Weight Loss After Stopping Pellets?

Swissgreys

Swissgreys

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I am curious about those of you who have stopped feeding pellets/nuggets.
I know some weight loss is normal and to be expected, but how much weight would an average adult piggy lose when pellets are no longer part of their diet?
Just to clarify they still have access to unlimited quality hay (multiple types), daily fresh veg, and a large amount of fresh cut grass daily.
 
I cannot reply because, as you probably know, I don't use many pellets (just a few pieces a day, few grams thrown on the floor and hidden under the table and the corners, so that they learn to move around the kitchen during floor time). My pellets are totally grain/flours free. I guess there is a difference if you cut a pellet with flour and in that case you might see a weight loss, because flour absorbs water like a sponge. Flour acts like a sugar, rises glicemia and insuline... there is an hormonal imbalance which let the water be absorbed... Cutting cereals and flours this water goes away, the scales show a lower weight but actually the body is not losing a real mass.
If piggies don't eat pellets they eat more hay and more grass...
Some weeks ago my piggies gained 30g in only one week and I couldn't understand the reason... then I discovered that my daughter was giving them a lot of pellets. After explaining my daughter the matter, the piggies had again only few pellets daily and their gained weight got lost in few days. Then they went on gaining weight as slowly as before.
 
When I cut Spike and Peanut down from 30gms nuggets each a day to 15gms Spike lost 20gms over 2 weeks and Peanut didn't loose any. I suspect Spike was eating more than his fair share! Spike regained the weight over the next 3 weeks though. They started eating a lot more hay, which I was pleased about. They now have about 10gms of nuggets each a day, I've just ordered some grainless ones so fingers crossed they like them.
 
2newfriends said:
Sorry to high jack the post, but what is the reason for stopping pellets?
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about me, I have never stopped the pellet, because my piggies simply never had them at the rescue. Here a lot of vets don't consider the pellets a good food and the last guide lines suggest a maximum of few grams (10-20). I have never fed my daughters with processed food and snacks, why should I do with my piggies? unfortunately the pellets are not made only of dry grass and supplements... most of them have flours, carbs, weird ingredients, some of them are not even declared as the laws allow. There are pellets better than the others, but when a piggie does not have the pellet, he eats hay... and hay is the most important food for their gut and their teeth...
Of course this is only my reason... I am glad that I have found a vet stricter than me about this issue, but otherwise I would not give the pellet anyway:roll:. I adopted two sows, one was underweight and she (slowly and regularly) gained the right weight; both have a wonderful bright hair, eat a lot of fresh grass and hay... I use some pellets only for stimulating them to search for them, but they have to walk a lot around the kitchen! :sly:
 
@Swissgreys My Anselmo slowly lost 200g over a couple of months. We stopped pellets when whe was being monitored by the vet so the loss didn't concern us as he has acting normal and loving his hay and veg as usual.

He was a chunky 1400g before and went down to 1200g so the reduction was very much welcomed.
 
My boys don't get pellets that often, more as a treat than a regular part of their diet; our exotics vet does not consider pellets to be a good food either @rome_italy, but when I have a piggy who's losing weight, I feed them pellets daily and it increases their weight. So, in a word, I'm not surprised by the weight loss if you've stopped feeding pellets.
 
Posyrose said:
My boys don't get pellets that often, more as a treat than a regular part of their diet; our exotics vet does not consider pellets to be a good food either @rome_italy, but when I have a piggy who's losing weight, I feed them pellets daily and it increases their weight. So, in a word, I'm not surprised by the weight loss if you've stopped feeding pellets.
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of course! I totally agree with you. I am talking of healthy piggies, not the ones who have some issue and need a special treatment and a concentrated food. I think a little bag of pellets should always stay at home for this reason; it can be melted in water if the piggie does not eat or simply, if he is losing weight or he is not hungry.
My piggies are quite slim (they are two balls of hair but actually they are long and slim) and if they ate pellets they would weight more for sure and would always be considered normal according to the charts; they weigh 750g and 860g; if they weighed 900 and 1000 they would be still normal, but that is what in my opinion is wrong: an excess of fat is never healthy although the charts allow it. And an excess of water into the tissues does not mean anything... (in fact people under cortison therapy weigh more than me and you but it does not mean they are fine;)).
Anyway, if pellets were made of natural ingredients only (grass) they would not affect the weight so fast...:roll:
 
Mine had quite a big weight drop, when I tried to take them off pellets. So l put them back on again but probably only about half of what they had before.
 
Nuggets are part of my guinea pigs diet and I have been told by pets at home that my pigs should be fed a whole bowl once a day however the bowl is only half eaten when I go in their hutch to feed them so I am starting to wonder if they're that important...
 
PiggyPlanet said:
Nuggets are part of my guinea pigs diet and I have been told by pets at home that my pigs should be fed a whole bowl once a day however the bowl is only half eaten when I go in their hutch to feed them so I am starting to wonder if they're that important...
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pets at home is only a shop and if I sold pellets I would give the same advice, maybe...
At the clinic where a good exotic vet works there is a poster with a simple drawning which explain in a simple way the diet: a piggie needs the amount of his whole body's volume in hay; his head's volume in vegs; his ear (one!) volume in pellet... that is 80% (unlimited) hay, 15% vegs and 5% pellets... that is unlimited hay, 80-100g vegs and 5-10g pellets...
 
I have weaned my adults off their pellets as they were piling on weight ridiculously! We got some weight loss at the start and it leveled out after a couple of weeks and now they don't even notice they don't have any :)
 
2newfriends said:
Sorry to high jack the post, but what is the reason for stopping pellets?
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Not hi-jacking at all - that is a perfectly reasonable question.

I feed all of my pigs a grain free pellet (Versele Laga) and Vitacraft complete pellets as an occasional (hand fed) treat.

Ruby (aka complex pig) has recently decided that she doesn't eat pellets anymore.
No pellets at all will enter her precious mouth.
All of the pigs get unlimited fresh hay (at least 2 types at all times), as well as daily fresh veg, and also (during the Summer months) a large amount of fresh cut grass. They are all thriving and maintaining their stable adult weight, except for Ruby.
Ruby eats everything on offer except pellets, and her weight has been slowly declining for the past month.
Thankfully she seems to have stabilized after loosing around 120 grams.

She has been to the vet and been declared healthy and 'feisty' (I think this was the vets way of being polite about how difficult Ruby is to handle).
So I can only attribute the weight loss to her no longer eating pellets.
Hence I was curious to know what others had seen when cutting them out.
 
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