We, as affectionate pet owners, love to share our food with our pets.
Bread is a common source of carbohydrate and very popular food. And it is not abnormal to want to share it with your guinea pigs.
But can you give bread to your tiny little cabbage crunchers? And, are they going to eat it?
Yes, they probably will.
Guinea pigs enjoy eating bread. And some might even enjoy it a lot.
The best way to tell if your guinea pigs will eat bread or not is by offering it to them.
However, we need to weigh the pros and cons before we do that.
After all, guinea pigs are herbivores. And the wild doesn’t offer warm baked bread.
Experts wouldn’t recommend bread for guinea pigs
Guinea pigs eat hay, pellets, and vegetables.
They need a lot of crunch in their food. And they also prefer vegetable fluids to hydrate themselves.
Bread does not fulfill any of those requirements. Moreover, bread does not have any real nutritional value.
The carbohydrate in bread is excessive for your munchkins.
What makes bread unhealthy for your guinea pigs?
Guinea pigs chew fast and eat fast. Bread is soft and mushy when chewed.
This is risky for guinea pigs and might choke them.
Unlike human beings, they won’t be able to dissolve bread in their mouth before swallowing it.
Lumps of sticky bread will have a hard time passing through their tiny little food pipe.
Too much bread can also cause bloating. If your guinea pigs overeat bread, it will accumulate in their belly and take a longer time to digest.
As a result, your guinea pigs will have discomfort and loss of appetite.
So, there you have it! Plenty of reasons to abstain from giving your guinea pigs bread.
What if your guinea pig likes bread?
Maybe you’ve already given bread to your guinea pigs, and they seem to like it.
Do you stop now, knowing that it poses health hazards? Well, it depends.
What matters at this point is how much you’re giving them and which ones.
Bread can be a good treat for guinea pigs if yours prefer eating it.
But with so much to choose from, you need to understand which ones are healthier and pose a lower risk of choking.
For instance:
White bread is a lot healthier than brown bread.
Toasts, bread crusts, and breadsticks
Let me start by saying, bread should only be a once in a while treat for your guinea pigs.
It has little to zero nutritional value and falls under the category of junk food.
You can, however, treat them with toasts, bread crusts, and/or breadsticks.
Make sure to chop it up into tiny pieces to avoid any choking hazards. You can do this once or twice a week.
Fruits, such as apples, bananas, and kiwi, make for great treats for your guinea pigs.
So, I would suggest you opt for one of those.
It would be best if you didn’t get your guinea pigs hooked up on bread.
It is not recommended for them. But if you do decide to give it to them, then moderate the amount.
