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Guinea pig eating veggies and pellets, but not eating hay.

GuineaPig Mom

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Hello,

My guinea pig had very good stool- it was plump, fully formed, slightly hard, and had a dark brown color. However, last night I found a small amount of soft, loose stool in my guinea pig's cage. I tried searching up the causes, and found that one of the causes is excess sugar, and I found that my mom had given him a lot of blueberries, apples, carrots, and pears; all of which are high in sugar. I decided to simply keep a stricter diet plan for about a week, and go to the vet afterwards if it didn't get better, but this morning, I found that he hadn't pooped very much. I also found more loose stool. Moreover, he ate his pellets and veggies very well, but didn't eat any of his hay. He swiftly eats anything I give him, all except for hay. He is also becoming less active and sleeping all day, underneath some cloth. I was worried and started feeding him some dietary supplements for now. Is there any idea what's wrong with him?

Some info about my piggie-
The hay he is eating is oxbow timothy hay, and the supplement I fed him is oxbow natural science dietary supplement.
His cage mate recently died, and I haven't found a cage mate for him yet, so he is living alone at the moment.
Some recent changes are that he started to take vitamin C supplements a few days ago, and also began to have more floor time.
There aren't any new foods that I fed him.
I've been having him lose some weight since about a month back; his weight was 1450 grams, and is now 1340 grams.
 
the soft poops indicate that he has a tummy upset, likely by being fed too much high sugar things Or a disproportionate amount of veg to hay,

please stop feeding him all fruits and vegetables and only fed him hay to allow his tummy to settle. Please don’t give him any more veg until he is over this illness - could take some time for things to settle back down.

As hay is the bulk of the diet, he has lost weight because he hasn’t been eating enough of it. He may be eating veg and pellets but as they jointly only make up 20% of the daily food intake (hay is 80%), then not eating hay has a major impact on them. You must step in and syringe feed him straight away a fibre rich recovery feed immediately, as he has lost a lot of weight. weigh him daily weigh so you can monitor that you are getting enough syringe feeds into him - if he continues to lose weight then he isn’t being fed enough.

you just also take him to a vet. when a piggy stops eating enough hay it can be due to a multitude of reasons, but in itself not eating hay can cause dental problems (they need the hay to wear their teeth down), so please ensure you see a cavy savvy vet.

the guide below detail further

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
 
In a different post, I read that I should just stop feeding him veggies, as he may be a little spoiled from all the veggies and fruits. So I stopped feeding him veggies, and I'm not sure if he really was spoiled or not, but either way, now he's back to eating hay again :)
 
In a different post, I read that I should just stop feeding him veggies, as he may be a little spoiled from all the veggies and fruits. So I stopped feeding him veggies, and I'm not sure if he really was spoiled or not, but either way, now he's back to eating hay again :)

Being fed the recommended one cup of leafy veggies doesnt spoil them in that way but any piggy who is experiencing soft poop needs to be taken off veg for a few days to allow their gut bacteria to repopulate and rebalance. Soft poops occur due to an imbalance and high sugar items are the worst offending items for causing this. This is why fruit and carrots should only ever be a once a week treat in very small quantites.

I would continue to weigh him daily for the next week to ensure he really is eating enough hay - as explained above, you cannot judge they are eating enough hay simply by watching them
 
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