Can my pet eat that?
Pick an animal, type a food. You get one of four answers — staple, occasional, rare treat, or never — and the reason: oxalates, calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, sugar load, a specific toxin.
A food we have not checked comes back as "not on our list", never as a guess. That is the whole point of the tool.
The animals this checker covers
The tool only offers the animals in the tables below; an animal without a table is not in its list, and a food that is not on a table comes back as "not on our list", never as a guess. Absence is not approval.
Rabbits — 63 foods checked
Hay first, greens second, everything else barely at all. A rabbit fed mostly pellets and treats is a rabbit with dental disease waiting to happen.
63 foods checked: 9 staples, 18 occasional, 13 rare treats, 23 never.
Never
That plant or food is not on our list. Do not offer it — a rabbit cannot vomit, so anything that goes in has to go all the way through. Check with an exotics vet.
Guinea Pigs — 57 foods checked
Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C, so a daily source is not enrichment — it is the difference between health and scurvy.
57 foods checked: 6 staples, 18 occasional, 13 rare treats, 20 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Leave it out and check with an exotics vet — guinea pigs are conservative eaters and a food they have never had can be refused for weeks afterwards.
Hamsters — 24 foods checked
Hamsters are granivores with an omnivorous streak. Scatter-feed a varied seed mix rather than filling a bowl with pellets.
24 foods checked: 1 staples, 6 occasional, 2 rare treats, 15 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. A hamster is small enough that a wrong food is a large dose. Leave it out.
Rats — 23 foods checked
Rats are true omnivores and the most food-tolerant animal on this site — which makes the short list of genuine dangers the important part.
23 foods checked: 2 staples, 6 occasional, 0 rare treats, 15 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Rats tolerate most things, but the short list of exceptions is genuinely dangerous — check before offering.
Bearded Dragons — 37 foods checked
An adult bearded dragon is mostly a herbivore. Getting the greens right matters more than the insects, and the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio is the thing to keep in your head.
37 foods checked: 8 staples, 7 occasional, 9 rare treats, 13 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Bearded dragon diets get ruined by well-meaning additions — check the species guide or ask an exotics vet before offering it.
Tortoises — 26 foods checked
A tortoise is a grazer, not a fruit eater. For Mediterranean and arid species, fruit and protein are the two things that do lasting damage.
26 foods checked: 3 staples, 4 occasional, 3 rare treats, 16 never.
Never
That plant is not on our list. Tortoises graze indiscriminately and a great many garden plants are toxic, so identify it before it goes anywhere near the pen.
Geckos — 22 foods checked
Geckos split into two diets that share almost nothing: insectivores like the leopard gecko, and the fruit-and-insect species like the crested gecko. Check which one you have.
22 foods checked: 4 staples, 4 occasional, 1 rare treats, 13 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Check which kind of gecko you have first — the two diets barely overlap — then ask an exotics vet.
Other Small Pets — 55 foods checked
Most small companion mammals are hindgut fermenters: the gut is a fermentation vessel that has to keep moving, and sudden rich food stops it.
This is the general small pets food list. It is what the tool answers with for Gerbils, Mice, Chinchillas, Ferrets, Hedgehogs, Degus, Sugar Gliders and Opossums — every kind in this category without a table of its own.
55 foods checked: 6 staples, 17 occasional, 13 rare treats, 19 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Do not offer it on a guess — check with an exotics vet, or leave it out. Nothing in a small mammal's diet is urgent enough to risk it.
Other Reptiles — 27 foods checked
Reptile diets split hard by species. An insectivore and a grazing tortoise share almost nothing, so check the species guide as well as this list.
This is the general reptiles food list. It is what the tool answers with for Snakes, Skinks, Monitors, Turtles, Chameleons, Anoles, Uromastyx and Water Dragons — every kind in this category without a table of its own.
27 foods checked: 6 staples, 5 occasional, 1 rare treats, 15 never.
Never
That food is not on our list. Reptile diets are narrower than they look — check the species guide, and ask an exotics vet before offering anything unfamiliar.
The other five
Is it big enough?
Floor area or volume, judged against the recognised standards — all of them, when they disagree.
Open tool →What does it really cost?
Setup, monthly, first year and lifetime, itemised — with electricity worked out from real wattage.
Open tool →Which of these two is easier?
Two species on identical axes: space, company, cost, lifespan and daily time.
Open tool →Is this ammonia reading dangerous?
Free ammonia from your kit's total, the pH and the temperature — the number that actually harms fish.
Open tool →Is this bedding safe?
Safe, caution or avoid for the animal you keep, and why.
Open tool →158 care guides, same data
Every number these tools use comes from the species guides — read the one for your animal.
Browse the care guides →