Often prepared with other similar green leaf vegetables, such as kale, turnip greens, spinach, and mustard greens in “mixed greens”.
Collard greens are a staple diet of many around the world, particularly in the south of USA.
They are usually eaten on New Years Day in the USA, along with other foods to ensure wealth in the year ahead. This is because the leaves look like folded money.
Food info and image (source: Wikipedia)
So can guinea pigs eat collard greens? We take a look here and find out more by digging a little deeper into its nature and character and take a look at its nutritional data.
As per usual we’re particularly interested in its calcium, acidic, phosphorus, fat and
Collards, frozen, chopped, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 151 kJ (36 kcal)
Carbohydrates 7.1 g
– Sugars 0.57 g
– Dietary fiber 2.8 g
Fat 0.41
Protein 2.97 g
Vitamin A equiv. 575 μg (72%)
– beta-carotene 6818 μg (63%)
– lutein and zeaxanthin 10898 μg
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.047 mg (4%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.115 mg (10%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 0.635 mg (4%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.115 mg (2%)
Vitamin B6 0.114 mg (9%)
Folate (vit. B9) 76 μg (19%)
Vitamin C 26.4 mg (32%)
Vitamin E 1.25 mg (8%)
Vitamin K 623.2 μg (594%)
Calcium 210 mg (21%)
Iron 1.12 mg (9%)
Magnesium 30 mg (8%)
Manganese 0.663 mg (32%)
Phosphorus 27 mg (4%)
Potassium 251 mg (5%)
Sodium 50 mg (3%)
Zinc 0.27 mg (3%)
As you can see collard greens contain some phosphorus and a hint of fat and sugar, they are however quite acidic in nature but the main concern is that they contain a big amount of calcium in them.
However they do contain a good amount of vitamin c in them.
But because of the calcium content, they really shouldn’t be fed regularly to guinea pigs more than once a week at the most. The calcium content not to mention their acidic nature, rules them out for anything more than that.