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Diet tips for very chubby new piggies

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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We brought home 2 new lady piggies tonight from a very loving previous owner but they both weigh around 1.2kg and they waddle when they walk and their tummies drag on the floor and are stained with wee and they have both been living in an 80cm cage full of carrots and high calorie high calcium pellets for 2 years, being fed pretty much on demand.
Apart from switch them to 1 teaspoonful of timothy hay pellets and carefully measured coriander rations and 1 slice of red pepper each per day, and giving them plenty of space to exercise and a vet check, is there anything else I can do to help them?
I was actually a bit shocked when I first met them that guinea pigs even came in such a plus-plus-plus-size, this isnt just heft or being a bit chunky, its rolls and ripples and chubby overflow tummies when you pick them up!
 
Oh my goodness, poor ladies!
One piece of information you left out is regarding hay. They should have access to this at all times and fresh water of course. The exercise is important too. 1.2Kg isn’t too bad a weight, but every piggy is different.
The vet check is absolutely the right thing to do, they will need to rule out heart disease and diabetes and probably a number of other health conditions. Can you upload a picture of them?
 
Two of my piggies weigh in at 1.2kg (rescue piggies) but are happy and healthy. I have cut down on pellets and avoid giving them fruit but they haven't slimmed down at all. If their weight is not affecting their health I'm not worrying about it. They are called Mavis and Peggy but my OH (jokingly) DSC03055.webpcalls them Sharon and Tracy.
 
Oh of course the will get unlimited hay. But definitely no carrots, they were 2 whole carrots and a full bowl of pellets in their 80cm cage when we picked them up! I decliined the kind offer of the free 80cm cage and they have a 120cm temporary cage until they meet the other piggies and move into the new C&C I bought. I already posted pics under "tempted by new piggies"under guinea pig chat but I dont think the pics truly represent the sheer scale of these piggy chubsters- they were flattering cuddle time pics I took to send to the previous owner to assure him his piggies were ok. He loved them so much... maybe too much with the carrots!
 
PigglePuggle said:
We brought home 2 new lady piggies tonight from a very loving previous owner but they both weigh around 1.2kg and they waddle when they walk and their tummies drag on the floor and are stained with wee and they have both been living in an 80cm cage full of carrots and high calorie high calcium pellets for 2 years, being fed pretty much on demand.
Apart from switch them to 1 teaspoonful of timothy hay pellets and carefully measured coriander rations and 1 slice of red pepper each per day, and giving them plenty of space to exercise and a vet check, is there anything else I can do to help them?
I was actually a bit shocked when I first met them that guinea pigs even came in such a plus-plus-plus-size, this isnt just heft or being a bit chunky, its rolls and ripples and chubby overflow tummies when you pick them up!
Click to expand...

Poor piggies! It takes total lack of space and persistent overfeeding with too much fattening veg, pellets and treats to make piggies obese because their fast metabolism usually prevents it.

I would not feed any pellets or at least not more than tablespoon per piggy per day and very little veg (no fattening root veg and sweet corn).

Encourage them to walk to you across a space to for their veg or single pellets with you moving around to get them to exercise as much as possible. Sprinkle feed for the same reason, so they have to work for their food. Make sure that they have just hay to eat in the meantime, so they eat as much as of that as possible.

Have a read through these guides here for more tips:
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
YvonneBlue said:
Two of my piggies weigh in at 1.2kg (rescue piggies) but are happy and healthy. I have cut down on pellets and avoid giving them fruit but they haven't slimmed down at all. If their weight is not affecting their health I'm not worrying about it. They are called Mavis and Peggy but my OH (jokingly) View attachment 91779calls them Sharon and Tracy.
Click to expand...
Its the wee stained tummy and feet barely touching the floor and cant reach to lick their own bum that bothers me rather than what the scales say, especially as one is long haired...
 
PigglePuggle said:
Its the wee stained tummy and feet barely touching the floor and cant reach to lick their own bum that bothers me rather than what the scales say, especially as one is long haired...
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Thankfully my two are very clean, dash around their 4x2 c&c cage and love floor time next door to the skinnys, the extra weight doesn't seem to slow them down. I guess, like us, every piggy is different and they have different body shapes and sizes.
 
