Our herbivorous guinea pigs completely love munching down on fruits and veggies. Along with their regular industrial diets, they love having a provide of uncooked goodies to crunch on. Uncooked meals will be exceptionally wholesome for our piggies, so long as we offer the appropriate ones.
Nevertheless, some vegetables and fruit will be unhealthy—and even harmful. So, in mild of all that, the place does melon fall? Melon is available in fairly a medley of decisions—watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew being amongst them.
Melon will be very helpful to guinea pigs in small parts. Nevertheless, giving your guinea pig an excessive amount of doesn’t have optimistic results.
Melons Can Be Very Yummy for Guinea Pigs
Melon generally is a implausible meals merchandise so as to add to your guinea pig’s current weight-reduction plan. These fruits are usually very comfortable and simple to eat. Additionally they have a big water content material for added hydration. Every melon has its personal proportion of nutritional vitamins and minerals, however all of them share very nutritious content material.
Well being Advantages of Melons
Every sort of melon has its personal advantages! Listed below are some melons you is likely to be able to serve as much as your piggies, together with the perks.
Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe is a highly regarded melon in america. Statistically, about 90% of all cantaloupes are grown proper within the US in states like California, Texas, and Arizona. You’ll be able to just about develop this scrumptious melon anyplace—or discover it within the grocery.
Nutritional vitamins and minerals in cantaloupe embrace:
Watermelon
Watermelon is a juicy summertime favourite. We’re most likely all very acquainted! Associated to squash and cucumbers, this candy deal with is interesting as a result of its taste, shade, and texture. This black-seeded melon is a fibrous fruit that gives a wide array of nutritional vitamins and minerals.
These embrace:
Honeydew
Honeydew is an immediately recognizable sort of melon as a result of its pale shade and distinctive taste. The composition seems to be rather a lot like cantaloupe, and it’s equally sized as nicely. It’s acknowledged by DPI infographic info that honeydew is the sweetest of all melons, so your guinea pig simply may prefer it essentially the most.
Honeydew has numerous dietary perks like:
Muskmelon
You is likely to be seeing the phrase muskmelon and pondering, what’s the distinction between that and cantaloupe? The reality is all cantaloupe are muskmelon however not all muskmelons are cantaloupes. Muskmelon is a broader time period that features cantaloupes and different orange, candy melons.
Advantages of muskmelon embrace parts like:
Supply Melons in Moderation
Melons enchantment to your guinea pig as a result of they’re tremendous candy and have nice texture. As a result of they’re so candy, your guinea pig may favor these things over their regular meals, so ensure that to present it to them as a dessert and never a most important course.
It’s greatest to maintain melon samplings right down to roughly 2 instances per week in small portions.
Take away Any Uneaten Items
In case you have ever loved a chunk of melon, you realize that after a short time, it begins getting fairly mushy. Let your little guinea pig go to city, however ensure that to take away any items of melon that they don’t eat after 20 minutes.
This fruit can spoil in a short time within the cage, resulting in dangerous smells and dirty bedding. It would solely take you a couple of seconds to gather any meals your guinea pig didn’t get to and toss them within the trash.
The right way to Serve Melon to Guinea Pigs
In case you have melons readily available, we advocate natural or melons purchased from a farmer’s market to cut back pesticide publicity threat. Then, minimize all of the pores and skin off, eradicating any seeds you may see. Minimize the melon into easy-to-eat items to forestall choking.
Keep in mind, if that is the primary time your guinea pig could have melon, solely supply a small quantity. Slowly introduce the meals to your guinea pig’s diet.
Really helpful Guinea Pig Weight loss plan
The overwhelming majority of what your Guinea Pig needs to be consuming every day is good quality grass hay such as Timothy hay. This needs to be accessible to them always and make up round 80% of their weight-reduction plan. Additionally they want round a cup of blended greens day-after-day to supply them a wide range of vitamins. Subsequent comes Guinea Pig pellets of which they want a tablespoon of to make sure satisfactory vitamin C and fiber. Fruit comparable to cantaloup melon ought to solely be thought of an occasional deal with.
Ultimate Ideas
So now you realize that melon is a brilliant nutritious and scrumptious meals in your guinea pig. Nevertheless, it is extremely excessive in sugar, which might disrupt their pure intestine flora. Due to this, it’s greatest to solely give your guinea pig small quantities of melon along with other vegetables and fruits.
When fed appropriately, melon can develop into a mealtime favourite. At all times keep in mind to take away any leftovers to maintain rotting meals out of the cage.
Featured Picture Credit score: Sofiia.P, Shutterstock
