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Overweight guinea pig

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piggie-power

piggie-power

Adult Guinea Pig
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Hello everyone,

I've had Jessie over a year now. When we got her everyone (including vets) assumed she was pregnant as she had bulges.

Jessie is fed exactly the same as all my other pigs and yet she is massive. Just by looking at her you can see how overweight she is. My other pigs are slender and muscular but Jessie is pure fat!

Jessie is exercised daily either indoors or out - well i say exercised, she finds herself a comfy spot in the hay/grass and just munches.

I've popped her to the vets today and they have said that apart from her weight she seems happy and healthy - they've advised to exercise her more and cut her pellets down and provide more veg. That's all good advice but how do you force a guinea pig to run round?

When out of her hutch she's provided with lots to do, toys and hideys are spread all over but she doesn't budge!

She doesn't move when we go to pick her up!

when out she has other pigs that she can play with through bars (she's very bossy and hasn't accepted another pig) but she chooses not to.

Any advice for my incredibly lazy pig that only moves for food?
 
Could you make a trail of her favorite veggies? Or find a noise that she likes and popcorns too when she is out and about? (My Toffee loves the hoover and go's mad, and bin bags being wapted in the air) But i think you will notice a difference just by cutting down/out on her pellets. xx
 
When Nutty was a bit too podgy we used to tickle his back feet to get him to move. For some reason he hated it and would really get moving!

Amy
x
 
Toffeewoffee said:
Could you make a trail of her favorite veggies? Or find a noise that she likes and popcorns too when she is out and about? (My Toffee loves the hoover and go's mad, and bin bags being wapted in the air) But i think you will notice a difference just by cutting down/out on her pellets. xx
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I was thinking of stopping her pellets completely for a few weeks and just provide a good variety of veg. I'll give the trail of veg a try. My aunts just suggested not giving Jessie anywhere comfy to lie down and to hold off on the grass and hay whilst she's out see if she runs around trying to find it - i'll give that a try too.

My hubby's suggestion was to buy her a treadmill mallethead
 
Cut her pellets mostly or completely for a time (take her out of the cage/hutch while the others feed). Either call her to the opposite end of the run for a small bit of veg or sprinkle tiny pieces of veg all over the place to encourage her to forage and move around. Stay off starchy foods like sweetcorn (except the husks).

Please don't chase her. Weigh her daily while she is on a diet, otherwise weekly. She'll probably never be as slender as the others, though!
 
I am glad of all these tips as my two are a bit porky as well. Mostly they eat hay and readigrass and a friend told me they should slim down on that diet but I have seen no signs of that so far.
They can still reach a respectable height when popcorning and are VERY fast at running so they can't be too unhealthy ---can they?
 
Scatter nuggets around in a pile of hay...it'll slow her down and make her search for them. Give veggies at floor time and do the same. If you're sat with them at floor time, drip feed them their veg... Chop it up small, and give her small amounts each time; encourage her to run across the room to get a few more nibbles etc.

Avoid root vegetables and fruit. You can feed the others these foods if you want, just separate her and give her some floor time!
 
Sue and Smartie said:
I am glad of all these tips as my two are a bit porky as well. Mostly they eat hay and readigrass and a friend told me they should slim down on that diet but I have seen no signs of that so far.
They can still reach a respectable height when popcorning and are VERY fast at running so they can't be too unhealthy ---can they?
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Readigrass is quite high in sugar when you look at it weight by weight compared to fresh grass
 
I have a guinea who was always a chubber aswell. She is at 1.2kg normally but never exceeds that. She's also very comfortable NOT doing anything, though has proved when she wants to move she really can! haha. I think it's something to do with individual metabolisms, every once in a while you get a whopper piggy who has a really slow metabolism and it may be that even if you get her to a lower weight, returning to the same diet as the others afterwards will just mean she gets porky again.

If she's young a little experimenting won't do her much harm, but if she's older be careful how much you fluctuate her feed incase changes upset her. Oh yeah, and I'm certain you know this already, but even if you do cut down on nuggets, make sure she still has loads of hay to help keep her gut moving and prevent her form getting diarrhoea from the relative increase in vegetable she will be experiencing!

Good luck hun! -c
 
Bury the nuggets in the hay, and if you can put some of the hay in tubes hanging from a piece of string or have the hay rack a little higher up this encourages them to stretch up and get them moving. I also pop their nuggets in the hay tray so they have to forage for them. Another idea is to hide the veggies in loo rolls (adding hay at either end).

I have this problem with tabby, she's not a fan of jumping, or stretching up (usually waits for coby to wressle with the loo roll tubes above and whatever falls down is hers lol!). And when it is run time, she prefers sitting to actually moving. It can be a bit of a nightmare.
 
Dusty_bugs said:
I have a guinea who was always a chubber aswell. She is at 1.2kg normally but never exceeds that.-c
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I was interested to read that your piggie is 1.2kgs. I weighed Smudge yesterday because I thought she was a tubby piggie and that is what she weighed. She lives with another piggie who is completely different even though we got them at the same time. Patches is much more slender.

Smudge is the first to food and would happily eat 24/7 given a chance I think. :)) Whereas Patches although loves her food it doesn't seem to be quite so food focused.

They are both very active piggies in their run. Zooming around so I guess from this Smudge is just going to be a bigger girl. Thing is how do I cut her food down while still giving Patches enough to eat?

Thanks

Lynda
 
Ive got a fatty like that too. I never understood how some people could have a big bowl of pellets out all day because my fatty would eat it all in one sitting and still want more. I then started giving very small amounts more than once a day, cause I didn't want to give him more all the time, nor did I want him to go without for 24 hours. It seems to have helped. I also sprinkle their pellets in their hay so they have to search for them or hide their veggies around the cage ( on top of hideys and hanging from the bars high up etc)
 
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Newmum said:
I was interested to read that your piggie is 1.2kgs. I weighed Smudge yesterday because I thought she was a tubby piggie and that is what she weighed. She lives with another piggie who is completely different even though we got them at the same time. Patches is much more slender.

Smudge is the first to food and would happily eat 24/7 given a chance I think. :)) Whereas Patches although loves her food it doesn't seem to be quite so food focused.

They are both very active piggies in their run. Zooming around so I guess from this Smudge is just going to be a bigger girl. Thing is how do I cut her food down while still giving Patches enough to eat?

Thanks

Lynda
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I think 1.2kg is probably pretty common with alot of piggies, so might not be drastically chubby.. but DT has a short round stature, whereas Leeland - who is also 1.2kg normally (she isnt well atm so she's only 870gms) is long and quite tall and is more 'athletic' in build so although the same weight I consider her a good weight. I'm guessing my Leeland is like your patches :P
 
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