Are my boys underweight.

[Shannonford101]

Hello I have two guinea boys who are between 10-11 weeks, they were purchased from a farm. They have both increased 60g in the last 6 days now weighing 441g & 480-ishg but I’m not sure if I should be worried that they are underweight or on the flip side gaining too quickly.

Is this any cause for concern. I’m constantly worried that the sneeze too much and all sorts but obviously with Covid-19 general check ups aren’t considered essential.

Thanks in advance :-)

 

[Piggies&buns]

As long as they are gaining there is not a concern. All currently sounds fine! Feed them a good hay based diet (hay needs to make up the majority of their daily food intake), a variety of vegetables (introduce slowly if they aren’t used to veg), and a tablespoon of pellets per pig per day and they will gain in their own time and be healthier for having a hay based diet

Guinea pigs will sneeze and cough several times a day as a way of clearing themselves. They can also cough if they eat too fast due to their narrow airways. You just need to be sure that it isn’t excessive and constant, and isn’t accompanied by any other symptoms of a respiratory infection. A vet will see you if you have concerns over their health.

 

[Shannonford101]

As long as they are gaining there is not a concern. All currently sounds fine! Feed them a good hay based diet (hay needs to make up the majority of their daily food intake), a variety of vegetables (introduce slowly if they aren’t used to veg), and a tablespoon of pellets per pig per day and they will gain in their own time and be healthier for having a hay based diet

Guinea pigs will sneeze and cough several times a day as a way of clearing themselves. They can also cough if they eat too fast due to their narrow airways. You just need to be sure that it isn’t excessive and constant, and isn’t accompanied by any other symptoms of a respiratory infection. A vet will see you if you have concerns over their health.

Thank you for this. I feel I’ve been feeding them too many pellets but they don’t eat many of them so I just leave a good amount in their cage and mostly just enjoy hay and daily mixes of veggies. I’ll see what reducing the pellets does as I don’t want them to gain too much but they do also seems tiny.

Having guineas as an adult is new to me, and scary after losing a hamster to wet tail a couple weeks ago.

It really is an infrequent sneeze, mostly after they’ve had their face in hay so that makes sense.

Both boys popcorn and do zoomies a lot so I’m quite confident they are happy. However they haven’t done a proper squeak yet!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Gaining from eating hay us what you want, gaining from eating pellets is not! Pellets should be seen as purely supplementary, they are not and should not form the main part of their diet - they are the least important part. However, the advice is that youngsters up to four months of age can have two tablespoons of adult pellets or one tablespoon of baby guinea pig pellets (that’s per pig per day) (the difference is because the nutrients have already been adjusted in baby guinea pig pellets) - either is fine but once they get to four months really ensure you are not overfeeding them pellets (overfeeding pellets greatly contributes to high calcium intake which is what you don’t want). My two get just half an hour to eat their pellets and any that are left after that time get removed from the cage - they shouldn’t have constant access to them once they are older - plus they actually only get half the amount of pellets, just half a tablespoon each rather than one tablespoon each.

My two didn’t find their voices for ages!

 

[Shannonford101]

Gaining from eating hay us what you want, gaining from eating pellets is not! Pellets should be seen as purely supplementary, they are not and should not form the main part of their diet - they are the least important part. However, the advice is that youngsters up to four months of age can have two tablespoons of adult pellets or one tablespoon of baby guinea pig pellets (that’s per pig per day) (the difference is because the nutrients have already been adjusted in baby guinea pig pellets) - either is fine but once they get to four months really ensure you are not overfeeding them pellets (overfeeding pellets greatly contributes to high calcium intake which is what you don’t want). My two get just half an hour to eat their pellets and any that are left after that time get removed from the cage - they shouldn’t have constant access to them once they are older - plus they actually only get half the amount of pellets, just half a tablespoon each rather than one tablespoon each.

My two didn’t find their voices for ages!

This is great thank you. I think from tomorrow I’ll be measuring the two tablespoons a day and just leaving them with that, the boys fight over food and drink a lot so it’s going to be interesting haha. I didn’t realise quite how little they were meant to have though so it’s good to know. I have just been letting them graze whenever as they barely ate when they first arrived. The little one drinks loads and the bigger boy doesn’t drink much however I’m never too concerned as they have veggies so I’m quite happy that they get water from that.

hopefully it won’t take ages for them to find their voice, the chirping is cute but I just want them to squeak so I know they are 100% happy and comfortable haha.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Its important with boys, and certainly now yours aren’t far off being teenagers, to have two of every item - two bowls, two bottles two hay piles and multiple hidey houses - to prevent them from falling out. It’s really key when dealing with teenage boars to always ensure you respect their hierarchy by handling and dealing with the dominant first and ensuring they don’t have a reason to argue over anything