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Guinea Pig Having Trouble Eating

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Grant

Junior Guinea Pig
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One of my guinea pigs has been having trouble eating his veggies but strangely he is okay with hay and pellets.
He is simply licking his veggies and not chewing. It looks like he's having trouble chewing but he's eating his hay and pellets without problem.
Recently he's been fighting with his cagemate resulting in a few cuts on his nose and perhaps these are making him struggle to open his mouth fully?
Please help.
 
Grant said:
One of my guinea pigs has been having trouble eating his veggies but strangely he is okay with hay and pellets.
He is simply licking his veggies and not chewing. It looks like he's having trouble chewing but he's eating his hay and pellets without problem.
Recently he's been fighting with his cagemate resulting in a few cuts on his nose and perhaps these are making him struggle to open his mouth fully?
Please help.
Click to expand...

Hi!

Please weigh your boy daily instead of weekly to monitor his food intake and if necessary switch to topping up with syringe feed and water if the weight drops 50g/2 oz or more.

I would strongly recommend to have him checked. There is usually a good reason for changes to eating habits. It may not necessarily be what you expect, but that is for a good vet to check and diagnose. Trouble with picking up can be a sign that there is trouble with an incisor rather than the teeth at the back. Try to cut any veg in fine strips and serve more soft stuff like fresh dog/fox-pee free grass, fresh herbs, cucumber or tomato and graps (the latter not daily, please because the acidity can cause lip infection).

I had this twice with guinea pigs developing an abscess in their incisors. Check whether they are suddenly slanted, which means that the chewing is uneven.
 
Thank you.
I gave them some coriander, dill and a little bit of pear which he seemed to enjoy and didn't really have a problem eating but he hasn't really been eating the other veggies that he normally does.
I'll try to monitor him for the next week and see how things go before taking him to the vet (because they've only just been reintroduced and I want them to settle down before I take one away to the vet).
 
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