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Confused By Gas

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CarnivalPiggy

CarnivalPiggy

Adult Guinea Pig
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A few days ago, I had Ginny taken to the vets as he seemed poorly with could be bloat or gas or something else. By the time I got there, vet found nothing wrong. Whoever, over the past three days or so, Ginny has been feeling a bit gassy. I'm not sure if I'm imagining it. It seems to show up more at night, only a bit. However, I have been slowly introducing him back to veg. I'm not sure what could be causing this.

His weight seems ok, weighed him at 10:11pm ish and had 960g I think. As he's an old pig and has slimmed down quite a bit, could it be just the fat showing/feeling more on his slimmer body? I'm about to feed him his veg now. As I've been slowly introducing it since the vet visit, it's now up to 2-3 slices of bell pepper, a leaf of romaine lettuce and a bit of coriander. Sound ok?
 
Poor guy, it makes you feel like such a bad guy doesn't it when they get less veg. But it's for their own good. I had a pig who had bladder issues and was prone to bloat so his lunch was so pathetic compared to the others.

If he's still active and happy try not to worry.
 
I would not worry.If you can, cut out grain-based pellets and switch to grain-free ones. That often seems to help with older piggies with mild digestive issues.

My Ffraid was suffering from off and on mild bloating issues in the last couple of years of her life after she suffered partial a gut stasis and temporary back leg paralysis.

She got a lot less veg than the others, but she still lived happily until she was 7 years old.
 
Thanks for the advice Jaycey and Wiebke :)

What are some good grain-free brands? I've been feeding the girls and Ginny Burgess Excel Mint (though not for a few days with the bloat/has problem and worrying it would make it worse). Ginny's been on Burgess his whole life after he moved off muesli years ago and the girls are still growing so I wonder if it would be good for their development?

Also, I'm a bit worried with the lack of veg. Could it make him develop health problems from lack of vitamin c etc? Minja, rest in peace, had something slightly close to paralysis (swaying over, couldn't stand up properly until vet injected and prescribed meds), I wonder if it was from the lack of enough veg looking back on it.
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
Thanks for the advice Jaycey and Wiebke :)

What are some good grain-free brands? I've been feeding the girls and Ginny Burgess Excel Mint (though not for a few days with the bloat/has problem and worrying it would make it worse). Ginny's been on Burgess his whole life after he moved off muesli years ago and the girls are still growing so I wonder if it would be good for their development?

Also, I'm a bit worried with the lack of veg. Could it make him develop health problems from lack of vitamin c etc? Minja, rest in peace, had something slightly close to paralysis (swaying over, couldn't stand up properly until vet injected and prescribed meds), I wonder if it was from the lack of enough veg looking back on it.
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Please don't worry:
a) the pellets are reinforced with vitamin C
b) you can feed some fresh herb sprigs every day; change what you feed to cover a range of other trace elements; they are pretty high in vitamin C but you don'y need to feed a lot. I did that with Ffraid; and she never showed any signs of scurvy in two years. You can also try to put a small slice of pepper on the diet daily.
c) you can syringe some dissolved vitamin C if you wish - but not a full tablet if you feed pellets and some vitamin C rich herbs.

You may find a better selection when you look for low grain/high fibre, timothy based dry foods. Bunny pellets are usually not a hit with piggies! Guniea Pig Food | Great bargain prices at zooplus
@Flutterby may be able to help you with recommendations. She is currently working on a pellet guide.
 
There are 3 decent foods that are available in the UK via Zooplus which are all grainless, have good protein levels and are high in fiber.

JR Farm Grainless, Versele Laga Cavia Complete and Bunny GuineaPig Basic. Any of these would be a good switch, but piggies have been known to take a while to get used to these nuggets. I have only personally tried the Versele Laga and my pigs were not interested in it.
 
Thanks. I think I'll try them on JR Farm Grainless JR Farm Grainless Complete Guinea Pig | Free P&P £29+ at zooplus!

However I'm looking at threads on sites such as GuineaLynx and they're saying the ingredients aren't good? This was from 2011, but I've no idea how much the ingredients have changed.

From the site: JR Grainless Complete Guinea Pigs-10112
Ingredients:
timothy grass, cocksfoot, smooth stalk meadow grass, ribwort, red clover, meadow fescue, ladies mantel, parsley 5.6%, pea flakes, horse bean flakes, carrots, parsnips, linseed, black cumin seed, peppermint, nettle, melissa, beetroots, apple, fennel seed, dandelion, chamomile

Additives:
nutritional additives: vitamin A (as retinyl acetate) 3575 UI, vitamin C (as ascorbyl monophosphate) 178.75 mg, vitamin D3 (as cholecalciferol) 247.5 UI, vitamin E (as RRR-alpha-tocopheryl acetate) 22mg

Analytical constituents:
protein 11.1%, fat content 3.3%, crude fibre 23.0%, crude ash 8.8%
 
Also would it be advisable to give watermelon? He hasn't had it for quite a while but got one today and planning to give some to the girls, feel a bit mean leaving him out
 
As far as grain free goes I find the Jr farm to be the most accepted one. My youngsters are now 12 and 18 months and are now on Jr farm and bunny. They do eat both but prefer Jr farm x
 
Thanks Wiebke and Adelle :) I'll order the pellet food tomorrow, hopefully they end up liking it
I've seen they're quite big compared to Burgess Excel pellets though, how much is advised to feed?
 
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