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I have an overabundance of guppies, and was wondering if I could give them to my cats as treats.
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can cats eat guppies?
- Thread starter raficat
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Absolutely.
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well, the alternative is to flush them or toss in garbage....
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ok, thanks! just want to make sure its not unhealthy in some way, I'm sure they will like them!
Lol, or you could eat them. Cracker snack with some hot sauce?
Same, I would sooner rehome them and start separating them by sexes so I don't end up in over my head again. My fish are my pets too, and especially feeding them live, I couldn't fathom that!
I once had guppies and I'm pretty sure I would have had trouble feeding them to my cats...
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Guppies are a small live-bearing freshwater fish commonly kept in home aquariums. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guppy
The aquarium equivalent of rabbits.
like fish?
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yes they are small fresh water fish which breed very abundantly. The adults eat their own offspring if they can catch them, but my tank has quite a bit of decoration so the babies have survived and are breeding now.
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no one i know wants guppies. and I don't think being eaten is any worse than going into the sewer system to die slowly, or letting them asphyxiate in the garbage.
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eewww! no thanks!
Yes. They're little fish that populate like mad. That's why @pinkdagger was recommending separating by sex.
I am sure your local pet shop would take them off your hands and likely give you something for your time & trouble. At least that is what I did when I had an explosion of white mice. At the time, the thought of feeding them to my cat never crossed my mind..... poor cat.
They need to be really interesting or colourful guppies for pet shops to want them. As a lot of people have said, they are incredibly prolific breeders.
If they're so small how can you sex them?
Guppies are easy to sex by their anal fin which is located under their bodies. Males have long, thin anal fins and females have more triangle shaped anal fins. Most sexually mature females you can also see a dark gravid spot on the belly. (Which is basically where she carries her babies) Though this is mostly in pet quality fish, females tend to be larger and dull colored with small tails and males tend to be smaller and more brightly colored with long, flowing tails. Though I had some BEAUTIFUL Green Moscow Guppies from show lines years ago that were female and wow wow wow were they beautiful with loooong tails!! Anal fin was a giveaway of sexes though.
The issue with seperating live bearing fish is they can store sperm so once preggo they don't need a "man" for a bit to continue giving birth to different clutches. This is one of the main reasons I had an Oscar and a Red Eared Slider. :lol3: Over 400 gallons of aquariums and 1000+ fish which were almost exclusively Guppies, Platies and PLUPPIES!!
Not sure I'd give them to my cat though. :/ Only because I wouldn't be sure the water treatments are safe. One way I used to cull my tropical fish is taking ice and putting it in a bowl with cold water, stick it in the freezer for 10 or so minutes to get really icy and drop the fish in. They die within a few seconds if that. It was the kindest way I personally found to do it.
The issue with seperating live bearing fish is they can store sperm so once preggo they don't need a "man" for a bit to continue giving birth to different clutches. This is one of the main reasons I had an Oscar and a Red Eared Slider. :lol3: Over 400 gallons of aquariums and 1000+ fish which were almost exclusively Guppies, Platies and PLUPPIES!!
Not sure I'd give them to my cat though. :/ Only because I wouldn't be sure the water treatments are safe. One way I used to cull my tropical fish is taking ice and putting it in a bowl with cold water, stick it in the freezer for 10 or so minutes to get really icy and drop the fish in. They die within a few seconds if that. It was the kindest way I personally found to do it.