Wiebke said:
Poor piggies! It takes total lack of space and persistent overfeeding with too much fattening veg, pellets and treats to make piggies obese because their fast metabolism usually prevents it.

I would not feed any pellets or at least not more than tablespoon per piggy per day and very little veg (no fattening root veg and sweet corn).

Encourage them to walk to you across a space to for their veg or single pellets with you moving around to get them to exercise as much as possible. Sprinkle feed for the same reason, so they have to work for their food. Make sure that they have just hay to eat in the meantime, so they eat as much as of that as possible.

Have a read through this guide here for more tips: The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
Click to expand...
Thanks! I saw the size of the piggies and didnt even ask the previous owner for any of their old pellets because I didnt really want to know... he seemed such a nice man but he was guilt feeding the puggies in an 80cm cage every time he didnt have time to let them out to play. 2.5kg of piggies and unlimited pellets and carrots in an 80cm cage for 2 years... we will be doing piggy boot camp here for a few weeks!
YvonneBlue said:
Thankfully my two are very clean, dash around their 4x2 c&c cage and love floor time next door to the skinnys, the extra weight doesn't seem to slow them down. I guess, like us, every piggy is different and they have different body shapes and sizes.
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Yes our biggest original piggy Lady Piggle is heavy... but she's muscular and slim and runs and jumps and popcorns all the time. I asked the previous owner of the chubsters if his piggies had playtime and he said they did but they just sat there until he gave them a snack... probably because their little feet hardly touch the floor! I remember my late Nana did the same with a minature daschund dog, fed it so much its feet didnt touch the floor then said it didnt like going for walks...
 
I will! To be perfectly honest when I saw how fat they were I didnt really want to bring them home... but the owner was already saying how happy he was we would take them and love them and there was already a giant podgy floofball in my arms so I couldnt really do much except smile and bring them home!
 
Here are Jezebel and Clover learning about exercise, their breakfast of exactly 8 grain free timothy hay pellets and 1 slice of cucumber chopped into quarters each (plus hay of course) is scattered about in a 4ft square playpen :)
 

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My goodness they are podgy! Poor things! Their old owner was literally killing them with his perceived idea of kindness!
 
PigglePuggle said:
Here are Jezebel and Clover learning about exercise, their breakfast of exactly 8 grain free timothy hay pellets and 1 slice of cucumber chopped into quarters each (plus hay of course) is scattered about in a 4ft square playpen :)
Click to expand...

All the best! At this degree of obesity, it is going to take quite a long time to get them down, but they are in good hands with you.
 
Poor (yet cute) piggies. My late Erika came to me weighing a whooping 1500g and Emma 1300g after their previous owner over fed them on redigrass. I managed to get Erikas weight down to 1400g and Emma 1200g but they were a always big piggies.

My Ellen weighs between 1150g and 1200g but she is lean and healthy
 
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Jezebel made some very vocal protests at dinner time, I served them a big dish of burgess excel hay with 16 grain free timothy hay pellets, 4 very small slices of red pepper, and 4 stems of coriander mixed in with it.
I think she was wheeking "Yo hoomans! What's this crap? I ordered a deep fried alfalfa burger with a side order of muesli and extra carrots!"
Now she's vandalising the woven grass furniture but at least that's low calorie :) and if she's very good she might get a lettuce leaf at bedtime... they are still not really believing that hay is a food!
 
I would trim the long haired one. One because it'll help stop the trailing made worse by the chubbiness and also feeling lighter might put her in the mood to do her own forms of exercise.

They are very cuddly looking though. I bet they're lovely pigs for cuddle sessions. The bigger slightly chubby piggies always make the best cuddlers for some reason.
 
I'm not sure if her previous owner has tried to trim her because she's very uneven in length, some is probably just rosettes but there are some 4 or 5 inch long hairs in a crest on her back and bum and a few much shorter thicker patches. But my experience of floofy piggies is absolutely zero and she's such a funny looking thing its hard to tell!
Once I shampoo the crusty chubby undercarriage I'll have a proper look at things :)
 
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