One overweighted guinea pig and one normal

[Alexemond97]

Hi,

I have two boars who share together everything. They eat at the same time and there is no fight. They eat about the same amount of food. However, one is 1050g and the other one is 1400g. I would like my big boy to lose some weight but I don’t want the little one to be even more skinny. Do you have any tips for me on how to make only one guinea pig lose weight? Thank you

 

[Alexemond97]

Forgot to mention that they are both adults but the biggest one is younger (1.5 year-old)

 

[Piggies&buns]

Guinea pigs come in all different shapes and sizes and your bigger piggy is not necessarily overweight at all. Please don’t do anything to make him lose weight unless a vet has concerns about his weight. Your piggies weights both sound to be within the perfectly normal range.

My two boys have similar weights - one is 1100g and the other is 1350g - my heavier boy is not overwrought, he is just genetically programmed to be bigger.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi,

I have two boars who share together everything. They eat at the same time and there is no fight. They eat about the same amount of food. However, one is 1050g and the other one is 1400g. I would like my big boy to lose some weight but I don’t want the little one to be even more skinny. Do you have any tips for me on how to make only one guinea pig lose weight? Thank you

Hi

Piggies can have a naturally wide range of weights, even from litter siblings - I had sisters with those kind of weights in their prime but in that case it was the smaller more energetic sister who successfully ran a group of up to 12 sows in her prime. Both sisters lived a normal to very good life span. Nerys, the larger of the sisters, is the big piggy in my avatar on the left.

The more dominant piggy will generally be a little bit fatter but not always as other factors can also be in play.

Our weight management guide contains a chapter on how you can work out whether you boys are the correct weight for their individual size and are not overweight or underweight. We call that 'feeling for the heft around the ribcage' but it just a useful way of checking the body BMI (weight/size ratio) at any age and size since weight alone is not necessarily giving you that answer.

You may find the information and tips in our weight guide very interesting and helpful, including how you exactly work out normal/over- or underweight and what you can do about it if the weight is not ideal.
Weight - Monitoring and Management