Guinea Pig Being Picky Today

Pohtaytur

Pohtaytur

Junior Guinea Pig
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Henry was being weird today, she ate some of her pellets but stopped eating them after that and didn't finish her peppers today. She was hiding most of the time and I saw a bit of puffing when she ate her peppers, though she's normally a hider and she does puff up when eating peppers. She's eating her hay, and she was willing to eat some celery when I offered it to her, but refused after a bit. Maybe it's the weather since it's been kind of rainy now? I also wonder if giving her a bit of strawberry yesterday made her picky. Planning to keep an eye on her, and maybe take her to the vet if it's not a one-off thing.
 
I hope it's nothing and she just didn't feel like having peppers. My Eppu had a phase when he would only have green pepper, and leave every other colour. Just check if she's a bit bloated or has something stuck in her teeth just to be extra safe. Good luck and please do tell how she's doing tomorrow!
 
Hopefully this isn’t anything.

The advice, if you become concerned is to switch to daily weight checks so you can monitor hay intake more closely.
Often what happens if a piggy is becoming unwell is the hay intake drops and often before you start seeing them being picky with their veg due to an illness.
 
So it's morning, and she was willing to take two pellets that I offered her as a test and she took them just fine. She's been behaving as usual and also eating her morning veg. She always has been a skittish pig so it might be because we've had a visitor come more often this week. They usually only come once a week, but maybe twice this week was a bit much for her. Will see how she does when it's actual feeding time, but willing to take her pellets and eat them was a good sign.
 
Or not, she's just in the back hiding now. She was eating just fine earlier too. She's lifting her butt a little bit on occasion. There's a skunk smell now coming from the yard, so maybe it's scaring her?
 

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The only way you can tell a piggy is eating enough is through the routine weight checks, switching to daily weight checks when you have concerns.
Watching them eat veg or pellets is not enough as jointly it doesn’t make enough of the diet. Hay is the main food intake and it is that which you need to monitor (through the weight checks - you can’t tell by watching them eat hay).

I would switch to daily weight checks, syringe feed if needed due to weight loss and see a vet if she is losing weight
 
Piggies&buns said:
The only way you can tell a piggy is eating enough is through the routine weight checks, switching to daily weight checks when you have concerns.
Watching them eat veg or pellets is not enough as jointly it doesn’t make enough of the diet. Hay is the main food intake and it is that which you need to monitor (through the weight checks - you can’t tell by watching them eat hay).

I would switch to daily weight checks, syringe feed if needed due to weight loss and see a vet if she is losing weight
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She's been eating everything else just fine and her weight is normal. She's just been having an issue with her pellets just yesterday. I'll weigh her in the morning tomorrow.
 
Pohtaytur said:
She's been eating everything else just fine and her weight is normal. She's just been having an issue with her pellets just yesterday.
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Did you weigh her yesterday and today to be sure she is getting enough hay?
I would continue to weigh daily for a week or two to be sure.

Pellets are an insignificant proportion of the diet so not eating them (as long as there aren’t issues elsewhere - and this is the essential bit) is not a problem.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Did you weigh her yesterday and today to be sure she is getting enough hay?
I would continue to weigh daily for a week or two to be sure.

Pellets are an insignificant proportion of the diet so not eating them (as long as there aren’t issues elsewhere - and this is the essential bit) is not a problem.
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I didn't weigh her yesterday since it started in the evening. I weighed her the day before and her weight was normal. I didn't think much of it since she was eating everything else so I didn't weigh her today.
 
Ok, nope, there's something off. She just now had two weird looking poops which look more wet than normal, but all her other poops looked good and normal so I didn't notice. She's still eating her hay though. I contacted the vet so I'll be taking her in ASAP.
 

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Definitely a good idea to check with a vet.

You will need to weigh her daily for a while
- a piggy can still be eating hay but it doesn’t mean they are eating enough, hay intake cannot be judged by eye.
If she is having soft poops, then you need to remove veg from the diet until poops normalise
 
Piggies&buns said:
Definitely a good idea to check with a vet.

You will need to weigh her daily for a while
- a piggy can still be eating hay but it doesn’t mean they are eating enough, hay intake cannot be judged by eye.
If she is having soft poops, then you need to remove veg from the diet until poops normalise
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Thanks for the tips. I also looked around and saw someone mention that it might be a gut imbalance, and that they use cardboard to normalize it. I didn't think of it until now because she usually likes to eat cardboard, but she's been chewing it more than usual lately. Had no idea that was a part of it until I saw one of the other posts on this forum mention it.

Debating on using critical care, but I'm not sure if this is the right situation to use it.
 
Pohtaytur said:
Thanks for the tips. I also looked around and saw someone mention that it might be a gut imbalance, and that they use cardboard to normalize it. I didn't think of it until now because she usually likes to eat cardboard, but she's been chewing it more than usual lately. Had no idea that was a part of it until I saw one of the other posts on this forum mention it.

