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Guinea Pig Weight Loss

does your guinea lose weight or gain weight?

  • yes

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • nope

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
alex&sylvester

alex&sylvester

New Born Pup
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
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hello all! i’m new to this, just signed up. but i need your opinion on something. my guinea pig sylvester, 9 months old, i weighed him on sunday and he was 996grams. the following week which was yesterday (tuesday) i weighed him and he was 921grams. should i be concerned with this? or is this a normal thing?
 
It's normal, but you need to keep weighing them weekly, at the same time each time so you can monitor for any consistent weight loss.
 
I usually weight mine around 4ish. I tend to weigh Dennis more frequently than once a week as his is very small for a boar only 895g at his heaviest as he was the runt of the litter. Last week I weighed him in the morning instead of the afternoon and his weight was 830g but when I weighed him the next day at his usual time his weight had gone back up to 880g. It just shows the importance of weighing at the same time as the weight can fluctuate quite a bit during the day as it depends on how much they have eaten, how much they have pooped and whether they have a full bladder or not.
 
alex&sylvester said:
hello all! i’m new to this, just signed up. but i need your opinion on something. my guinea pig sylvester, 9 months old, i weighed him on sunday and he was 996grams. the following week which was yesterday (tuesday) i weighed him and he was 921grams. should i be concerned with this? or is this a normal thing?
Click to expand...

Please have him vet checked. At this age, guinea pigs should not lose any weight whatsoever.
We recommend to have every quick weight loss over 50g and very gradual weight loss over 100g investigated by a vet. Please switch from weighing once weekly to weighing daily at the same time, like before you give the dinner or breakfast.
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig

Can you please tell us whether your boys are indoors or outdoors piggies (the recent cold weather can impact on appetite if your piggies were exposed to it) and whether you feed them veg and pellets in small portions that can be eaten in one go in a bowl each or whether you just have them eat out of one bowl (food hogging). Have you made sure that here is plenty of fresh hay and fresh water and that access cannot be blocked by the other piggy?
 
Wiebke said:
Please have him vet checked. At this age, guinea pigs should not lose any weight whatsoever.
We recommend to have every quick weight loss over 50g and very gradual weight loss over 100g investigated by a vet. Please switch from weighing once weekly to weighing daily at the same time, like before you give the dinner or breakfast.
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig

Can you please tell us whether your boys are indoors or outdoors piggies (the recent cold weather can impact on appetite if your piggies were exposed to it) and whether you feed them veg and pellets in small portions that can be eaten in one go in a bowl each or whether you just have them eat out of one bowl (food hogging). Have you made sure that here is plenty of fresh hay and fresh water and that access cannot be blocked by the other piggy?
Click to expand...

they are indoor piggies, in spring and summer, i always let them out (only for floor time). i usually give them lots of small portions throughout the day. and i always give them hay in the morning and refill their water with fresh water.
 
Betsy said:
I usually weight mine around 4ish. I tend to weigh Dennis more frequently than once a week as his is very small for a boar only 895g at his heaviest as he was the runt of the litter. Last week I weighed him in the morning instead of the afternoon and his weight was 830g but when I weighed him the next day at his usual time his weight had gone back up to 880g. It just shows the importance of weighing at the same time as the weight can fluctuate quite a bit during the day as it depends on how much they have eaten, how much they have pooped and whether they have a full bladder or not.
Click to expand...


thanks so much for your reply, good to know that the time actually does affect the weight, after all i did actually weigh him around 5 (i usually weigh them in the morning)
 
Hiya I’ve just seen your other thread about trying to get your post-op piggie to put weight on. You say on there that you aren’t over-feeding hay & pellets so just wanted to make sure that you know that piggies should always have access to plenty of hay all day long. Hay makes up 80% of a Guinea Pigs diet so they need enough of it that they can nibble on it all day without running out. (Sorry if you know this I just want to make sure as it could explain the weight worries you’re having with both piggies)
 
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