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Skinny guinea pig

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Deelove78

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Hi my daughter has three guinea pigs two males housed together. And one female housed alone. One of the males seems skinny when I hold him. I can feel his hip bones and he is half the size of his brother. I used to keep guinea pigs 20 years ago and I know this is a bad sign. I'm not sure how old they are the boys are kept in a C and C type cage. I put in a picture of me and him he loves snuggling.
 

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Welcome to the forum

Has this piggy been weighed weekly up as routine?

Older piggies can lose mass as they age but without knowing how old they are it is hard to comment further.
How long has your daughter had them?
Were they young when she got them?
It would give a rough idea as to whether you may be looking at age related mass loss.

Either way, it is important that you Check his heft by putting your hands around their ribs (not around the hips). If you can feel every rib with no fat layer then he is likely underweight and will need you to step in with emergency measures.

You will need to Switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh him daily (each morning) so you can more closely monitor hay intake.
If he is losing weight then he is not eating enough hay and you will need to urgently step in with syringe feeding to keep his gut functioning and to stop him from losing anymore weight. Please do see a vet.

This guide explains the importance of weekly weight checks and how to check heft

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/weight-monitoring-and-management.171577/

These guides are our emergency and syringe feeding guides in case you need them

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
 
Her friend gave them to her about a month ago. I know they are adults the female is quite round and the other male is has a good body weight for what I can feel. She feeds lots of hay and pellets. I have pictures of the other two. I have a food scale that I have not used could that work. I will look for a ver that takes guinea pigs in my city. I know she can't afford it but I would be willing to help her out with cost. She's going to school for PSW. The female who looks pregnant to me she is housed by herself she is the brown one and the white one is the other
Male.
IMG_20250804_140954748~2.webpIMG_20250812_154139113.webp
 
I have added our diet guide below.
The guinea pig diet should be primarily hay (hay should make up around 75-80% of the daily food intake).
They should have one cup of mix vegetables per pig per day.
They should never be allowed lots of pellets. Pellets should be strictly limited to one tablespoon per pig per day. Giving too many pellets is very unhealthy. Overfeeding pellets can lead to obesity, lack of hay intake which can cause serious consequences such as dental issues and gut issues. Too many pellets will also introduce too much calcium into the diet which can lead to the formation of bladder stones

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Was the female piggy kept with the males then?
If you suspect she is pregnant then she will need to be on pregnancy watch.
I have added our pregnancy guide below which details all the care information.
Do remember that if she is pregnant and has any make pups that they beee to be separated from mum and sisters at 21 days of age otherwise male babies will impregnate their mother.
You cannot keep more than two males together so you would need to have a long term plan for living arrangements should that become necessary

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...on-collection-incl-help-with-any-dads.191229/
 
Yes she is feeding mostly Timothy hay and very little pellets and gives them veggies as a treat. I also feed veggies when I come over. I will be there tomorrow to babysit my grandson. I will bring my scale and see how much they weigh. We think the female is just fat we were told they were not together, but when she got the pigs they were in dirty cages and they hay was being used as bedding.
 
If you were only told the female was not with a male but didn’t see for yourself and they were kept in poor condition then I would have the female on pregnancy watch anyway.
If the boys are happily living together then it is probable she was not in with them as if anybody tries to keep two boys with a female then the boys would be fighting.

There is nothing wrong with hay being used as bedding but it does need to be kept clean.

Make sure they are weighed every week as routine but if they come from poor conditions I would weigh them daily (weigh every morning) for a week or two so you can get a closer monitor on the situation.
 
The white male weights 131 grams and the smaller male weights 118 grams and the female weights 177 grams. I had to put a plate on the scale and I never used this scale before. And I never weighed guinea pigs before so I don't know what is normal.
 
Those weights can’t be right - those weights are those of babies a few days old (Adult piggies with weights in 100-200g would not be alive survive).
For adult piggies you are looking for weights in excess of 800g.

I would weigh an item which you know the weight off - a bag of sugar for example - so you can check whether the scales are working properly.

Do keep in mind that their weight only tells you that they are eating enough hay from day to day.
You need to check their hefts to work out if they are a good size for themselves
 
Deelove78 said:
The white male weights 131 grams and the smaller male weights 118 grams and the female weights 177 grams. I had to put a plate on the scale and I never used this scale before. And I never weighed guinea pigs before so I don't know what is normal.
Click to expand...
1 kilo + the grams noted would be possible weights.

Piggies&buns said:
I would weigh an item which you know the weight off - a bag of sugar for example - so you can check whether the scales are working properly.
Click to expand...
Good idea!
 
Those weights can't be right unless they are tiny babies! Maybe try centering the scale and make sure they are putting all their weight on it (it can be hard to get them to stand balanced on a food scale, I use one to weigh my pigs too and it can be finicky!)

In any event, a checkup is probably a good idea since they are new to your home and you don't know the full history. They can check the female for potential pregnancy and look at the health of the two boys, including the thinner one. I'm also from Ontario (hi fellow Canadian!) and most vets who are knowledgeable about guinea pigs will bill themselves as seeing 'exotics' or 'pocket pets.' It's definitely worth seeing one of these vets, the cost is about the same and their knowledge base is a lot better, they will catch some things that a vet who doesn't specialize in rodents/exotics might not see.

For the thin boy, make sure the vet takes a good look at his teeth, the molars and not just the incisiors in the front. Teeth would be an obvious thing to check for weight loss, and sometimes the teeth in the front can look normal while the teeth in the back are overgrown.

All the best with your new pigs and I hope the vet can give you some feedback to get your little guy back on track weight-wise!
 
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