Young Guinea Pig Not Gaining Weight...

[Festivefeet]

• Hi there. Will try to keep this as brief as possible....

We have three pigs. All males. 10-12 weeks old at this point. Purchased from Petco. Sick within a day of coming home. Lesson learned to not fall in love with and adopt piggies from big chain pet stores. That’s a whole other topic. Anyway. They were all treated for URI. Two got worse and the vet put them all on stronger meds to treat for more serious URI / possibly phnemonia. Everyone is better from the respitory illness. However our one pig, Fred, was not gaining weight and growing like the others and at one point was losing. He hasn’t stopped eating. He eats and drinks like the others. I felt concerned since his cage mates were above 500g and Fred was 390g and even fell to 376g (you could feel his bone structures) . So with research on this forum I started feeding him critical care mixed with baby applesauce, pedialyte, and baby oatmeal, about 12ml syringe every 3 hours (he is also getting all the regular piggie diet basics, hay/oxbow pellets/veggies/and offering vitamin c tablets). This morning he weighed in at 416g. Which is an improvement for sure. But his cage mates are now well over 600g. So how long is it safe to continue this supplemental feeding regimen? And when do I stop to see if he will maintain and then continue to gain weight on his own? Even his genitalia was way more underdeveloped than his brothers. Now that seems to have changed and his boy anatomy is more apparent. I feel worried for him. I feel like I am walking around in the dark hoping this will work, but it would be great if others, more experienced could way in.

Thanks for listening.
Jessica
Piggie Mama to Fred, Sirius, and Neville

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

So sorry you're going through this.

Has he been given a clean bill of health?

Unfortunately 3 boars rarely works, the fall out rate is incredibly high sadly. In fact I'm wondering whether the 2 other boys are preventing him from eating? Have you noticed them pushing him away from food? It may be worth considering separating him, it's likely you'll need to at some point anyway and get him a new friend.

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum. Others with much more knowledge and experience will be along with helpful advice.
I just wanted to welcome you and say well done for offering those 3 boys such a good home.
Looking forward to pics

 

[Wiebke]

• Hi there. Will try to keep this as brief as possible....

We have three pigs. All males. 10-12 weeks old at this point. Purchased from Petco. Sick within a day of coming home. Lesson learned to not fall in love with and adopt piggies from big chain pet stores. That’s a whole other topic. Anyway. They were all treated for URI. Two got worse and the vet put them all on stronger meds to treat for more serious URI / possibly phnemonia. Everyone is better from the respitory illness. However our one pig, Fred, was not gaining weight and growing like the others and at one point was losing. He hasn’t stopped eating. He eats and drinks like the others. I felt concerned since his cage mates were above 500g and Fred was 390g and even fell to 376g (you could feel his bone structures) . So with research on this forum I started feeding him critical care mixed with baby applesauce, pedialyte, and baby oatmeal, about 12ml syringe every 3 hours (he is also getting all the regular piggie diet basics, hay/oxbow pellets/veggies/and offering vitamin c tablets). This morning he weighed in at 416g. Which is an improvement for sure. But his cage mates are now well over 600g. So how long is it safe to continue this supplemental feeding regimen? And when do I stop to see if he will maintain and then continue to gain weight on his own? Even his genitalia was way more underdeveloped than his brothers. Now that seems to have changed and his boy anatomy is more apparent. I feel worried for him. I feel like I am walking around in the dark hoping this will work, but it would be great if others, more experienced could way in.

Thanks for listening.
Jessica
Piggie Mama to Fred, Sirius, and Neville

Hi and welcome

Birth weights in guinea pigs can roughly range from about 40g to 120g - that means that the biggest babies are triple the size to the smallest ones. When piggies are mass bred, there is an increasing risk that you get runts.

These differences in weights are carried through and are going to increase as they grow on; the biggest weight difference I've ever had in siblings was 500g at the peak of their lives - and both lived to a good old age of nearly 6 and over 8 years old. As long as your boy is gaining weight and is on a good diet, there is no reason to worry.
Concentrate on a good quality diet and feed veg and pellets rather in small portions that can be eaten in one go in a bowl each (spaced at least a body length away) 2-3 times a day so you prevent food hogging. Remove the bowls in between meals. Since hay should make over 80% of the daily food intake, your boys are actually encouraged to eat as much as they can of that - it is going to enhance their health and overall longevity. Make sure that there is plenty of hay in different places, again to prevent your little one from being kept away.
The more your baby boy is eating on his own the better.

Keep an eye on your little boy once your trio reaches the teenage months at around 4 months of age. Only about 10% of all baby boar trios make to adulthood (at around 15 months) without separation. It would be good if you had a plan B in place in the medium term so you are not caught out.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diet
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight

Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides

 

[Festivefeet]

I was not aware of not being able to keep bores together. Even if they grow up together? They will have a larger cage within the next week that we are building. We will be able to separate them to feed them if tart will help. Fred did go from 390g down to 367g last week. Rhett concerned me a lot. He felt very skeletal. ☹ I just want him to thrive and maintain good weight on his own.

They did not go back to the vet for clean bill of health, but I talked to the vet on the phone and she said with the report I gave her, she felt they were on the right track.

We are new at this and doing as much research as possible to get and keep these piggies healthy.

 

[Festivefeet]

These are our piggies. These pictures were taken when we first got them on Feb. 24th. The vet thought they were probably about 4 weeks old then. I wouldn't be as concerned about Fred if he was a runt and felt thick and healthy, but the skeletal feel he has when I hold him worries me.


- Jessica

 

[Merab]

They are so very, very cute.

 

[Wiebke]

They are very cute!

Please make sure that when you move your boys into a larger cage that you use some soiled bedding and rub it over the new cage and that you do not clean their hideys so it smells like their territory. Otherwise they will have to re-establish their hierarchy with more dominance behaviour. It is good that you are moving them before the hormones hit, otherwise a cage change can be an additional destabilising factor.

The problem with a baby boar trio is that they all hit the big hormone spikes together. Two together can be tricky enough and lead to fall-outs (although more boar pairs make it than not); three is very difficult unless you have got exactly the right mix of submissive and dominant when the boys are playing 'who is the biggest macho in here'. Make sure that you can split your cage if necessary!
This guide contains information about the teenage months, the typical phases, what you can do to remove potential flash point, how you test whether a bond is still viable and detailed advice about your options when things go haywire. Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?