My guinea pigs are overweight but won’t exercise

[FiaFlora]

Hi,

So my piggies are overweight at the moment and they won’t exercise. I have cut back on their pellets, added more veggies, and given them more floor time. The problem is they just sit around during floor time. I currently have a tunnel and cardboard box out for toys. Should I maybe add more toys? Do you have anything that could help them?

 

[Betsy]

How long have you had your piggies? Are they boys or girls?

 

[FiaFlora]

How long have you had your piggies? Are they boys or girls?

They are girls. They are about 2 years old. I’ve had them for about 8 months. They’ve never really been that interested in running around. This isn’t exactly a new thing.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Are they happy to be handled? Could it be that they are too nervous to run around? Are they in a playpen during floor time? If so, perhaps you could throw a cover over the top of the playpen to see if that makes them more confident to come out. Plenty of boxes and tunnels to run through might help.
What Are their weights?
Cutting back on pellets is good (they only need a tablespoon of pellets a day) but their diet should be mostly hay (80% of their diet) so if you’ve added more veggies, make sure it not too much then if fhen stops them from eating enough hay. One cup of veg a day is enough for them.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi,

So my piggies are overweight at the moment and they won’t exercise. I have cut back on their pellets, added more veggies, and given them more floor time. The problem is they just sit around during floor time. I currently have a tunnel and cardboard box out for toys. Should I maybe add more toys? Do you have anything that could help them?

Hi!

How long have you had them and how old are they? Adult piggies that have lived a sedentary life won't run around, even less so when they are pudgy. Feeding more veg instead is not reducing the calories much in a diet where over 80% of the daily food intake should be hay - even more is even better; veg and pellets are both more like nutritional extras.

Please take the time to read these guides here. They explain the complete diet with clear amounts of what you can feed how often and an illustrated sample diet. They will also give you tips on how you diagnose overweight (i.e. the correct individual weight/size ratio) and what you can do to get them moving more - tunnels and toys won't work. You sould find them very helpful!
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight

 

[Black piggies]

Guinea pigs are active at dawn and dusk (can't remember the name for that) and that's the only time my pigs like to charge about. Could you work out your pigs' active times or just try sundown floor time? My pigs just seem a bit irritated by floor time if it's not their time of day for zooming around.

 

[Freela]

Exercise is not really high on the priority list for a lot of adult guinea pigs! Little pigs like running around, but older pigs can be pretty lazy. I would take a look at the diet links on this site and focus on a good-quality timothy hay for the majority of their diet. You could also encourage them to 'work for their treats' at floor time by providing veggies only at floor time and scattering them around so the pigs have to wander around finding them. That's the best way to get mine moving, toys don't seem to motivate them that much!