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fat guinea pig - suggestions on a diet?

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piggypoos

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hi,
i am getting really worried about my guinea pig scruffy, he has always been a little bigger than the other two but over the last few moths i have realised he is actually getting really fat. he may just be a natually chunky pig but hes got a double chin and rolls of fat behind his legs now :{
i dont think he eats more than the other two - pepper eats a lot but he is also very active so i guess he burns a lot off.
- brandi eats equally as much but i think he must have been the runt of the litter or something (they are brothers) because he has always been absolutely tiny. but he is like a hyperactive piggy lol so he burns off anything he eats.
but scruffy on the other had has always been the lazy piggy and never really does anything other than sleep and eat... oh and he is OBSESSED with eating the hutch... he has made a hole beg enough to fit my finger through rolleyes silly pig..
they get fresh veggies every morning, they always have hay and fresh water. as for dry food - they are on mr johnsons supreme guinea pig. i hate it but they love it as they had it before i got them and i tried them on the excel nuggets but they refused to eat them. following some advice given i cut back on the amount of food they get but it could be this thats making him fat as they selective feed. I'm going to try them on the nuggets again when i have more time to do it properly. oh and they get let out for run time most days for a few hours and i try to make it interesting with tunnels etc but he will come out and have a run around with brandi for a few minutes, have a little popcorn and then he will go back to the hatch for a nap.
so can annyone suggest a diet for scruffy and ways to help him be more active and lose weight? I'm really worried that this will cause problems for him in the future. :{ thanks
 
Hi I think there is a need for him to lessen his food. He also needs to be more active and lose weight.
 
How quickly has he gained weight? What is he gaining as a weekly average? Yoshi gained a lot of weight rapidly and it turned out that he had an underactive thyroid.
 
hi thanks
scruffy has just turned 1 years old
unfortunately i didnt know that you were suposed to weigh them until recently but i dont think it was sudden ive only noticed a gradual change in his wieght.
i need to get new batteries for the scales but i will wiegh him later today/tomorrow and i will difinetely tell you asap.
wishforme - i have already lessened the amount of food they get - the 3 of them now only get 1 handfulls of food in the morning and 2 in the evening whereas they much more before that. i dont think its fair to reduce it more because the other two would be starving!
i just need some tips on how to get him to be more active and a possible diet for him or something
thanks
 
Hello,
My piggie Chester is huge ! double chin etc. Where as his cage mate Bentley is lovely and thin, well the right size anyways.

Have you tried making them work for there food a little more ?
I've done things like put hay up high in toilet roll tubes that i hang across the cage, that way they have to move around and work harder for there food. Also putting there nuggets, or there dry food in little toilet roll treat dispensers that they have to knock around to get it out.
Kebabs for veggies are great too especially when they swing around, makes the piggies take alot longer to eat which is good as it's a boredom breaker too.

Also if you have an upper level, all though it's not much, making them run up a ramp is good exercise, and if theres food at the top, the piggies don't seem to mind either !

And of course it depends on what food they're getting, aswell as nuggets, you can look at what veggies your feeding them, as i think some can be a little more fattening than others.
 
If the weight gain has been rapid and sudden, then I would definitely get it checked out by a cavy savvy vet.

Cutting out the dry food and feeding lots of hay, grasses and veg will help. Also much better for the teeth.
 
twiams said:
Hello,
My piggie Chester is huge ! double chin etc. Where as his cage mate Bentley is lovely and thin, well the right size anyways.

Have you tried making them work for there food a little more ?
I've done things like put hay up high in toilet roll tubes that i hang across the cage, that way they have to move around and work harder for there food. Also putting there nuggets, or there dry food in little toilet roll treat dispensers that they have to knock around to get it out.
Kebabs for veggies are great too especially when they swing around, makes the piggies take alot longer to eat which is good as it's a boredom breaker too.

Also if you have an upper level, all though it's not much, making them run up a ramp is good exercise, and if theres food at the top, the piggies don't seem to mind either !

And of course it depends on what food they're getting, aswell as nuggets, you can look at what veggies your feeding them, as i think some can be a little more fattening than others.
Click to expand...
Good idea making them work for their food, especially putting food on another level. I put bloss on a diet, and started weighing food to make sure she wasn't eating too much.
 
yes there is an upper level which is where scruffy and brandi usually spend time there (pepper is not allowed up according to boss pig brandi rolleyes )
they have food hay and water up there too. they usually come down for their morning veggies and food and then they realise there is more food upstairs and go back up
but brandi zooms down the ramp and jumps halfway but scruffy prefers to sort of slide down....
oh and because i get allergies to hay, in the hutch they have meadow hay cookies which are really good boredom breakers aswell as they have to work hard to pull out the hay and they enjoy dragging it around. they do get loose hay in the run though.
i will tell you how much they all way soon
what is the average for a one year old male pig?
thanks for all the replies
 
some of the veggies i usually give are:
kale, romaine lettuce, spinach, water cress, rocket, parsely, pak choi, carrots, green pepper, red pepper, cucumber, brocolli, celery, occasionally some apple
very ocassionally plum
is this ok?
 
My vet friend was concerned that one of my piggies was a little rotund, she told me to keep up the hay and fresh grass but really cut down the pellets / nuggets. He now has less than 2 table spoons spread out over a day. The veggies seem OK to me, I feed mine a level saucer full twice a day. However, my pigs live separately so it is easy to monitor the food. Good luck.
 
piggypoos said:
some of the veggies i usually give are:
kale, romaine lettuce, spinach, water cress, rocket, parsely, pak choi, carrots, green pepper, red pepper, cucumber, brocolli, celery, occasionally some apple
very ocassionally plum
is this ok?
Click to expand...

Feed plenty of veg, but little or no dry food. My piggies only get dry food on alternate days and in very small quantities. However, I fill their cages with hay each night and by morning most of it has gone.
 
ok i could try giving them food on alternate days but not sure how pleased they would be about that :))
i just went out and as soon as i opened the door of the shed they started wheeking like mad, biting the bars and standing on their hind legs and then as soon as i gave them their food they started popcorning even though they had plenty of hay,they love their food :p
dont think they would be too impressed lol...
 
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