Goji Berries?

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I

I<3MyChinnies

Guest
I was just trying to find some chinchilla supplies online (you know, weeding through all the inappropriate chin stuff) and I found these "goji berries" advertised on ebay as being great chinchilla treats. Has anyone heard of these or feed them to their chins? Just curious. Here's what the ebay ad said:

"Make no mistake about it; we offer the highest quality Goji Berry for Chinchillas and other small animals.

These Goji Berries are purchased from small farmers in China's Ningxia Province who use only Organic friendly methods to deter pest's. While they are not USDA Certified, but first requesting laboratory results from the growers and second, having them tested yet again here in the USA to insure their quality and absence of harmful chemicals.

Goji Berries

They are exceptionally high in lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP), the main active constituents of Goji berry. Studies show that LBP polysaccharides are exceptional sources of the essential cell sugars necessary for proper immune function and intercellular communication. These polysaccharides can enhance health in a variety of ways, including helping cancer patients rebuild their natural defenses, improving DNA restoration and repair, and maintaining normal cell growth, and they may help slow the aging process. LBP also contains lutien and zeaxanthin, which are beneficial to visual acuity. Goji Berries are an abundant source of nutrients that can provide retina protection, and are thus particularly recommended for diabetics.

In addition to LBP, the fruit contains a full complement of other nutrients:

18 amino acids, including the 8 essential ones
More antioxidant carotenoids than are found in any other known food, including more beta carotene than carrots, and zeaxanthin (which protects the eyes)
Nearly as much protein as bee pollen
21 trace minerals, including germanium, an anti-cancer substance rarely found in foods
Vitamins B1, B2, and B6, and vitamin E
Research validates a broad range of beneficial effects from using Goji Berries:

Strengthens the immune system
Increases longevity and protects from premature aging
Helps prevent cancer and aids remission
Protects the liver
Builds strong blood and promotes cardiovascular health
Supports eye health and improves vision
Maintains healthy blood pressure and blood sugar
Strengthens muscles and bones
Supports normal kidney function

Low fat, low sugar alternative to raisins for chinchillas and small pets.
Do not overdo treats! 2 - 6 a week are about right for a chinchilla."
 
I do actually give these occasionally (ie, one or two a week) since they are lower in sugar and the chins like them.....its the only fruit I give the chins....I guess it helps that I eat them all them time too (the goji berries, not the chins) :wink3:
 
I just ate a goji berry this weekend. My mom just started eating them a few weeks ago and when I was over visiting her she made me try one. It's probably the only goji berry I'll ever eat, lol :)
 
Hi,

I feed all my chins Goji Berries every week.

The Main Benefit of Goji Berries is that they Promote Complete Health


Goji berries are like a boon from God for human beings and animals. When these berries are consumed regularly, they are found to increase longevity and promote excellent health. It reduces the craving for sugar for the diabetics thereby improving their control-capacity and stabilizing the sugar levels.

Another Benefit of Goji Berries is that they can Supplement the Nutritional Value of Food

In short, the benefit of Goji berries is actively reflected in the many medical conditions where it helps to control and reverse obesity, prevent cancer, prevent age-related muscular degeneration, restores hair color, activates the immune system.
 
Goji Berries are more than half the sugar of raisins. The sugars in raisins are mostly glucose and fructose (simple carbohydrates) whereas the sugar in Goji Berries is a polysaccharide (complex carbohydrate).

Raisin - 3 raisins is 1.0842 grams of sugar
Goji Berry - 3 Goji berries is 0.1125 grams of sugar

I give each chins 1 to 2 berries every other day. I do not consider Goji Berries as a treat, but more a very valuable health supplement that is natural.


Polysaccharides are relatively complex carbohydrates. They are polymers made up of many monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic bonds. They are therefore very large, often branched, macromolecules. They tend to be amorphous, insoluble in water, and have no sweet taste. [1]

When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide, but when more than one type of monosaccharide is present they are called heteropolysaccharides.

Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin.

Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. Considering that the repeating units in the polymer backbone are often six-carbon monosaccharides, the general formula can also be represented as (C6H10O5)n where n={40...3000}.

