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Weight Loss - confused

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Claire K

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I placed a post on her last week regarding the fact that my piggies weight seemed to keep fluctuating. I started weighing them daily to keep an eye on them and between last tuesday through to sunday they were gaining weight gradually each day but suddenly again on monday, tuesday and this morning when they were weighed, they had lost weight each morning - only small amounts difference each day of a few grams ie: the first morning one had lost 32 grams since the day before, the second morning she had lost another 3 grams and this morning she had lost another 13 grams despite the fact she is eating as normal, weeing and pooing as normal and drinking fine ..... she is also fine in herself. I will weigh her again tomorrow and see what happens then but wondered if anyone had any ideas.

My second piggy had lost 2 grams on monday mornign when i weighed her, had lost another gram yesterday morning but gained 2 grams this morning again ??

Is it usual for piggies to have weight gains / losses from day to day like this or should i be worried?

Please help ?
 
I'm sure it's been said on here that a daily fluctuation of 30g either way is completely normal, I think due to fullness of bladder etc.
 
there have been times though when one of them will lose a few grams each day for 3 or 4 days in a row and then spend the next few days putting weight on again - is this all part of possible having full bladder / maybe eating earlier / later the evening before being weighed etc ?
 
Yes, it is all part of the pattern. Guinea pigs do need to eat more compared to their body weight than we do because they are herbivores and theirfore need to process more food than with a protein rich diet. Their guts are a lot bigger than ours. That means that their body weight fluctuates much more than ours.

With healthy piggies it is normal to weigh weekly and note down any differences that are bigger than 30-50g.

Here is the link to guinea lynx again with their golden rule for weekly weigh-ins:
1oz (30g) weight loss - not to worry about
2oz (60g) weight loss - be alert and start weighing daily
3oz (90g) weight loss - see vet
4oz (120g weight loss - see vet asap!

http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
 
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