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How to slim a Big Fat Pig?!

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soozn

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We brought our new piggy, now called Myrtle, home from the gp rescue yesterday. Parsley is delighted! However she is nearly twice the size of him, weighing in at a whopping 1.5kg. Her previous owner had clearly fed her well(!) but she'd had no exercise at all.

I'm hoping just sensible feeding combined with regular exercise will do the trick.

Any other suggestions?

Pigtures of Her Vastness to follow!
 
If the piggie is overweight due to lack of exercise, then she should naturally slim down once she is more active. It may just be that she is a chunkster.
 
One of our older girls Midge weighs in at about 1450g (1.45kg) , yes she does tend to eat alot but she has at least an hour in the garden when the weather is good and when we are home she free-ranges in the bedroom min 3 hrs daily. I have to say apart from her recently discovered fatty lump she has never been ill (apart from eye infection) I wouldn't have put her as overweight just a large girl.
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Hi Soozn, looking forward to seeing pictures of this lovely Myrtle! She may be naturally chunky but from the sounds of things she could be a bit heavier than she really wants to be. Have you had a read of this thread? Some tips in there:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38805
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Just read this really informative thread - thank you. Perhaps she is just chunky but I suspect she's been overindulging! I bought some lovely timothy hay with herbs and she looked at me as if to say 'you expect me to eat THAT?' Yet give her dry food and she's off. She also sat on the grass and didn't seem to know it was edible until Parsley tucked in. So...lots of hay and veggies, plus exercise, from now on.
 
I think that lots of people allow their pigs to fill up on pellets. Before I got my younger piggies I used to give my four adult pigs one handful of pellets between them a day. This would mean that the pellet bowl would be emptied within 3-4 hours and they would be encouraged to eat hay. Exercise is also a really good way to slim pigs down.
 
Midge&Panda said:
One of our older girls Midge weighs in at about 1450g (1.45kg) , yes she does tend to eat alot but she has at least an hour in the garden when the weather is good and when we are home she free-ranges in the bedroom min 3 hrs daily. I have to say apart from her recently discovered fatty lump she has never been ill (apart from eye infection) I wouldn't have put her as overweight just a large girl.
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I've done a bit of research and it does seem that rexes tend to be bigger so I think she'll always be a bit of a heffalump. However I want to get her to the stage where she can groom herself comfortably, trot around and just be a happy piggy:)
 
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