Do Teddies Tend To Be Heavier

piggieminder

piggieminder

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Brillo is a very chunky boar, much heavier (1.35 killos) than any of the others, when I pick him up he's really solid. I wonder if this is a trait of the breed as he doesn't seem to eat more than the others and he is just as active.

Some photos taken at floor time today.
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I’d say it’s more likely to be mostly genetic rather than breed. My smooth coated (although has some kind of long coat in him as he has a strip of long hair which comes off his back, down his bum and quite often trails on the floor - it’s the only part of his coat that is long, it is short everywhere else!), he is a chunky 1.3kg
 
Rusty's coat is like that @Piggies&buns, I keep his train trimmed or it picks up debris as he walks around, he was 1.3 in his prime. Since he's been ill he's gone down to just over a kilo.
 
I agree with others in that it is genetics rather than breed that determine a pig's weight.

I have two cousin teddies -- one is hovering around 1.15kg (but was 1.3kg in his prime, he's coming up on 5 years old), and the other is 900g. The heavier is as you describe, very dense. The lighter teddy has always been smaller, and since he was very poorly a couple of years ago (when he went down to 700g!) he hasn't managed to put the weight back on as much as I would like and has a very skinny face and shoulders but massive hips!

If you are worried your piggy might be a little too portly, I find the leaflet available here helpful to gauge how healthy my pigs are regardless of weight (the picture below is part of the leaflet).

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Thanks @Danielle Smith that's a really helpful chart.
I'm not worried as such that he's overweight. I was more interested in his solidity and wide shape, very rounded at the back end. I have seen photos of other teddies looking like this and wondered if it's the breed, he's so different to any other piggy I've had. Although Rusty was heavier than the others he was longer and bigger framed with a bigger head, he looked more like I remember guinea pigs when I was a child. Hopefully Rusty is on the mend now and will soon be back to his former self.
 
Teddies have a very compact body and can have a very round bum...
My Nerys (who was never pregnant in her 8 years of life but was born with a twisted thigh bone and never did more than amble through life) is perhaps the best example of a curvy teddy figure at the extreme. Her very energetic sister Nia was a lot smaller and never had the kind bum as Nerys who would never let a calorie get away should could get hold of!
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We recommend feeling around the ribcage as a useful indicator of over or underweight with piggies because the overall body shape can be misleading, especially with more inexperienced piggy owners. To which degree you can feel the ribs is a good indicator of how your piggy is doing irrespective of breeds specific body shape, age, size or weight. It's basically a quick and easy BMI calculator. ;)
Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
My lovely boy Heath is a teddy. He is enormous..like a great big cuddly real life teddy bear. He weighed 1.80 kg last time I checked! He eats for England and when he popcorns the the bottom of the cage shakes. I do sometimes wonder if he is related to a cuy (sp?) as he can be very grumpy too. But he is a very happy boy with his girls.
 
Guinea Slave said:
My lovely boy Heath is a teddy. He is enormous..like a great big cuddly real life teddy bear. He weighed 1.80 kg last time I checked! He eats for England and when he popcorns the the bottom of the cage shakes. I do sometimes wonder if he is related to a cuy (sp?) as he can be very grumpy too. But he is a very happy boy with his girls.
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Teddies are notorious for being grumpy. I've had a few of them over the years. But most have been in the average size range. Nerys' energetic litter sister Nia never went over 1 kg but it was her who ran the Tribe as first lady for several years, not Nerys!
 
Wiebke said:
Teddies are notorious for being grumpy. I've had a few of them over the years. But most have been in the average size range. Nerys' energetic litter sister Nia never went over 1 kg but it was her who ran the Tribe as first lady for several years, not Nerys!
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Hi Wiebke, that’s really interesting to know. He is a real character, very happy in himself and will lay over on his side on you for proper cuddles...but boy if he is not in the mood do you know it. I have many tops which have Guinea bite holes in and a few little bites which have drawn blood. But I adore him and just need to know what frame of mind he is in that day. He was adopted from a rescue..sadly his brother was killed by a fox...but I suspect the fox would have run off when faced with him!
 
Yes I have two half brothers - not teddies, same dad different mums apparently. They are vastly different in size, one is 950-1,000kg the other 1,300kg. I assume it’s all down to genetics, I don’t mind them to be a bit chunky as we’ve had illness before where one has lost weight and it’s taking months to slowly regain it.
 
I have a teddy, Jemimah, whose normal weight is around 1300g.
She’s a lovely chunky girl and not overweight.

She’s been placid and easy going all her life, although she’s getting a bit more grumpy now as she approaches 5
 
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