i need ideas for food that will 'build them up'

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dannyanddodgersmum

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danny is not a well boy.

just back from the vets-he's very thin-has lost so much weight.
is on anti biotics and i need to seperate him from dodger for the week so i can monitor his food intake.

he has always been quite chunky so this is a real shocker.

we normally feed them once a day-they get a big bowl of nuggets, fresh hay and a big bowl of veggies- things like carrotts, kale, spring greens, spinach, peppers etc

i really want to get him fighting fit again-

tell me-what are the best things to be feeding him? should i be feeding him more?:...
 
It sounds like you are feeding them enough food so please do not worry about that. I tend to give my piggies veg twice a day though. Once in the morning and once in the evening.

Readigrass is good for weight gain but please do not feed a lot as it contains a lot of calcium.

Porridge oats are good. You can either feed them dry by sprinkling over their dried food or you can serve them warm by mixing with a small amount of warm water. Please do not serve hot though.

Fresh corn on the cob, spinach and plenty of hay too.

How old is Danny? Not all guinea pigs reclaim the weight they have lost after an illness. Especially not older ones.

I hope that Danny feels better soon.
 
he's 3 and a half

he is currently in his run-having wolfed a 1/3 of a carrott

every time i go out there he wheeks like mad

you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him except for the fact that he is like a skeleton

will start feeding morning and evening and see if that makes the difference
thank you
 
where would i get readigrass?

have just bought timothy hay in addition to the normal hay to give to him
 
Hey dannyanddodgersmum,

Sorry to hear Danny has lost weight. What is he on antibiotics for? I have always found with my guineas that if they have lost weight it is normally due to some sort of underlying illness or that they are in pain & not eating so well. Has the vet been able to let you know what is going on medically with Danny?

I find it is very difficult to get back to a previously normal weight for a guinea pig who is that bit older & has lost weight. You can probably expect to see some gains if you can get medical things sorted out but I haven't normally seen a full weight recovery unless in a much younger piggie.

I find that a great thing to get guineas eating & keen on food is a handful of grass from your back garden, they love it especially this time of year when they can't be out on the lawn. Burgess Excel Forage also goes down very well with our pigs but I would not feed it all the time or instead of their usual hay as it had a lower % of fibre than you would ideally want.

Sweetcorn is good as it has high fat content but obviously you still want to aim for a balanced diet made up primarily of good quality hay & watch your calcium / phosphorus ratio in veggies. We found Wagg Crunch guinea food good as a short term measure for getting a bit of extra weight on a young guinea, again it is probably a bit higher in sugar than the pellets we normally feed.

Was it the vet's suggestion to separate your guineas? If they are a bonded pair they might be really sad if you separate them & not eat so well! Do they normally get on well? Have you seen any sign that Danny is fed up with Dodger at the moment? The only time we had to separate our older bonded male pair was when Cloud was really poorly & he couldn't bear Willow going near him, it made him really cross. Is your vet an exotics vet with experience of guineas?

Sorry for all the questions :)

Best wishes to you & your guineas
 
i asked if it was a good idea to seperate them and the vet said that really yes it was a good idea but they needed to be able to see/hear each other in case it made them depressed. i said i couldn't really do that so she said that they must be put back together everyday for some time to avoid them pining.
no0 sign that danny is fed up with dodger at all. they have been out in the run this afternoon and when they weren't munching grass they were snuggled up together in the hidey area.

she has given him antibiotics because she feels the weight loss has been caused by an underlying infection-she said the other possibility was a stone in the bladder [?] which could be causing him to not absorb the nutrients in his food. She said if it was a stone then she wouldn't want to do surgery as he was so thin that he would be high risk for the anaesthetic- also not being a young pig.

he is definitely EATING
i went out there with a carrot before and he practically snatched it from my hand!
 
sorry your piggy is unwell. i personally don't agree with separating a bonded pair though. i think they need a familiar routine. also, when ches was ill we were told not to panic and try feeding too much, just to let him build his weight up gradually and to be prepared that he probably wouldn't get back to his original weight, which he never did. it can sometimes take weeks or even months for them to build up, and this is actually the safest way aswell. if he got to a very low weight which was worryingly low, then maybe talk to the vet about some foods to help him gain more quickly, but until then i would continue with what you are doing as he seems to be eating normally. if you suspect he isn't eating his fair share, you could offer him a plate of food at meds times, with a little bit of chopped up hay, some pellets, pellet mash and little pieces of veg and let him have *** he wants from it after his meds. be careful though because as they eat more they can then get a dodgy tum, this happened with ches. that is also the problem with trying to feed alot to make them gain, it can be too much for their tummies sometimes and cause more problems. we were told it's safer and better to let them build up slowly. :)

do you see an exotics vet? if not, say where you are and maybe someone can recommend one. ches had xrays to check for stone. it turned out he had bladder sludge.
 
My girl took ages to put weight back on.. for a long while I thought she wasnt ever going to put it back on but critical care, mixed with probiotics and every once in a while a dash of Elle's kitchen baby food in strawberry and banana. be careful not to give too much banana, my vet says its a yeast's playing field! Also oats are good (you can make with water into a porridge aswell to add interest).. I also found competition with her playmate actually got her eating the most. Now she wont stop and is as heavy as she used to be but it took about 5 months. Good luck!
 
dannyanddodgersmum said:
the thing is...the weight loss is his only symptom

it's weird
Click to expand...

Back in June my girl lost 100g over the course of a week, but had no other symptoms.
She went to first vet who diagnosed a likely urinary tract infection, and gave antibiotics. Second vet (a exotics vet) gave more effective unlicensed antibiotics and pain relief, again she had no symptoms.

It took a while for her to regain her weight but she is back over what she was, she is about 2.5years.
With piggies being prey animals, they hide any illness really well so sometimes weight loss can be the only symptom.

Also wanted to add, seems to be as piggies get older they don't seem to gain weight back on that may have been lost. Rosie my nearly 7 year old is only very tiny (about 750g) but won't put on any maintainable weight, no matter what she is fed. Other than being small she is healthy and happy.

I hope that you can get him right as rain soon xx
 
well- i can kind of see why he has lost weight-he really isn't eating very much

he is snatching veg out of my hand though! eating lots of veg, some hay but very very little dried food
 
well we are back to the vet today

he i definiteyl eating-going mad for his veggies especially
coat looking a lot healthier
seems quite hapy to be honest-lots of wheeking for attention and nuzzling in the hay etc

i dunno

will see what vet says this afternoon
 
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