Can Rabbits eat Yams?

Yams are often confused with sweet potatoes and are big favourite around thanksgiving with many families cooking them with their meals.

They are members of the Dioscoreae family and there are around 200 different varieties of yam available.

They have flesh colours that vary from ivory, white, yellow and purple. Their skin is thick and has either a brownish-black, pink or white colour.

Often confused with sweet potatoes, yams are a big favourite especially around thanksgiving time for many families to have with their meals.

Yams have a long, cylindrical shape and the texture on their outside is scaly and rough.

Yams have an earthy and hardy taste with most types of yam containing a minimal sweetness.

image

You can get different types of yam such as Dioscorea alata (Hawaiian yam), Dioscorea batatas (korean yam) and Dioscorea esculenta (sweet yam).

So can rabbits eat yams and if they can, how much can they eat?

Let’s take a look at their nutritional data and find out more about them.
In particular their sugar, fat, phosphorous, potassium, acidic, protein and calcium content is particularly of interest.

image flickr

Yam
Amount Per 100 grams
Calories 118
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.2 g 0%
Saturated fat 0 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 9 mg 0%
Potassium 816 mg 23%
Total Carbohydrate 28 g 9%
Dietary fiber 4.1 g 16%
Sugar 0.5 g
Protein 1.5 g 3%
Vitamin A 2%
Vitamin C 28%
Calcium 1%
Iron 2%
Vitamin D 0%
Vitamin B-6 15%
Vitamin B-12 0%
Magnesium 5%

Source google

As you can see yams contain a hint of calcium, but have a lot of potassium and fibre and are very starchy. This means that they are toxic for rabbits to eat and unfortunately they cannot eat them at all.

Cam Guinea Pigs eat Cooked Yams?

Don’t give them cooked yams at all as they can’t eat cooked food.

Leave a Comment