NO!
- Hamster mixes
- Bird mixes
- Cavy muesli/dry mix with whole seeds
2 A natural diet: Grass and forage seeds
3 Cultivated seeds in a pet diet
- Sweetcorn and other grains
- Nuts and sunflower seeds
- Fruit
- Other vegetables
4 Seeds in treats
- Dried forage and flower mixes
- Hay based treats
- Treats to avoid


This is an article I have written for Guinea Pig Magazine issue 74 in 2023.

Seeds are generally considered as an unsuitable part by many guinea pig owners, but what are the reasons and it is actually true?
I am going to have a more detailed look at seeds in their various appearances and roles.



1 Seed based diets – NO!

Unsuitable guinea pig diets are sadly still much more common than we would like. As long as guinea pigs are being sold as pets without any questions and basic information to prospective owners, this problem will unfortunately persist.

- Hamster mix
Sadly, far too many owners think that guinea pigs are closely related to hamsters (they aren’t) and that they can also be fed a seed-based hamster diet. Unfortunately, this and can does lead to severe malnutrition, dental issues, a stunted growth and an early death.

- Bird mix
The same goes for bird food; especially with guinea pigs being kept on the floor of an aviary that they have to share with birds. In addition to an unsuitable diet, picking their food amidst the debris and in close contact with bird droppings, comes with an rather high added risk of illnesses that can be transmitted between birds and rodents. Please always cover the top of a cage if you have free roaming birds at home.

- Cavy muesli/dry mix with whole hard-shelled seeds (sunflower, millet etc.)
Supplementary dry mixes have been scientifically proven to be detrimental and life-shortening to the health of rabbits. The same has to be assumed for guinea pigs. Whole hard seeds should never be part of a guinea pig diet since the hard shells can splinter in the mouth and the small seeds get stuck in between teeth; they have unfortunately caused real damage on occasion.

More information about dry food mixes for guinea pigs and why they are not recommended: Pellets Or Muesli / Dry Mix?


2 A natural diet: Grass and forage seeds

Guinea pigs have evolved on a mainly grass fibre based diet which they supplement with wild forage for a wider range of trace elements and vitamins that they do not get with the tough but highly nutritious grass fibre (which is high in vitamin C when green and growing, by the way).
The mainstay of a guinea pig diet should always be an unlimited supply of hay and fresh grass for which the teeth have evolved a perfect growing balance for in being ground down when chewing and which the digestive system is laid for breaking down in two runs through the gut This food group should make at least three quarters of what guinea pig eats in a day.

Grass seeds in fresh grass and in hay harvested around seed time are a natural part of a guinea pig diet. What can occasionally cause a bit of an issue are grass/hay seeds getting stuck under an eyelid, scratching cornea and causing ulceration/infection.

Seeds from any plant forage are also a natural part of the diet; whether that is the original species diet or your own wild or garden forage. These seeds contain a range of nutrients and are an added bonus as they only make a very small part of the volume.

 

[Wiebke]

3 Cultivated seeds in a pet diet

While the seeds of cucumber, tomato and pepper are perfectly safe to feed to guinea pigs, seeds that have been specifically cultivated for thousands of years as a valuable source of starch and fat should not be regularly given.
There is however not a problem with a very occasional addition. You do not need to worry if your guinea pigs eat any of them accidentally as a one-off.
Here is a list of seeds that you actually come up against in your daily fresh food and pellet diet and whose regular use you may want to reconsider:

Sweetcorn and other grains
- Sweetcorn
All parts of a corn cob are edible, including the leaves and silk, not just the corn. If you choose a whole cob as a special enrichment treat for a group or just a small part, please make it an organic one since the leaves are usually strongly sprayed. Sweetcorn is however described as ‘energy dense’ or - less politely - fattening.
Please see sweetcorn rather as a special treat – including mini-corn - than as a regular part of your cavy diet since it can contribute to life-shortening overweight. Chunky piggies may look and feel great but they do have a greater operation risk and a greater chance of developing avoidable weight-related health conditions.
If your guinea pig is losing weight, do not feed fattening, rich veg based food but replace the dropped the hay/grass fibre in the diet with hay based recovery fare. Substituting sweetcorn and starchy veg won’t make your guinea pigs healthy again.

Popcorn is not a suitable treat for guinea pigs; it is fattening and life-shortening. It is one of those pet shop gimmicks that targets unwary owners' purses who think it cool to share the same treats with their piggies but without any respect to their welfare.

- Other Grains
While our common grains forming the basis of a human diet are mostly part of the grass family, they are too starchy as a regular part of a cavy diet. If you can, please opt for grain-free pellets.
Starch is converted into sugar in the body. On balance, plain porridge/rolled oats can however make a better supplement for dental guinea pigs or others that struggle to keep their weight up than sweetcorn if recovery formula is too expensive for the long term.

Nuts and sunflower seeds
Nuts should never be given to guinea pigs. They are too fatty for them.
Sunflower seeds have been long cultivated as a source of fat. The hard shell is edible but can get stuck between teeth and cause problems. Not recommended as part of a diet although a one-off won’t do any harm.

