Obese Pig, Slow Grower? Help!

[SkinnyPigRiver]

Well, she looks obese to me. Melody is eight months old, and River is nine months old. River, for the last two months, has had fluctuating weight, but basically hasn't gained very much and is at 883 grams tonight.

Melody, my fatty, who I'd post a pic of, but I can't get that to work for some reason, is 940 grams tonight. Now, I'm sure they could be growing to different sizes, but for the last month she's continued to gain at a steady rate of about 30 grams a week. However, she has maybe five chins... not just a dewlap. She DOES look overweight to me, so question:

How do I put ONE out of THREE pigs on a diet? She's a voracious eater and my only guess is that she's scarfing too many pellets. Could she be gaining weight from the veg? I doubt it's the hay!

It's starting to get me very paranoid, because now we have a male. He's neutered, and had a six week clearance when we got him, but I keep getting paranoid that Melody isn't just fat, but pregnant. Now, unless our boy Pratchett has the world's longest-living sperm, she can't be up the duff.

Checking my calendar, Melody has put on 113 grams since we got Pratchett in July, and River has maintained between 850-880 grams.

Someone just tell me to chill out and how to put my piggy on a diet, please!

 

[Lady Kelly]

Chill out and don't put her on a diet. It really doesn't sound needed and I have a piggy heavier than that at 6-7 months old who isn't obese. Obesity cannot be judged on weight alone, if you are genuinely concerned then take her along to a savvy vet for an overall health check up and to reassure you whether she is a healthy weight or not

 

[Toffee321]

I have a guinea pig I adopted who is so overweight we thought she was pregnant! However the vet told us she was just fat. She weighs 1017 grams!

 

[rome_italy]

her weight sounds normal for the charts but I agree with you, your eyes know better than the chart if a piggie (or a child) is putting fat in a wrong way. Charts in my opinion (and my doctor's opinion) are often wrong (in fact I am considered underweight... but I am not).
If you want to reduce the speed of growing without reducing important nutrients, you can cut the pellets and you can go on with hay, GRASS and vegs as you like (no fruit). Pellets are the only responsible of the fat mass, especially the pellets made of flours. My piggies don't eat pellets, have food always available (grass is their main food) and are slim; they put on weight two weeks ago when my daughter gave them more pellets (I give them only some pieces which I leave on the floor of the kitchen; my daughter gave them pellets into the bowl: the result was a weight of 30g more in one week. My pellet is grain free). My vet always says that piggies (and cats) who don't eat pellets have less fat on the body and especially for sows the fat is dangerous because it produces estrogens which are the main cause of ovarian cysts...
Anyway, 900g is a normal weight for a "big" sow. My sows are 760 and 860 and are 8 months old...
But your eyes know more than a number...
(give her a lot of fresh grass, she will be happy, will eat it and will be satisfied)

 

[Wiebke]

Well, she looks obese to me. Melody is eight months old, and River is nine months old. River, for the last two months, has had fluctuating weight, but basically hasn't gained very much and is at 883 grams tonight.

Melody, my fatty, who I'd post a pic of, but I can't get that to work for some reason, is 940 grams tonight. Now, I'm sure they could be growing to different sizes, but for the last month she's continued to gain at a steady rate of about 30 grams a week. However, she has maybe five chins... not just a dewlap. She DOES look overweight to me, so question:

How do I put ONE out of THREE pigs on a diet? She's a voracious eater and my only guess is that she's scarfing too many pellets. Could she be gaining weight from the veg? I doubt it's the hay!

It's starting to get me very paranoid, because now we have a male. He's neutered, and had a six week clearance when we got him, but I keep getting paranoid that Melody isn't just fat, but pregnant. Now, unless our boy Pratchett has the world's longest-living sperm, she can't be up the duff.

Checking my calendar, Melody has put on 113 grams since we got Pratchett in July, and River has maintained between 850-880 grams.

Someone just tell me to chill out and how to put my piggy on a diet, please!

Hi! Please take a deep breath and calm down. None of the weights is in any way worrying. Some piggies grow more than others (like humans), which is perfectly fine as long as they are OK in themselves and as long as their weight/size ratio feels right. Look up "heft" in the link below.

My own sows range currently between just about 800g-1300g and my boars between 800g-1500g, but I have had adult piggies ranging from 700g- nearly 1600g in my time. Most of my piggies are between 900-1200g as adults, which is the average. Yours have not even reached the end of their growing phase even though they are now at the stage where growth slows down and happens in spits and spurts, more with some piggies than others, as is their genetic disposition.

I currently have three litter sister where the weight difference at 8 weeks was already 100g between the smallest and the largest, and where it is nearly 300g now that they are at the peak of their lives. The weight difference between my sisters Nia and Nerys was a full 500g at the height of their lives with 1 kg Nia living to nearly 6 years of age and her much larger and admittedly fatter sister Nerys even living to 8 years, so both had a good life span.

Pregnancy weight gain is not steady, but exponential during the last half of a ten week pregnancy, i.e. depending on the size of the litter, there is only a slow weight gain and then a really big one in the last 2-3 weeks, depending on the size of the litter. By that time you cannot fail but notice other signs of pregnancy, I assure you!

Please take the time to read this guide here and stop fretting. What you are observing is perfectly normal for their age and the weights are also perfectly normal for it!
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight