Hello ! I've had this gorgeous boy for a year now, and I am laughing a lot because he has a bit of skin hanging from his neck since some monthes. I thought it was a dewlap, but looking for pictures dewlap don't seem to hang like that. Does anybody know what it is ? I'm affraid he might be overweight (he weights 1000g)
View attachment 244738
Hi
Is it just soft skin or can you feel any flesh/lump in there? In the first case, it is indeed a small dewlap. Most pictures are of large dewlaps majorly overweight piggies. Please also be aware that the body form is down to breed and genetics; teddies like yours are stocky and compact. I have seen the same type of dewlap in my own teddy Nerys (2008-16).
The normal weight range in adult guinea pigs is much more varied than you my think. 'Average weight' exludes by definition half the piggies as either too small or too large, even though they are perfectly healthy in themselves. It is an entirely arbitrary human concept that also ignores the wide range of adult sizes. Your boy is about as average as the weight goes but that does say anything whether he is individually overweight or underweight because he is larger or smaller than average.
You can easily check whether your piggy is a good weight for their size (BMI) by feeling around the ribcage. If you can just about feel the ribs, they are in the ideal weight range; if you cannot feel any ribs at all, they are overweight and if you can feel every single rib, you are dealing with an underweight piggy. Regular weighing only makes sense when you know in which weight category our piggy is truly in.
I have had small piggies that were overweight at over 800g and a massive boar who was borderline underweight at 1400g - nevertheless they all lived to the grand old age of 8 years despite all being rescue adoptees. Much more important than being average is a healthy, hay based diet and your piggy living inside their individual ideal weight range - that can add as much as 1-2 years to a healthy life span.
If you have concerns, please take the time to read the link below. You will hopefully find it very interesting as it looks at all aspects connected with weight and weighing.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Here is our diet guide:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners (for bookmarking, browsing, reading and re-reading)
