Safe plants, herbs, and leaves for consumption

[deguconvert]

The following lists are provided for us by Maravilla. MANY thanks to you, Maravilla.

PLEASE!! When introducing anything NEW to your Degus diet, use small amounts, and GO SLOWLY. This will protect your Degus from discomfort, or illness if the new item disagrees with them.

Well, not all flowers are healthy for our smalls animals, some can even be poisonous. And it is very important to change nutrition slowly to avoid intestinal problems like diarrhoea. I just can name you the flowers my animals get as a regular food, not knowing if you will find them in your country as well. Due to possible translation problems I also provide the latin names to avoid any misunderstanding.

rose (rosa)
red clover (trifolium pratense), white clover (trifolium repens) -> here be careful and only give small amounts
marigold (calendula off.)
hibiscus
cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
brown knapwee (Centaurea jacea)
camomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
daisies (Bellis perennis)
dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)
marguerite (Leucanthemum vulgare)

basil
coriander
parsley
thyme
(Provided by Fred, thank you, Fred)

Anyone interested in more plants suitable as degu dinner? These are only the plants I have experiences with; but there are much more I still didn't try out.

Leaves
apple tree
pear tree
peach tree
cherry tree
blackberry
raspberry
strawberry
blueberry
hazelnut
common/ European hornbeam [Carpinus betulus]
tilia -> you can offer leaves as well as what is called flowers
birch [genus Betula]
willow [salix]
gingko [Ginkgo biloba]

Herbs -> always be careful and don't give too much as all these herbs have medical impacts due to the content of essential oils, you can offer them fresh or dried

lemon balm [Melissa officinalis]
peppermint [Mentha piperita]
camomile [Matricaria chamomilla]
dill [Anethum graveolens]
sage [Salvia officinalis]
purple coneflower [Echinacea purpurea]
chervil [Anthriscus]

Weeds
dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) -> you can give the whole plant, also the roots which are here titbits
buckhorn [Plantago lanceolata]
plantain [Plantago major]
goutweed/ ground elder [Aegopodium podagraria]
shepherd's purse [Capsella bursa-pastoris]
St John's wort [Hypericum perforatum]
Canada goldenrod [Solidago canadensis]

New additions:
Chives
Water Cress

[deguconvert]

Reply from Maravilla to questions asked by Fred, copied below
Hello fred,

Quote:- What is your opinion of the amount of leaves from stone fruit trees that one can feed? I have seen some sites which recommend only small amounts (not to speak of Degutopia which finds them toxic). I have fed a lot of cherry leaves and believe that it's OK.

I think the discussion about feeding or not leaves and branches from stone fruit trees is universal. There is always the same argument, that these contain critical amounts of cyanogenic glycosides. I fed my degus a higher amount of fresh leaves last summer and dried the rest for winter time. I don't see any problem by feeding them these leaves, especially not when they are provided together with a variety of other leaves so degus can chose what to eat.


Quote:- We are not sure what to make of the different willow species. At the moment we are cautious and recommend only weeping willow. Do you know of experiences with white willow?

So far, I only tried weeping willow and Salix matsudana. My degus enjoyed chewing the branches but did not like the leaves very much. Concerning your question about white willow, I have to look for further information as well.


Quote:- I have often seen that some herbs are recommended only in small amounts because of the potential medical impact, but so far I haven't really seen this backed up. I can only tell from my own experience, and they really eat a lot, but I wouldn't recommend if it might be unsafe.

My degus get a variety of about 10-15 different plants per feeding, so they can select what they want to eat. When you provide this amount of plants, you automatically only give small amounts of everything. The only herb I really give in higher amounts, and fresh, is basil and they would kill for it .

[Maravilla]

I forgot a very important plant: sunflower [Helianthus annuus]. You can offer leaves (small amounts) and flowers (petals) and even the seeds (but don't give too much as they contain lots of oil).

[joodles]

chives - our boys can't get enough!

[fred]

Aug 19, 2011 8:55:49 GMT joodles said:

chives - our boys can't get enough!

This is really interesting. It's one where the German sites seem to have rather mixed views. That's why I hadn't tried it so far, but will definitively do so now. Anyone else experience with chives?

[apology72]

Hello everybody,

last year i picked up some Willow in a pasture walk. It was one of my first food collections, so I was still quite uncertain at the plant identification.

In my opinion the willow was a white willow but i decided to put up a photo in the german forum.