Fruit
Any fruit (and this includes tomato) should be a treat as they would not have featured large in a natural guinea pig diet. A very little fruit once or twice a week should be more than enough. Keep in mind that most fruit contains sugar!
While eating apple, pear or grape seeds occasionally is not a disaster, please remove any before you feed a small slice to your guinea pigs, especially if you are feeding fruit more regularly. Please never feed any processed fruit (frozen, tinned or dried).
Stone fruit (and wood) as a whole should not feature in a guinea pig diet and should be kept out of reach; especially the stones!

Other vegetables
- (Sweet) Peppers/Capsicums
The seeds in sweet peppers/capsicums are soft and perfectly fine to eat and digest. If you have a group of guinea pigs you may want to feed peppers whole and can do so with a clear conscience.

- Melons
Melon seed can be left in for eating. Melons are edible in all parts, including the rind, as long as you wash them thoroughly. They are however high in sugar so please keep that in mind in hot weather and rather opt for a larger chunk of cucumber for hydration, which at the core stays cooler for much longer than melon and rather refresh the water bottles and add crushed ice to keep the water drinkable.

- Pumpkins, marrows and squashes
What is edible for humans is also edible for guinea pigs. The seeds should however not feature a lot since they are rather rich and neither should any edible pumpkin flesh or rind. Edible is not necessarily the same as suitable.

- Beans and peas
Green beans (i.e. the soft pods) and mange tout can occasionally be fed as a veg treat. They are a bit higher in oxalic acid, which can contribute to the formation of bladder stones if fed daily, similar to root veg like carrots.
Beans themselves (which are the seeds of the bean plants) should be off the menu although soy is often used in pellets and treats as a filler product.
Pea flakes are a very popular treat – no surprise, since peas are naturally high in sugar after all… Perhaps you may want to consider how much you give in a day?

 

[Wiebke]

4 Seeds in treats

Pellets and dry food mixes
Seeds in small traces – especially smaller seeds - can be tolerated but I would most strongly not recommend feeding dry mixes or mueslis with any processed coloured chunks, corn or sunflower seeds in them, especially if there are healthier alternatives available.
Dry mixes can serve as an occasional enrichment tool but as a rule guinea pigs will eat any mixes selectively and will make a beeline for the high sugar and fat bits. Over a lifetime this can lead to nutritional imbalances.

It is safer to feed just 1 tablespoon of pellets per guinea pig per day or opt for a pellet-free diet with forage instead. Pellets/dry feed should only make about 5-10% of the daily food intake anyway.
It is also worth noting that pellets – even no added calcium ones – still contain more calcium weight for weight than the same amount of kale, the veg highest in it. Pellets and water are generally overlooked as calcium sources even though in a hard water country like the UK most of the calcium in a guinea pig diet comes via unfiltered water and too many pellets and not necessarily from the veg.

Dried forage and flower mixes
Forage and mixes are generally safe to feed as long as you vary and they do not contain cultivated richer seeds on a daily basis.
Please keep in mind that dried feed is generally more concentrated and higher in calcium compared to the fresh plant. For this reason, you will have to weigh your piggies regularly to balance off any forage supplements and treats against your pellet allowance.

Hay based treats
A small amount of added seed is actually not a bad thing as long as you vary your treats; it will extend the range of nutrients.

What you should always keep in mind is that any daily or near daily treats have to come out of the same 20-25% supplementary diet segment as any veg and pellets unless they are hay based. There is nothing like a free floating ‘extra’ when it comes to calories piling up in the body…
If you have weight concerns, then consider turning meal times into enrichment events with sprinkle feeding, wrapping up veg etc. in order to encourage natural behaviours. Use tiny bits of the favourite veg or the daily pellet allowance for training purposed instead.

The occasional special treat once or twice a week is not an issue as long as you keep it to that and do not fall into the treat trap, which is not as easy as it sounds. Guinea pigs are excellent manipulators but they are as much wired for junk food as we humans are.

Treats to avoid
- Please do not feed any dry mixes that contain a larger quantity of cultivated seeds like sunflower seeds.

- Do not even look at seed sticks or similar highly processed shop food treats! Apart from being too fatty, they are glued together with sugar syrup – another big no, no when it comes to guinea pigs.

- Dried corn cobs are usually ignored or you’ll invariably end up with a corn stuck on the incisors, which can lead to your guinea pigs not being able to pick up food properly and to weight loss. A corn firmly impaled on two incisors can be surprisingly difficult to remove without risking breaking the teeth and is not at all a pleasant for your poor guinea pigs – or for the owner. It is not worth the money.


As always, when it comes to treats, please check the ingredients list before you buy: Any added sweetener (glucose, honey or sugar), any lactose (milk, yoghurt) as well as any treats with several percent of fat are firmly off the menu.
If you have any doubts or if the ingredients list looks too long or contains ingredients you would not expect or there isn’t any list, just walk away.

Above all: A little goes a long way. Seeds should be seen as an occasional enrichment rather than as part of a daily diet.
Try not to fall prey to those cute begging faces!