Are my girls fat ?

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Sonia

Sonia

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Both my girls weigh 2lb they are 6 months old..they do not look fat to me but i am unsure after reading girls should only be 1lb 5 :{
 
my girls are 2 1/2. Cheeky weights 1400g and Ginger 1200g. So i would say your girls are fine. Mine are probably a wee bit overweight, but every guinea pig is different x
 
Sonia said:
Both my girls weigh 2lb they are 6 months old..they do not look fat to me but i am unsure after reading girls should only be 1lb 5 :{
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I've seen quite a few places that say a guinea pig should only be 1lb 5. In my opinion I find that a very dangerous weight to inform people. If my pigs were 1.5 lbs, they'd be quite underweight. I see the weight of 1.5-2 noted for boars too. They should be around the 2lb with anywhere up to 3 lbs also completely normal and not overweight. Boars tend to be a lot more muscular, so they weigh a hell of a lot more. I had one boy that was the same size as his mother that I owned. His mother weighed 1kilo, he on the other hand was 1.4 kilos - 3lbs of pure hunky guinea pig. I've seen bigger than him too!

I've got one girl that is only about 600g, but she is most definitely an anomaly; she is very small and quite thin, it's the way she's built I think (I've only had her a few weeks now, she's approximately 3 years old).

I've never had a girl under 800g otherwise, and my adult girls, aside from Bean, are all around the 1kilo mark now. I have one 10 week old girl who is getting pretty damn big already. She's bigger than the 14 week old I have, and much more well built than she is. I'd say she's going to be a 1kilo+pig.

At 6 months old, your girls will still be growing I would have thought. You're probably going to have 1kilo+pigs. It's perfectly normal.

NOTE: This is not to say that people with 1.5lb pigs have underweight pigs. Small pigs do occur (as do abnormally HUGE pigs) and they're no less healty than bigger pigs! But in my experience, I've had over 20 guinea pigs and met quite a few more, the average for a girl is more like 850-1200g (just under 2lbs to over 2 and a half). Males anywhere from 900g to 1600g is a normal range.
 
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I agree with ghostbusterbunny. Also, those numbers are generally randomly selected to form averages and there had to have been healthy piggies that weighed more than that to give you the average :p
 
Bit concerned...

Had weekly weigh in and Cocoa is now 925 grams..she was 928 last week.

Is this ok, she does not appear unwell in any way ?
 
Its a loss over a week of 3 grams, that could just be a wee before you weighed her that sends the weight down.

It's a trend in weight loss that you look for when they are ill - so losing 30g one weigh then say 40g then 20g the next - so be aware of downward trends.

If you are concerned, do what we do when a little worried and increase the amount of weigh's per week. it's always best to weigh the same time of day each time you weigh so your keeping as much constant factors as consistent as you can.

Hope that makes sense. I wouldn't worry over a 3 gram weight loss as it is tiny.
 
Thanks so much sport billy :)

She did have a wee just before lol.

Do they not put weight on in a week though ?
 
Sonia said:
Thanks so much sport billy :)

She did have a wee just before lol.

Do they not put weight on in a week though ?
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Cookie and Treacle that we got from walsall RSPCA 3 months ago have increased each week so far, but sometimes only by 10 grams, sometimes stayed the same.
Putt (our older girlis) who we weigh everyday (for medical reasons and the fact we're neurotic over her health) will fluctuate within a 50g weight range when looking at her weights week to week.

Just keep your eye on Cocoa and check her twice a week if worried. Remember it's the trend that you look for. Our dental piggie (Pitch) constantly lost weight over 3 weighs about 30g each day so that alerted us...

Once piggies are fully grown the tend to find a weight range for Putt it's 1140-1180 and stay within that.
 
Sonia said:
Thanks so much sport billy :)

She did have a wee just before lol.

Do they not put weight on in a week though ?
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At 6 months old, they've done the majority of their growing already, the rest will be slow and really hard to notice over periods of a week :). It will have severely tapered off now and will increase very slightly from now until anywhere from 9 months to a year where they will consolidate their 'adult' weight.

My adults now hover around the same weight, apart from one who is actually still putting weight on. I suspect that it's down to eating a lot though rather than actually growing. She's the boss, so she gets to eat first, and as much as she wants! :P

0-20g fluctuations either way are passable on a weekly basis. If you notice a drop of more than that, increase your weighing frequencies to daily or every two days if you suspect something is wrong. :)
 
I weigh my girls every saturday morning when i do their BIG clean out......... their weights can vary up to 30-50 grams per week....... they tend to have a pattern of ups and downs...
If you record your girls weights and watch them you'll find they also go up and down.... if one of them has a regular up or down, i'd be chatting to your vets :) and yes it does depend on if they've had a wee or poop rolleyes

Just remember too all piggies are different, different breeds etc.. just like us hoomans!

Your girls sound like they're a lovely healthy weight :)
 
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