Last updated on February 5th, 2022
Turnips are often connected to beets and potatoes, although their most intimate associations can be with arugula and radishes.
This root vegetable produces a mild spicy taste when eaten raw, although it may vary based on how it is cooked.
Many animals survive upon it, and some like eating these as treats, while others may not digest it or prefer to ignore it.
Animals that eat turnips:
- Horses
- Sheep
- Guinea Pigs
- Rabbits
- Bearded Dragons
- Turtles
- Cattle
This is a nutritious vegetable that can be a healthy add-on to the animal’s diet, for it contains vitamins and other nutrients that are essential for their health.
Animals, just like humans, also have a preference for food they choose to eat and design their diets accordingly.
It might seem strange, but animal taste palettes are real and intensive research has been carried out over the same matter.
Here we bring you several animals that can be fed turnips and love to have turnips once or maybe always!
Here are 7 animals that eat turnips.
1. Horses
Horses predominantly feed on grass and haylage or hay.
Sometimes, this domesticated animal’s owner feeds them corns and oats, although their favorites are vegetables and fruits like carrots and apples.
Turnip can make its entry in one of the healthiest vegetables’ lists, so it can be added to your horse’s diet with other vegetables like sweet potatoes, squash, lettuce, and celery.
Horses are associated with the Equidae, the taxonomic family of zebras, donkeys, and several other species only known from fossils.
Eohippus, a little multi-toed creature, has evolved into a huge multi-toed animal.
They are particularly habituated to run, and their fight-or-flight response is powerful, and they have a magnificent sense of balance.
2. Sheep
They mostly feed on grass or weeds, and in the absence of such food, they survive on silage and hay.
Sheep can also obtain great nutrition from turnips; other vegetables like carrots and lettuce can also be eaten.
Sheep are usually used as livestock; these quadrupedal mammals are probably descendants of Eurasia’s wild mouflon.
Domestic sheep are its most common species that number a bit over a billion.
Ovine meat from the younger ones is known as lamb, whereas it’s referred to as mutton from the older ones. Sheep farming is a common practice across the inhabited world.
Domestic sheep are comparatively small ruminants and have some distinct characteristics compared to their ancestors or wild counterparts.
The horns may be only exclusive to the male breed, sometimes both and sometimes none, based on their distinct variety.
3. Guinea Pigs
Guinea pigs are also referred to as cavies and are associated with the genus Cavia in the cavy family, Cavildae.
The origin of this rodent’s name is obscure, although neither are they indigenous to Guinea nor biologically intimately connected with pigs.
They were initially kept as livestock for their meat, and even today, they’re seen as such in a few parts of the world.
They primarily feed on grass and their molar teeth are well designed for grinding plant matter.
They can be fed timothy hay daily if it’s fresh; it will help aid digestion and restrain their teeth growth.
Grass or hay must consist of at least 80 percent of their diet; they can also have fruits like watermelon, grapes, and kiwis. You can also offer them fresh vegetables like carrots, peas, kale, as well as turnips.
4. Rabbits
These little mammals belong to the Leporidae family; rabbits were once referred to as rodents but have been parted because they have numerous attributes that rodents lack, such as two additional incisors.
The main part of their diet includes grass and/or hay; the digestive system of a rabbit needs these types of food to function properly.
Root vegetables and fruits are not naturally consumed by rabbits since carrots and turnips can be considered an occasional treat in little amounts rather than an integral part of their diet.
Rabbits are prey animals, so they are constantly conscious about their surroundings since their eyes can capture a wider field of view.
They are the major prey of Iberian lynxes, badgers, and red foxes.
5. Bearded Dragons
Bearded dragons can have several vegetables, fruits, and plants that are also healthy, but some that they like to eat are seedless watermelon, bell peppers, mustard greens, collard greens, and squash.
They can have turnip’s white-purplish roots, but it should be well chopped up and the same goes for its leaves.
Pogona, a reptile genus, consists of 6 species, and are commonly named bearded dragons. Usually, dry places like deserts are their place of origin in Australia.
Their main traits include their flattened bodies with spiny scale clusters and rows that cover their body completely and their triangular and broadheads.
The males can reach 24 inches, while their female equivalent can go up to 20 inches.
6. Turtles
Turtles are a reptile order called Testudines, recognized by their shell that’s majorly made up of bone and developed mostly from their ribs.
Most of its species are omnivorous; the aquatic species are more commonly carnivores, whereas the land-dwelling ones are usually herbivores.
They commonly lack agility with speed, so they predominantly feed either on plant matter or sedentary animals such as insect larvae, worms, and mollusks.
Although few of its species like the snapping turtles and African helmeted turtles include fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in their diet, which they may scavenge.
Turtles can have vegetables like turnip greens, broccoli, mustard greens, alfalfa hay, green cabbage, and green beans.
7. Cattle
Cattle are huge domesticated cloven-hooved herbivorous animals that are the most common species of the Bos genus.
Full-grown males are called bulls, whereas females are called cows in taxonomy, although the cow symbolizes the entire species in the colloquial speech.
They are usually raised as livestock for their milk, hide or skin, and meat.
Even cow-dung is used to increase the fertility of the soil.
These ruminants have a single stomach with four compartments; the rumen’s largest, whereas the smallest one, is known as ‘honeycomb’ or reticulum.
They mainly feed on grass and hay, although they can have grains, fruits, and vegetables like carrots, and turnips.
These creatures are popular for re-chewing and regurgitating their food.
Conclusion
The animals that eat turnips are horses, sheep, guinea pigs, rabbits, bearded dragons, turtles, and cattle. Additionally, turnips are acceptable vegetables that should represent a high percentage in a bearded dragon’s and turtle’s diet.