Onion?

[Deleted]

I bought the dried veg flakes from ratrations and most of the ingredients are good but I noticed it also contains dried onion.


Are onions a no-no for degus as a treat?

The other veg was like spinach and leek etc..

I can't tell the onion apart in the pack and I've already mixed it in the forage 😩

[ntg]

I can't remember seeing anything about onion but my gut instinct would be not to feed it knowing it's toxic to much larger animals than degus.

[Deleted]

Nov 22, 2017 1:36:27 GMT ntg said:

I can't remember seeing anything about onion but my gut instinct would be not to feed it knowing it's toxic to much larger animals than degus.

Oh no 😶😧 I've stupidly mixed it in all of their forage and food! I can't tell it apart all of the veg flakes smell the same because they've been in the same bag. It all just smells vegetable-y.

They can have spring onion though right? What's the difference?

I'm majorly panicking now but I don't have the money to throw their food away I just spent £100 on it and that's gotta last a while 😵

[ntg]

Could you shake the forage to try and get all the veg to the bottom? Then just remove all the white pieces as that's the colour the onion would be (or dark purpley/white if it doesn't contain beetroot for red onion). Worst comes to the worst, if you really can't tell, just take all the veg out and just use the carrots and tomato that should be very obvious compared to everything else!

We would only feed the green parts of spring onion and even then in small quantities - the bulbs contain the highest concentration of whichever compound is causing the toxicity, so leaves are generally less troublesome! In all honesty, because veg isn't necessary for them and they get enough variety as it is, I just avoid all onion-related things altogether apart from maybe small amounts of chive on a very rare basis.

[bouncy]

From memory, onion is a no no, because of the sulphur content. Let me have a look to see if I can find anything about the drying process and its effects.

[Deleted]

Oh poop 😫

I did pick out as much white looking stuff when I fed them..

Hopefully they'll ignore any tiny bits.

I'll just pick it out as and when I feed them.

Crap.

😐

[moletteuk]

Yeah I think onion and garlic are still on the not safe list. I wouldn't deliberately feed it, but like you, I don't think I would ditch a whole ton of expensive forage because of it. See if you can find a piece and then try and test whether they are interested in eating it, they might just reject it anyway.

I think the problem is to do with the effect on the heart.

[Deleted]

Okay, I'll try when I'm home.

None of them are dead yet so fingers crossed they'll be fine with my picking out ability!