Do you love Strawberries and often wondered can guinea pigs eat strawberries too?

Yes, Guinea Pigs can eat strawberries. However, they should be limited to a small portion once or twice a week. Even though their diet will be 80% hay, the remaining 20% should be made up of pellets, fruit and vegetables. Adding strawberries to this 20% is a good idea as there pretty good for them.

Strawberries are packed full of nutrition for your guinea pigs, helping to keep them healthy. However, giving them the wrong part of the strawberry or giving them too many could be harmful.

In this article, I’m going to go into detail on why Guinea Pigs can eat strawberries, what parts as well as the good and bad effects strawberries can have.

Lets get started…

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberries

It’s important that even though your Guinea Pig can enjoy strawberries, you should limit how much they have to eat. As a treat they should only have a small amount once per week.

You may not know this but Guinea Pugs cannot produce Vitamin C, so they need to get this from their diet. Luckily strawberries are jam packed full of it.

However they do have sugar in, roughly 0.6g per strawberry. This is actually quite low for many fruits, but this doesn’t mean you should give your guinea pig too many of them.

In the wild guinea pigs don’t have sugar, so putting their levels too high can cause health conditions such as diabetes and make them overweight.

A good option is to give them little pieces of strawberries, once a week but make sure you include the green leafy tops.

Do guinea pigs like strawberries?

So we now know that guinea pigs can eat strawberries, but do they like them?

It’s going to depend on the individual guinea pig. Just like with humans, some like strawberries and others don’t.

Millie loves them and will eat them as quickly as possible. Molly on the other-hand will eat them but is probably more bothered about the leaves and top than the actual fruit. (Its quite funny watching them eat the same strawberry)

Since strawberries are sweet, most Guinea Pigs do enjoy them. There was survey online, it had shown that roughly 70% of guinea pigs did eat and enjoy the strawberries.

It did seem that the majority of Guinea Pig owners said that their piggies preferred the strawberry tops and leaves more than the actual fruit.

But again, it’s going to depend on the individual Guinea Pig.

To find out if your guinea pig likes strawberries, I would suggest just giving them a little bit first. Give them a bit of the fruit, some of the stem and then some of the leaves and see which they prefer.

If its the first time your Guinea Pig has eaten strawberries then you should only give them a little bit first. This is to check that they don’t have any allergic reactions to it. Once they’ve had a little, wait a bit and then give them a little bit more.

How Many Strawberries Can Guinea Pigs Eat?

As already mentioned, you should only let your guinea pigs eat strawberries once a week. Remember it is just a snack.

If you are giving them other treats, such as other fruits then these should replace the strawberries. Giving too many different fruits and vegetables could result in their weekly sugar intake being too high.

It’s important to also keep an eye on any allergic reactions, if it’s the first time they have them. Just give them a small amount and then leave it 12-24 hours to see if they see any reactions.

If not, then give them some more (but not too many!)

Are Strawberries Good for Guinea Pigs?

There are a lot of health benefits for your guinea pigs eating strawberries. In some cases they’re better than other fruits because of the nutrition content and overall lower sugar content.

Strawberries Have Lower Sugar Content Than Other Fruits

It’s hard to believe but even though strawberries are sweet, they don’t contain too much sugar.

This is when you compare them to other fruits

Roughly 100g of strawberries contains 7-8g of sugar. Now if you compare that with other fruits such as bananas, they contain around 15g.

Thats pretty much double the amount of sugar!

Fruit	Sugar	Calcium
Strawberry	4.9g	16mg
Banana	12g	5mg
Apples	10g	6mg
Oranges	9g	40mg
Lemon	2.5g	26mg
Melon	8g	9mg
Grapes	16g	14mg

Strawberries Are Jam Packed With Vitamin C

Did you know that Guinea Pigs can suffer from scurvy? This is caused because of a lack of Vitamin C. Cavies are impacted a lot by this because they cannot produce their own. It needs to be supplemented by their diet.

It’s really important that your guinea pig gets extra Vitamin C.

This makes strawberries a great choice as they are full of Vitamin C. There’s 58.8mg of Vitamin C in 100g of strawberries.

If we compare this to oranges which has 53.2.mg of Vitamin C, strawberries would be a good choice.

Strawberries Help With Your Guinea Pigs Blood Pressure

Potassium is important for a healthy balance diet as it helps to regulate your guinea pigs blood pressure. This is even more important for older piggies.

Strawberries are not a fruit that have a high amount of potassium such as bananas. Although they do have enough to be beneficial to their overall health.

Are Strawberries Bad for Guinea Pigs?

It’s important that everything should be enjoyed in moderation and giving strawberries to your guinea pigs is the same.

It can be concerning letting your guinea pigs eat strawberries because of the sugar content. You might also be thinking about the calcium content, as these can cause kidney and bladder stones.

You should not worry though…

As long as you limit the amount they have then the benefits of eating strawberries does outweigh the negatives.

Wash The Strawberries

It’s really important to make sure you wash the strawberries before you let your guinea pig eat them. This is because its common for them to have pesticides, which could make your piggies poorly.

Washing these properly will help to wash away any pesticides that may have been used. Alternatively you can use organic, as these will not usually have pesticides used on them.