Storage polysaccharides
Starches

Starches are glucose polymers in which glucopyranose units are bonded by alpha-linkages. It is made up of a mixture of Amylose (15-20%) and Amylopectin (80-85%). Amylose consists of a linear chain of several hundred glucose molecules and Amylopectin is a branched molecule made of several thousand glucose units(every chain 24-30 glucose unit).

Starches are insoluble in water. They can be digested by hydrolysis, catalyzed by enzymes called amylases, which can break the alpha-linkages (glycosidic bonds). Humans and other animals have amylases, so they can digest starches. Potato, rice, wheat, and maize are major sources of starch in the human diet. The formation of starches are the way that plants store glucose.

Glycogen

Glycogen is a polysaccharide that is found in animals and is composed of a branched chain of glucose residues. It is stored in liver and muscles.
 
Last edited:
It's probably the only goji berry I'll ever eat, lol :)

Yeah, Goji berries aren't for the unadventurous or those used to bland food. It is great sprinkled on cereal, although I eat these by the handful as a snack. Sometimes one has to think beyond the taste and think about the health benefits.
 
USDA certified meat in stores has fertilizers, herbicides and other chemicals in the meat. It comes from the food that is fed to the cattle. Like hay, corn and what ever the corporate and other farmers feed them. I only buy organic meat and vegetables from small organic farms locally.

As for my chins they only get natural or organic food to eat. I am working with a mill on the cost to mill Chinchilla Organic and Natural Pellets.

News to humans on China covering up with legal ways around the FDA and other government departments. This is one of many on USA food on the market. 80 percent of the honey in the stores is from China. Read the labels sometime when shopping and you will see no indications it is from China. They are doing this with many more products in the grocery store. From my studies of over 25 years on nutritional, natural and organic food and the devil food. The honey that is being sold in stores is harmful to humans over time.

As for the Goji Berries I sell and feed my chins comes from very small farmers that use organic practices is tested twice. Once in China and than in the USA for any unknown chemicals. It is tested similar to the organic standards we have place on organic food in USA. That is far more testing than most food in the grocery stores that is not organic.

I could go on and on about the food in the grocery stores and would make you sick. The FDA and the corporate farmers and along with food manufactures have been covering up for years about what is in our food. That goes for the same for food sold in pet stores. My city just started a new pet store that only sells natural and organic pet food.
 
On the news not long ago, I thought it was a new law passed that all foods have to state exactly where they come from? So how exactly is it that honey isnt labelled? I think it would help if you could cite some resources?

I personally wouldnt feed my chins any type of berry, let alone something from the nightshade family. Personal disclaimer - I did not have time to fully research these sites - they simply were some of the first to come up in a Google search about goji berries.
~Barb~

Goji berries grow on an evergreen shrub found in temperate and subtropical regions in China, Mongolia and in the Himalayas in Tibet. They are in the nightshade (Solonaceae) family
Found Here


The Chinese version of Lycium - wolfberry has undergone many environmental, climatic and toxic changes since it was taken from Tibet thousands of years ago and cultivated in China. The Chinese botanical farms both private and commercial commonly use DDT and many other toxic chemicals (over thirty five commonly found on Chinese wolfberry) and have been for over sixty years. This has made Chinese Lycium considered unusable as a medicine or as a food source. The cultivators of Lycium barbarum - wolfberry, openly admit to using 'controlled' pesticides in Ningxia (the number one Lycium barbarum growing region of China).
Found Here
 
I've noticed in the past couple months that our dollar store no longer sells honey. Its now "honey flavored syrup" so I think somebody finally wised up on the stories you mention.

Those links are just more proof to not buy anything imported from China - because they purposely lied about the use of antibiotics (Cipro/Baytril & chloramphenicol - which by the way - I've used both to treat sick pets, but I wouldnt want them in anything my daughter might be eating)

I buy my honey from 2 local bee keepers, and I dont feed it to my pets. I still wouldnt offer any type of berry to my chinchillas, I see no reason for it. But to each their own.
~Barb~
 
Back
Top