almond nut slices

[rusty]

can degus eat chopped almonds

[deguqueen]

Im not sure if you cvan feed them almonds. I know that you can give them peanuts only once in awhile because they are very fatty and I think have high cholesteral content.

I dont know if almonds would be a good choice to give them though.

[Aimeelou]

Almonds are quite a sweet nut, so i would imagine they wouldnt be to good for Degus. Id stick to peanuts.

[diet otaku]

i buy the healthy toppings bags of pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds, but the degus only get those as a treat when they're sitting on my shoulder (i'm trying to condition them to want to be there, lol). i've been quite busy lately, so i haven't been able to take them out much, thus they don't get the treats very often. i'm not aware of almonds being any sweeter than any other nuts, so i treat them the same as i treat peanuts - occasional treat.

[ra]

I agree with diet otaku - I don't think almonds are necessarily a sweeter nut. Of course you don't want to over-feed any nut.

[ra]

I have modified my early post - should have researched before I posted.

Nutritional Highlights
Almonds, 24 whole kernels (1 oz.)Calories: 164
Protein: 6.0g
Carbohydrate: 5.6g
Total fat: 14.3g
Fiber: 3.3g
*Excellent source of: Vitamin E (7.4 IU)
*Good source of: Magnesium (78mg), and Riboflavin (0.23mg)

Almonds should be limited to treats only much the same as peanuts.


here's peanuts for comparision

Peanuts (dry roasted), 1 oz. (30 whole peanuts)
Calories: 168
Protein: 4.9g
Carbohydrate: 7.2g
Total Fat: 14.6g
Fiber: 2.5g
*Good source of: Magnesium (64mg)

[diet otaku]

while peanuts and almonds have the same fat content, you can also see that almonds are higher in fiber and protein, and lower in carbs. they should still be a treat, but maybe slightly more often than peanuts. i really do save the peanuts as a rare treat. it just seems the smart thing to do.

[Eamon]

accually almond contains something (of course i have no idear what it's called in english, but its "blåsyre" in danish) which is accually toxic, the same stuff as the seeds from oak trees have(whitch i dont know what is called either) but in smaller amounts( which is why humans can eat álmonds... I know chipmunks can't have almonds because of it, and I don't think degus should have it either...

[diet otaku]

really? granted, it's been quite awhile since any of my boys have had any almonds, but i never noticed a problem before...

[Eamon]

I'm pretty sure that the stuff that almonds have, which acorns also have is called tannin in english. Of course the amount of tannin is much less in almonds than in acorns, but still they are not recomendable for any small animals.

[thegrouchybeast]

cornelia said:

I'm pretty sure that the stuff that almonds have, which acorns also have is called tannin in english. Of course the amount of tannin is much less in almonds than in acorns, but still they are not recomendable for any small animals.

That sounds strange to me. Don't various small mammals (mice, squirrels, etc) eat a lot of acorns in the wild? I've certainly seen squirrels stuffing their faces with acorns, and burying large caches for the winter.

Maybe you're thinking of cyanide? I think there's a small quantity of that in sweet almonds.

[diet otaku]

i thought cyanide just SMELLED like almonds?

[Eamon]

No it's definitely not cyanide, because that is called the same in danish. I only think squirrels eat acorns in cartoons, i know however that back in the good old days pig farmers used to let their pigs out in the Forest to eat the acorns, because pigs are resilient to tannin. But acorns have tannin and they are poisonous to humans as well, unless their boiled(this removes the tannin). and almonds have tannin as well.(unless of course I've gotten the wrong word, then they have something else )

[Eamon]

But of course the amount of tannin(or what ever it's called) is MUCH lower in almonds(MUCH, MUCH lower, but degus are also MUCH, MUCH smaller), humans can eat just about as many almonds they want, they're high on vitamin E and proteins and and all sorts of minerals. perhaps small amounts of almonds are okay for your degu, but even though they are a nut which is LOW on fat, they're not fat-FREE.

[thegrouchybeast]

cornelia said:

I only think squirrels eat acorns in cartoons

I've seen squirrels eating acorns many, many times -- I used to live next to a park with a large grey squirrel population.

In support, Wiki isn't necessarily the most accurate source, but they agree with me, about squirrels and other mammals (although they're poisonous to horses, apparently):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn

This site says that reds squirrels eat less acorns than grey, but still lists acorns in their diet:
www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.red_squirrel.html

This US hunting site says that 'Seventy to 80 percent of the squirrel's diet is from acorns alone':
www.daytondailynews.com/rec/content/sports/daily/0207rob.html


And many others. Google 'squirrel acorn diet'.


Googling for info on tannins and almonds, there are indeed tannins in almonds, but they seem to be in the skin. (Which makes snes, because tannins are brown in colour.) So blanched almonds shouldn't have much in the way of tannins.

[thegrouchybeast]

dietotaku said:

i thought cyanide just SMELLED like almonds?

Sort of. Hydrogen cyanide is said to smell like bitter almonds, because raw bitter almonds, which are used to make almond essence, contain fairly large amounts of amygdalin, which decomposes to form hydrogen cyanide. Apricot kernals, cherry pips and apple pips also contain amygdalin. Sweet almonds contain no or very low amounts of amygdalin.

Other parts of the almond tree, both sweet and bitter, contain enough cyanide precursors to be dangerous, which is why they're on the list of trees not suitable to give to pets to chew.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11902971&dopt=Abstract

[thegrouchybeast]

Aww! Here's a link to a picture of a red squirrel caught in the act!

www.arkive.org/species/ARK/mammals/Sciurus_vulgaris/ARK004376.html?size=large

[Eamon]

you are so clever, i guess some animals develop to have a resilience to different kinds of toxics like the koala and their eucalyptus

[diet otaku]

awwww... *nuzzles the squirrely* reminds me of my little degu-babies... ^__^