Biodegradable primary batteries, also known as transient batteries, are essential to realize autonomous biodegradable electronic devices with high performance and advanced functionality. In this work, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc – metals that exist as trace elements in the human body – were tested as materials for biomedical transient electronic devices. Different full cell combinations of Mg and X (where X = Cu, Fe, and Zn and the anodized form of the metals) with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) as electrolyte were studied. To form the cathodes, metal foils were anodized galvanostatically at a current density of 2.0 mA cm−2 for 30 mins. Electrochemical measurements were then conducted for each electrode combination to evaluate full cell battery performance. Results showed that the Mg−Cuanodized chemistry has the highest power density at 0.99 mW/cm2. Nominal operating voltages of 1.26 V for the first 0.50 h and 0.63 V for the next 3.7 h were observed for Mg−Cuanodized which was discharged at a current density of 0.70 mA cm−2. Among the materials tested, Mg−Cuanodized exhibited the best discharge performance with an average specific capacity of 2.94 mAh cm−2, which is comparable to previous reports on transient batteries.