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Overweight

Demi

Demi

Junior Guinea Pig
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Is there anyway to tell of your piggy is overweight?
 
Okay just one of our piggies is much heavier than the others, she is very pear shape (no chance of being pregnant) and she has always been much bigger than the others. She is around 2 years old
 
How much does she actually weigh?
Photos can be very deceptive depending on the shape of the piggie in question.
Is her weight generally stable on a weekly basis?

What is her diet like?
Do her cage mates also maintain a stable weight.

I think piggie weight can vary quite a bit in full grown adults.
Our 'baby' is only 11 months old and she is the heaviest of all of our piggies, although her weigh gain has pretty much stopped now.
 
Everyone told me Mo was overweight but the vet said he wasn't - suppose he's just a BIG pig lol
 
Thank you guys I've looked at the guide and I think she is just a big pig haha :p
 
Weigh her. She should be from 700-900 grams. If she is heavier, feed her less pellets and don’t give her fruit until she is the right weight. She should have 1 cup of vegetables each day. If this doesn’t work, upgrade them to a bigger cage or take out any unnecessary items so they have more room to run around.
 
Dog Cow said:
Weigh her. She should be from 700-900 grams. If she is heavier, feed her less pellets and don’t give her fruit until she is the right weight. She should have 1 cup of vegetables each day. If this doesn’t work, upgrade them to a bigger cage or take out any unnecessary items so they have more room to run around.
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Hi welcome to the forum and thank you for so quickly trying to help other members, it's actions like this that make the forum tick and a friendly place to be.

In regards to the weights though, if you check the link to the guide shared above, a weight range of up to 1500g can be expected and it is far from unusual for a fully grown piggy to weigh more than the 900g you have quoted. As long as the piggy is healthy in their weight rather than obese then there is no reason to place them on a diet to lower their weight
 
Dog Cow said:
Weigh her. She should be from 700-900 grams. If she is heavier, feed her less pellets and don’t give her fruit until she is the right weight. She should have 1 cup of vegetables each day. If this doesn’t work, upgrade them to a bigger cage or take out any unnecessary items so they have more room to run around.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome!

Please be aware that pet guinea pigs on a healthy, balanced hay based diet are generally heavier than the old textbooks cite from which you have got your weights.

Individual adult weight can vary between 800-1800g and depending on the size/weight ratio be still perfectly healthy. We advise to feel around the ribcage to establish whether a guinea pig is obese or not. If you can still feel the ribs, your guinea pig is a good weight for its size; if you can't feel the ribs, then your guinea pig is obese and can do with losing weight. If you can feel every rib sticking out, then your guinea pig is underweight. This is a much more effective way of judging the individual weight/size ratio.
Considering the enormous range in adult sizes, the very low and narrow textbook weight range you are citing simply doesn't reflect this.

I get repeatedly compliments from knowledgeable vets for my well kept piggies, which are mostly in the range between 1000-1200g, but I do have smaller and larger piggies whose ideal weight range is accordingly lower or higher.
When giving your advice, you also have to factor in in which stage of their lives guinea pigs are - if they are at the peak of their life at around 2-3 years old, they tend to be naturally heavier than at any other time of their lives. If the majority of my adult guinea pigs were in your cited weight range, their ribs would all stick out and they would have to be (and actually have been when seen by a vet over a health issue with weight loss) considered underweight.
 
My lightest piggie is a boar who weighs 900g and my heaviest is a sow who weighs in at 1275g they are both perfectly healthy happy piggies.
 
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