Also called lucerne, Alfalfa is a flowering plant that is grown throughout the world as a forage for cattle.
You may know of Alflafa hay which is commonly used with guinea pigs. You can find out more about that here.
But for this post we are looking at alfalfa sprouts which are often eaten in salds and sandwiches.
If we can eat it, can guinea pigs eat alfalfa sprouts and if so, how much can they eat?
Lets have a look at its nutritional data and find out.
As usual we’re looking particularly at its calcium, oxelate acid, fat, sugar, and phosphorus content. It would also be a bonus it had a good amount of vitamin a and c content.
image flickr
Carbohydrates 2.1 g
– Dietary fiber 1.9 g
Fat 0.7 g
Protein 4 g
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.076 mg (7%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.126 mg (11%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 0.481 mg (3%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.563 mg (11%)
Vitamin B6 0.034 mg (3%)
Folate (vit. B9) 36 μg (9%)
Vitamin C 8.2 mg (10%)
Vitamin K 30.5 μg (29%)
Calcium 32 mg (3%)
Iron 0.96 mg (7%)
Magnesium 27 mg (8%)
Manganese 0.188 mg (9%)
Phosphorus 70 mg (10%)
Potassium 79 mg (2%)
Sodium 6 mg (0%)
Zinc 0.92 mg (10%)
souce USDA
As you can see Alfalfa sprouts do contain a fair amount of phosphorus plus a hint of calcium and fat. But the rest of its content looks fine particularly the lack of sugar and oxelates.
So guinea pigs can eat alfalfa but in small amounts twice a week at the most because of their high phosphorus content.