What foods can help my piggy gain weight?

[MollysPigs]

I noticed last week that my 4 year old boat Spyro was looking a little skinny. I couldn’t feel his rib cage or anything like that but he does feel a little bony. I took him to the vet and he isn’t ill at all, and he’s been eating and drinking and acting normally. I’m just not sure why he’s lost some weight. What foods could help him gain some weight back?

 

[Siikibam]

How much weight has he lost and over what period of time? And how old (roughly) is he? Also, what did the vet day about his weight?

Checking the heft is a good way to judge their weight. Every pig is different, there’s no general weight for them.

 

[Wiebke]

I noticed last week that my 4 year old boat Spyro was looking a little skinny. I couldn’t feel his rib cage or anything like that but he does feel a little bony. I took him to the vet and he isn’t ill at all, and he’s been eating and drinking and acting normally. I’m just not sure why he’s lost some weight. What foods could help him gain some weight back?

Hi!

It is good that you have had your boy vet checked first and foremost.

Please be aware that if your boy is losing weight because of illness or a problem with a failing organ, then feeding your boy up won't work.
How piggy savvy is your vet? Have they checked for potential kidney failure, diabetes, hyperthyoridism, thickened bowels (IBS), liver failure or an internal tumour etc. ?

Your boy is now at an age where making up lost weight is getting harder and harder and may not necessarily happen. it is also the age when the hip bones are becoming a bit more prominent. Please keep monitoring his weight regularly with your kitchen scales.
If you can, please feel around the ribcage next time you give him a cuddle to feel for the heft.

But there is nothing wrong with giving him extra feed if there is really a gradual weight loss going on. Please do not overdo the amount of veg you are feeding. Hay, hay and more hay and fibre should be still what he mostly eats.
You can find tips for that in this guide here: Weight - Monitoring and Management