Overweight Pig, Comfort Eating!

[Madge Woollard]

Hi, I think my Alice is getting podgy. She's 3 months old and eats continuously. Each day I feed her nuggets in the morning, vegetables in the afternoon and hay and grass all day. Should I be cutting down? Her sister, Clare, is small in comparison and doesn't get half as much food, so I don't want to prevent her growing. Although Clare is the shyer one, she likes to strut around and pretend to dominate. Alice doesn't like this and I think she is comfort eating to compensate.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

I would recommend to serve your food in two bowls, spaced at least a body length apart. Also feed smaller portions that can get eaten in one go. That prevents the greedy pigs from hogging most of it. In your case, try to feed hald of the veg mix in the morning, followed by a handful of pellets (ca. 20g for each bowl) and then repeat this in the evening.

You will always get quite a difference in size/weight between very hyper youngsters and greedy slugabouts. That is nothing to worry about in itself as long as you ensure that the more active companion is getting their share. I have and have adopted litter sisters with quite large weight difference due the difference in personalities; the difference has been around 100g in youngsters to up to 400g in adults.

Who is boss doen't necessarily depend on size, but on leader qualities. My much smaller Nia was the undisputed top sow of the Tribe for over three years whereas her much larger sister Nerys always did her own thing (consisting of not wasting one single calorie she could hang onto, as far I can see)!

You may find this thread here helpful: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/

Please weigh your girls weekly throughout their lives. It is an important health monitor.