In our german degupedia <- a page with lots of information about degus there is an extra food sector. There are a lot of information about the suitability of many plants. Whether branches of trees and shrubs, herbs, etc. This page ranks willows in general as unproblematic.

[fred]

Thanks Apology. I wouldn't have thought that twigs and leaves of white willow should be a problem. It's probably only the bark of the trunk where concentrations of salicylic acid may be so high that it should be avoided.

[davx]

I have often seen that some herbs are recommended only in small amounts because of the potential medical impact, but so far I haven't really seen this backed up. I can only tell from my own experience, and they really eat a lot, but I wouldn't recommend if it might be unsafe.

Keep in mind that many Chilean plants (forage plants) have medical usage.
We (some german degu and chinchilla keeper) are actually growing some Chilean plants from seeds.

[deguconvert]

I keep Salba seeds, which I use to suppliment my diet . . . I have sometimes given them to the degus, and they LOVE them, but I have been cautious to not give much. Salba seeds, also known as Chia seeds, are native to Chile. Are you familiar with them? I've sometimes wondered about sprouting them as well.

[davx]

I didn't know this plant, but according to wikipedia the plant is from Central America:

Salvia hispanica, commonly known as chia, is [...] native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_hispanica

I don't know if there are any Salvia species native to Chile, but several genera common in Europe like Plantago (plantains), Stipa (needle grass) or Berberis (barberry) contain also species native to Chile (e.g. Plantago hispidula, Stipa plumosa, Berberis chilensis).

By the way I also made good experience with plants native to central or northern America like the common evening primrose (they like in particular the flowers) or wood-sorrels (Oxalis species).

[aya0aya]

My advice is to try topinambur (helianthus tuberosus).
It's similar to sunflower, root contains inulin in autumn, which is great for lowering blood sugar. Just the same as chicory (Cichorium intybus) does. You can even try to make decaf coffee for yourself from it

Great thing is those two plants grow almost everywhere. But be careful with topinambur, it won't go away once you have it on your garden.

[Ady]

I saw topinambour (Jerusalem Artichoke) on Czech rep. forum being reccomended to diabetic degu. JR Farm sells dried Jerusalem's artichoke rods. Couldn't find it in UK shops, though.

Sorry: I meant I couldnt find the JR Farm one in UK shops. Not topinambour in general.

[aya0aya]

I'm not sure how is in shops, but it grows everywhere. The main problem with it is, you can't get rid of it once you have it on the garden.

Here they're selling fresh roots for human food and you can easily grow it, just burrow one and you're done.

[davx]

Yes topinambour is a good choice.
Recently I made a video while feeding my degus with the tubers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8zcAl2k5bo

[Whizz]

I recently read this and decided I'd give some of these ago, my boys really love the Boredom Breaker natural packs, so I thought I'd try picking my own.
I have strawberry plant in my Garden, so I picked a couple of the leaves off. I washed them, and then when they were dry I offered them to my boys. They were mildly interested in what I had, but didn't want to eat them - they'd nibble them every so slightly and then run off.

I haven't given up yet though! Since they were used to the Boredom Breakers natural packs, which contain dried leaves and etc. I've left the leaves to dry. Once they're nicely dried and crispy, I'll give them another go.

[fred]

I have given my girls chives these past few days and while they don't go as wild as over thyme, they seem to like them a lot. They are definitely the most entertaining herb. Sometime they start off at opposite ends of one and suddenly find themselves nose to nose and do not know what to do. They can be such cute little dummies ;D

Also do be added to the list the more boring water cress which I forgot to mention last time.

[yasmin]

I'm in Canada (Ontario) and was wondering if I could feed my degus dandelions from our property. We have a 2-acre property out in the country and the dandelions here are huge – bigger leaves than those I've been buying at the grocery store.

[Maravilla]

Hello yasmin,
lucky you are when you can find huge quantaties of dandelions on your own property. I've found plants with about 30-40cm long leaves, but these are quite rare here. You can give them (fresh or dry) the whole plant, including the roots; mine love them!!

[aya0aya]

And here's an advice for winter. I did a test, picked up a lot of dandelion seeds (those flying things) and tried to grow them in a pot, in regular dirt from outside, not bought one. They grow like crazy. My goos will have fresh dandelion all winter long

[Whizz]

Aya, that sounds really good! I'll make sure I pick some tomorrow, Dandelion is my boys favourite.