gloec
Junior Guinea Pig
Dear all,
Almost 3 weeks ago I brought Toula home from a pet shop because unfortunately in Greece there are not any breeders or rescues.
When I got her she weighted something like 204 grams and her age according to the seller in the pet shop was 4 weeks old.
I bought hay and dry food and in the beginning she was quite miserable with her food but I believe that this was due to the fact that she had not adopted yet to her new environment.
After a couple of days and when she started to familiarize with her new environment she started to gain some weight.
Her weight chart is the following:
[TABLE="width: 197"]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]24-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]204[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]25-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]196[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]27-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]202[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]29-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]210[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]31-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]227[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]238[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]242[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]4-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]254[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]5-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]260[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]6-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]270[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]274[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
It appears that some days she gains only a few grams but other days more than 10grams in a day.
Since I want the best for Toula, I ordered Oxbow's Western Timothy Hay and Cavy Performance Young Guinea Pig food from Amazon.
She likes the Hay a lot and I think she prefers it from the other hay but she does not touch the dry food. Currently I am in the switch stage meaning that I mix the old food with the new in order to get used to the new one. At least this is something I always do with my canaries when I switch foods and I thought that it would be a good practice too with Toula.
What I see now is that she only selects the old food but she leaves the new..
Also following Wiebke's advice in another thread I tried to introduce to her some fresh vegetables mostly for her Vitamin C needs. I tried pepper (yellow and green) and parsley but when she comes close to them she immediately turns her head away... I tried to hand feed her or even to eat some myself and show her how to do it but unfortunately with no luck...
After a 5 days of continuous efforts I gave up because I do not want to push her too much and have the opposite results at the end.
Anyway I am wondering if her weight is much too low for her age and what else I could do in order to help her gain some weight.
Any kind of advice will be much appreciable!
Thank you,
Nikos
Athens, Greece
Almost 3 weeks ago I brought Toula home from a pet shop because unfortunately in Greece there are not any breeders or rescues.
When I got her she weighted something like 204 grams and her age according to the seller in the pet shop was 4 weeks old.
I bought hay and dry food and in the beginning she was quite miserable with her food but I believe that this was due to the fact that she had not adopted yet to her new environment.
After a couple of days and when she started to familiarize with her new environment she started to gain some weight.
Her weight chart is the following:
[TABLE="width: 197"]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]24-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]204[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]25-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]196[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]27-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]202[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]29-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]210[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]31-8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]227[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]238[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]242[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]4-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]254[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]5-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]260[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]6-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]270[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7-9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]274[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
It appears that some days she gains only a few grams but other days more than 10grams in a day.
Since I want the best for Toula, I ordered Oxbow's Western Timothy Hay and Cavy Performance Young Guinea Pig food from Amazon.
She likes the Hay a lot and I think she prefers it from the other hay but she does not touch the dry food. Currently I am in the switch stage meaning that I mix the old food with the new in order to get used to the new one. At least this is something I always do with my canaries when I switch foods and I thought that it would be a good practice too with Toula.
What I see now is that she only selects the old food but she leaves the new..
Also following Wiebke's advice in another thread I tried to introduce to her some fresh vegetables mostly for her Vitamin C needs. I tried pepper (yellow and green) and parsley but when she comes close to them she immediately turns her head away... I tried to hand feed her or even to eat some myself and show her how to do it but unfortunately with no luck...
After a 5 days of continuous efforts I gave up because I do not want to push her too much and have the opposite results at the end.
Anyway I am wondering if her weight is much too low for her age and what else I could do in order to help her gain some weight.
Any kind of advice will be much appreciable!
Thank you,
Nikos
Athens, Greece