Debating on using critical care, but I'm not sure if this is the right situation to use it.
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Soft poops can indicate a gut imbalance. A probiotic or poop soup is needed if there is an issue with that - to help stabilize the gut microbiome

Critical care is needed if her hay intake has dropped - again, this is where the daily weight checks are needed!

Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
 
Got an appointment on Tuesday to bring her in. Been trying to feed her critical care, but she's so squirmy since she doesn't like being touched that my clothes have taken more of the mix than she has. She at least ate some of the mix that was smeared all over her face...
 
Pohtaytur said:
Got an appointment on Tuesday to bring her in. Been trying to feed her critical care, but she's so squirmy since she doesn't like being touched that my clothes have taken more of the mix than she has. She at least ate some of the mix that was smeared all over her face...
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Had she lost weight then if you had decided to syringe feed her?
 
Piggies&buns said:
Had she lost weight then if you had decided to syringe feed her?
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Yeah, I checked and she lost 30g within this week. I'd rather be careful than not do so and let it get worse. I checked on her just earlier and it looks like the poops are getting better in keeping form, but I'll keep watching and weighing her in the morning.
 
Just checked her and gave her some critical care, her poops are getting better based on the ones that were on my shirt. She really needed a break now though but I managed to get a few CCs worth into her.
 

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Pohtaytur said:
Yeah, I checked and she lost 30g within this week. I'd rather be careful than not do so and let it get worse. I checked on her just earlier and it looks like the poops are getting better in keeping form, but I'll keep watching and weighing her in the morning.
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30g in a week is not considered weight loss. It is simply an empty bladder/tummy. 50g of weight loss or more is where you step in with syringe feeding.
Weigh her again tomorrow and see what that shows. If she has gone down again then you may need to start syringe feeding
 
Piggies&buns said:
30g in a week is not considered weight loss. It is simply an empty bladder/tummy. 50g of weight loss or more is where you step in with syringe feeding.
Weigh her again tomorrow and see what that shows. If she has gone down again then you may need to start syringe feeding
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Oh that's true, she's having tummy issues so that makes sense. Thanks!
 
Pohtaytur said:
Oh that's true, she's having tummy issues so that makes sense. Thanks!
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I mean that it depends where in the feeding cycle she was or if she had just pee’d when you weighed her. It affects how much they weigh - 30g is just a normal fluctuation.

Tomorrow mornings weight check will give you more information.

Weight Monitoring and Management
 
Merab's Slave said:
Hope everything is ok.
Holding you in my thoughts
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Thank you, it's honestly been a bit tiring. Nobody's been helping me with taking care of her at home. My mom is refusing to listen to me talk about her weight just because she's acting normal and looking for veggies again, and just keeps saying that I don't need to consider alternatives like a different flavour in case it's actually needed. Hopefully she doesn't drop in weight any more than she has now and her poops go back to normal.

Well, on the bright side, I'm at least confident that if Harold gets sick, he'll handle syringe feeding just fine, and with eating critical care haha. He was trying to eat it when I initially tried giving it to Henry, and tried to steal the spoon when I tried to spoon feed her.
 
I just checked her weight to see how much she was taking in, and her weight dropped again by a lot, I'm going to see if I can get her to an emergency vet.
 
Pohtaytur said:
I just checked her weight to see how much she was taking in, and her weight dropped again by a lot, I'm going to see if I can get her to an emergency vet.
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How much weight has she lost, and in what time frame since her last weight check?
Make sure you weigh just once a day - first thing in the morning is usually best. If you weigh more than once a day then you pick up too much fluctuation which makes it inaccurate.

You need to try to get 40-60ml of syringe feed as a minimum into her to stop weight loss.
 
Piggies&buns said:
How much weight has she lost, and in what time frame since her last weight check?
Make sure you weigh just once a day - first thing in the morning is usually best. If you weigh more than once a day then you pick up too much fluctuation which makes it inaccurate.

You need to try to get 40-60ml of syringe feed as a minimum into her to stop weight loss.
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She lost another 50g when I checked her a second time, this time around when I usually weigh her. How much of a fluctuation usually happens if you weigh multiple times?

I did get some advice, and it seems like she was particularly sensitive to the bit of strawberry I gave her two days ago. It seems like she might have a particularly sensitive stomach since I only gave a 1cm piece and Harold is fine.
 
Pohtaytur said:
She lost another 50g when I checked her a second time, this time around when I usually weigh her. How much of a fluctuation usually happens if you weigh multiple times?

I did get some advice, and it seems like she was particularly sensitive to the bit of strawberry I gave her two days ago. It seems like she might have a particularly sensitive stomach since I only gave a 1cm piece and Harold is fine.
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It’s not really possible to say how much, but you will pick it up and it will make the weights inaccurate. Weigh once each morning and compare with the previous day. Only if 50g or more is lost (100g loss in 24 hours is an absolute emergency) is it considered weight loss.

Fruit does not need to be in their diets in any event so definitely avoid.
You can give her a probiotic to help settle her tummy or use some poop soup if Harold is healthy
 
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