Allergies

It can be very common for guinea pigs to suffer from allergies. This can happen with strawberries, although this shouldn’t stop you from trying to give them to your cavies.

Just make sure you give them a nibble or two and keep an eye on them for the next 12-24 hours. If you don’t notice any change, then they should be good to have more.

Continue to keeping an eye on them over the next few times that you do give them strawberries.

Medications

If your guinea pig is on any medications then make sure to confirm with your vet that they’ll still be fine.

For example if they’re on beta blockers then they shouldn’t have strawberries because of the potassium content.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberry Leaves?

It’s important to note that when we talk about strawberry leaves, its the leaves on the actual plant and not the green tops on the individual strawberry.

If you have your own strawberry plant, its a good idea to save the leaves for your guinea pigs.

Guinea Pigs can eat strawberry leaves and they’re actually very good for them. Leaves are full of Vitamin C, Potassium, Fibre and Iron.

Even though the leaves don’t contain the sugar, they still have a decent amount of calcium. So they should be consumed in moderation.

It’s worth noting if you buy the foraging mixes from pet shops, these often contain some strawberry leaves.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberry Tops?

Yes, Guinea Pigs can eat the strawberry tops. They can actually be better for them than the fruit itself. More on this in a minute.

Did you know that the top of the strawberry is one of the guinea pigs favourite part of the fruit.

Its actually very good for them as they don’t have the high sugar content and full of fibre and antioxidants.

When you prepare the strawberry, leave the top on and see whether or not they enjoy it.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberry Stems?

Guinea pigs can eat strawberry stems and they tend to be one of their favourite parts.

A good part of their diet should be greens, so the stems can make a great addition to other greens such as lettuce.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberry Seeds?

Yes they can but it does depend on the seeds. If you give your guinea pig fresh strawberries then they can eat the small seeds that are on the surface of the strawberry.

I wouldn’t recommend giving them dried strawberry seeds as these tend to not be as nutritious.

So don’t worry about the seeds in the strawberry.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Strawberry Jam?

No, you your guinea pig cannot eat strawberry jam. Jam is full of sugar, a lot more than the fresh fruit. This amount of sugar can cause a lot of health issues for your guinea pig.

Not only that but processed food such as jams can cause digestion issues, making them not very healthy.

Can Guinea Pigs Drink Strawberry Juice?

Guinea Pigs cannot drink strawberry juice, or any other fruit juice. The only thing they need to drink is water, which they should have constant access to.

Strawberry juice is sweetened, so the higher content of sugar is not good for the health of your guinea pig.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Frozen Strawberries?

Guinea Pigs can eat frozen strawberries but only ones that you’ve frozen yourself. You don’t know what preprocessing has been done to the frozen strawberries you find at a supermarket.

You also want to make sure that your only freezing fresh strawberries.

Personally I would recommend allowing the frozen strawberries to defrost first, as frozen they could be a little too cold for your guinea pig to manage.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Dried Strawberries?

Personally I wouldn’t let my guinea pigs eat dried strawberries. You just don’t know how they’ve been processed. The only dried fruit I would allow them to have is ones that can be purchased from the pet store.

Some piggie owners will say that dried fruit such as raisins is fine. I’ve always felt it could be unsafe.

I find that fresh fruit is always better, as it is much more safe and offers more nutrition.

Can baby guinea pigs eat strawberries?

Yes you can give baby guinea pigs strawberries to eat, just make sure your only giving them small bite sized amounts. Bear in mind that their digestion is still young, so id focus on giving them leafy greens.

Nutritional Stats Of Strawberries

As already mentioned there’s a lot of benefits to your guinea pig eating strawberries. Generally they love the flavour of them but they’re also very nutritious. Its an incredible source of Vitamin C but you just have to give them in moderation because of the sugar and calcium content,

Below is a list of the nutrients found in 100g of Strawberries.

Calories	35 Cal
Carbs	7.6g
Fiber	1.8g
Sugars	5.34g
Protein	1g
Fat	0.4g
Vitamin C	56mg
Vitamin K	2.1mg
Vitamin B6	0.035mg
Iron	0.28mg
Potassium	89mg
Calcium	12mg

How To Prepare and Feed Strawberries To Your Guinea Pig

Its very easy to prepare and feed strawberries to your guinea pigs;

• First of all you need to go through and check the strawberries. Make sure they are completely fresh and don’t have any mold or mushy spots.

• Next you need to fully wash them. This is to remove any pesticides that might have been used. You don’t usually need to wash organic, although I personally prefer to. (Just in case)

• I then like to quarter them, although if bigger then I might half these quarters. You can cut the entire strawberry, including the tops and stems.

• You can then either hand feed them to your guinea pigs or place them in their food bowl.

• Make sure to remove them after a couple of hours. This will avoid pests coming into the cage and bacteria growing on the left over strawberries.

Final Thoughts

So can Guinea pigs eat strawberries?

Yes they can, so if you’re looking for a healthy and tasty treat to give your guinea pig, why not try some strawberries? As long as they are given sparingly, once a week at most, your furry friend will love you for it.

And you can feel good knowing that you are providing them with an important source of Vitamin C. Have you ever fed your guinea pig strawberries? What did they think of them? Let us know in the comments below.