Guinea pigs sleeping during floor time

HumanWithFurryPotats

HumanWithFurryPotats

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Hello. I have been noticing that my guinea pigs have been napping almost all the time during floor time. One of my guinea pigs is starting to get overweight and I need her to be active during floor time.
 
What enrichment do you provide during floor time?
Perhaps you could try changing the time of day that you do floor time

What makes you think piggy is overweight - have you checked the heft?
 
I provide them with hideys, tunnels, wooden toys, and hay toys. Also the vet said that she is overweight and needs to exercise
 
The overweight one is around 3 and the other one is 2. I do not know how much they weigh. I am feeding them hay along with lettuce, bell peppers, and occasionally parsley/cilantro. I have recently changed pellet brands, because the one I had been using had alafa pellets.
 
So how much did the vet says she weighs? Or when you weighed her how much does she weigh?
 
Do they have access to pellets all the time? You really need to weigh them weekly as part of their health check. Do you have any scales?
 
Did the vet check her heft or only weigh her?
Weight alone is not a great guide of their condition as it varies so much from piggy to piggy - a weight which is perfect for one piggy can be too much or too little for another - so checking heft tells you much more about whether they are healthy for themselves

As siikibam has mentioned, pellets should be kept strictly limited (one tablespoon per day only) so if you were overfeeding them/letting them have constant access then that would contribute to weight gain, if you weren’t then changing the pellets shouldn’t have an effect on weight
 
I have one scale, but I don’t know if that would give an accurate weight. Also I only got the weight from the vet
 
HumanWithFurryPotats said:
850 grams
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This is why checking heft is so important - its simply not possible to say she is overweight based on her weight alone - for example my 2 year olds weigh 1300g. They are boars though but it just shows that heft is so much more important a way to gauge what is healthy for each individual piggy

Check her heft - if you can feel the ribs nicely then she isn’t overweight. If you can’t feel the ribs at all, then she likely is overweight

As siikibam has said though being able to weigh them yourself at home each week is an important part of their weekly health checks
 
Ok, I can feel her ribs and I will order a proper scale. Thank you for letting me know this, but I still don’t know why both of them remain barefoot active during floor time
 
HumanWithFurryPotats said:
Ok, I can feel her ribs and I will order a proper scale. Thank you for letting me know this, but I still don’t know why both of them remain barefoot active during floor time
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Have you always given the floor time? ie it’s not that it’s new to them and they are unsure or insecure in the space
Try giving them floor time at a different time of day, changing up the enrichment ideas.
 
I’ve always gave them floor time, usually in the afternoon. I’ll try to do it at a different time and in a different place
 
HumanWithFurryPotats said:
I’ve always gave them floor time, usually in the afternoon. I’ll try to do it at a different time and in a different place
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I find that my two are most lazy mid afternoon. I put them out in their run first thing in the morning (assuming it’s dry!) and they tend to run around a lot then, but by lunch time they are eating hay and then napping more. Come evening time they are back up and active again.
 
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