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Weight Loss

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fiona357

fiona357

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello,

I hope someone can give me some advice - I have two boys, Thor and Loki. I weigh them weekly, and recently Loki has lost 100g in a week - he's usually around 1060g, but is down to about 930g. I've been weighing him daily since then and monitoring him, and he seems his normal self - he's eating, drinking, weeing and pooing! (He seems to be drinking more than usual at the moment.) Since this loss, his weight has been pretty consistent around 930g (with 20-30g differences each day, but I figured that was either a full or empty bladder).

After weighing both pigs again yesterday, Thor has put on more weight which makes me think he's eating much more food than usual! Unfortunately I can't feed them separately as Loki gets very anxious without Thor, and isn't happy with lap time veggies (he's not a "people pig").

His front teeth look OK, can anyone offer any advice? Thanks so much!
 
Can you feed them smaller portions in bowls that are over a body length apart, so no boy can hog it - just enough that they can eat it all in one go (including pellets, which they should be down to 10-20g daily per piggy anyway).

If in doubt, please see your vet. A number of health issues can start with weight loss.
 
Hi Wiebke, thanks for your reply!

Yep they have two of everything - their bowls are at opposite ends of the cage. They are fed small portions of nuggets and veg twice daily - I'll cut it down to smaller portions - two in the morning and two in the evening - and see if that helps. It's strange as Thor isn't pushing Loki away (Loki is our dominant boy and if he wants something off Thor he gets it!) - I'll see if I can get him checked at the vets.

(Just a thought, I regularly fetch then grass and dandelion leaves from our garden, shall I see if I can get them wormed in case that could be causing any problems?)
 
I would discuss that with your vet. The opinions on worming are pretty split.
 
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