Oats?

[Amanda1801]

Cameo has lost a lot of weight since her spay and resulting post op complications, and she's now on the wrong side of skinny.

She's eating again, but she's only really interested in lettuces (of just about every variety on the face of the planet) and the oxbow meadow grass hay. She's slowly coming around to other veggies and she's started nibbling at her burgess pellets again, but I'd like her to regain some of the 300g she's lost. She's currently at a stable weight around 750g. I don't want her getting cold after everything she's just been through (even though they are indoor pigs, I have a tempermental boiler that switches itself off, and they're infront of my window that is single glazed and can let a draught through if the curtains are open!).

I've thought about adding a small amount of oats into her diet (she probably won't eat them!) but was wondering how to go about this...

Do they have to be prepared in any way or do you just offer them as they come?

 

[Glynis]

Hi Amanda, yes oats are fine!
I'm sure you'll find some other threads on this somewhere too.....
I offer them dried, but i know a few people that have soaked them a little.
Try offering Cameo some dried and see if she's interested. My girls LOVE oats! drool

wanted to add..

KISSES AND SNUGGLES FOR LITTLE CAMEO XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

[Amanda1801]

Hi Amanda, yes oats are fine!
I'm sure you'll find some other threads on this somewhere too.....
I offer them dried, but i know a few people that have soaked them a little.
Try offering Cameo some dried and see if she's interested. My girls LOVE oats! drool

wanted to add..

KISSES AND SNUGGLES FOR LITTLE CAMEO XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I'll pass the kisses and snuggles on! She's doing sooooo well, I just wish her little spine and hip bones weren't quite so pokey outy! Now the immediate medical problems are fixed, we can work on the asthetics

 

[Glynis]

Keep offering her corn that is quite a fatty food. The husks/silks are really good for toofies and the nibblets are soooooo sweet drool (no no foods for my girls of course now)
Even supplement her with some CC to boost her up!
Yes it's awful feeling their bones :...

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Archie loves oats too. I find they really help build him up and are very easy to eat, even with his dreadful teeth. In fact he's tucking into some right now.

 

[Amanda1801]

Keep offering her corn that is quite a fatty food. The husks/silks are really good for toofies and the nibblets are soooooo sweet drool (no no foods for my girls of course now)
Even supplement her with some CC to boost her up!
Yes it's awful feeling their bones :...

Archie loves oats too. I find they really help build him up and are very easy to eat, even with his dreadful teeth. In fact he's tucking into some right now.

I haven't been able to get hold of any corn cobs lately! She's not a huge fan of the actual corn, but she does love the husks and stringy bits! (all 4 of them love the stringy bits best!).

I've stopped feeding her the CC now, as she is eating hay well by herself, and she was on it for almost 4 weeks, and since she's feeling much better, she was getting really annoyed with the syringe feeding!

I'm sure she'll get back around to eating a full range of veggies again soon (she's starting to eat other types of hay now, but is prefering the softer, less pokey hays at the moment!), so I dont have any immediate concerns, but would just like to build her back up a bit without stressing her out with the old syringe, just incase anything does cause her to go downhill again :...

 

[Amanda1801]

Well, that was a resounding no rolleyes

Any more ideas on how to build her back up?

 

[louise_stocker]

Hi Amanda

I'm no expert (I'm sure you know lots more than me!) but it was a good fortnight after Peggy was off all meds and eating normally before we saw any weight gain. It's only just starting to creep up now!

She didn't get as light as Cameo and I know it horrid and you just want to feel that you're doing something useful but I'm sure she'll get there on her own with a bit of time. She's been through so much, poor little love.

That's not to say you shouldn't be trying to stuff everything you can think of into her - even if its only for your own piece of mind

Louise x

 

[lauralucy]

i occasionaly in the winter sprinkle plain porridge oats in with the nuggets they gobble them down

have you tried baby corn?

 

[TAN]

I dont know if its o.k for piggies so am really only throwing this out - but Bumble stuck his head in a bowl of my daughters chocolate weetabix (she doesnt have milk on it )and started troughing away and was really miffed when I whipped it away from him - can they have mushed up ordinary weetabix with water ? or is that a big no no.

 

[lauralucy]

i would say no, just looked up the ingredients:

Wholegrain Wheat (95%), Malted Barley Extract, Sugar, Salt, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid.

 

[Sappho]

I make up a fake critical care to boost my piggies when they lose weight after an op. I make it up in different ways according to guinea preferences - one piggy will only take it by syringe, another one will only eat it dry so he can chew it!

The recipe changes each time, but I try and get a good lot of their ordinary dry food in it, along with either oats or wheatgerm, a decent probiotic (either in paste form like fibreplex, or acidophilus powder as most of my pigs hate the taste of the paste). Some pigs like that as it is, sometimes I warm it, other times I add a bit of whatever that guinea likes - sometimes cranberry juice, sometimes minced up corn (added benefit of being a fattening food!). I don't why they like it, maybe because it's soft for them when they don't feel up to chewing a lot?

I hope she manages to start piling the weight back on soon