Best Food for Fattening up an old piggie?

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youthnovels

youthnovels

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Hello! Sorry it seems I've not been on here much, had a busy few months.

Anyway, I have a piggie whose not drastically old compared to some piggies but old enough for her to start losing form a bit. She is around four and a half years+. Over the past few months she's has steadily been losing weight. We have taken her to the vets (guinea pig specialists) who has ran all the tests and nothing is coming back as abnormal. She's not ill, very alert and lively infact but just looking more and more like an old lady.

The vet isn't worried at all and feels it is just down to old age. He is opposed to feeding pellets and advises for a hay and veg only diet for both pigs and rabbits. I don't follow this as I'm worried I wouldn't meet all the demands, plus they would kill me if I stopped with their pellets. :)) They are currently on burgess excel blackcurrant and oregano, I've increased their daily amount right up in the hope she puts on more weight. Despite the fact that she is the first one at the food bowl and very much mother hen in the group (she is definitely not being bullied by the others) she is still not putting on weight and it's just leading to the other piggies getting chunkier.

They all have unlimited hay which gets topped up daily and roughly 3-4 cups of various veg a day between five of them. I'm worried (in a sense) that she's filling herself up on these, not eating as many pellets as she normally would and therefore not putting on the weight.

Can anyone see a solution? I want my big fat chunky girl back!
 
I am very sorry, but if a piggy reaches that stage, it is near impossible to get some weight back on. I have been there myself and know the sadness and desperation that comes with it!

You can try feeding more pellets, starchy sweetcorn or some porridge oats, but don't expect wonders. However, a good, balanced diet is better.
 
Our Piggie 'Putt' lost weight as she got older and certainly over 5 she weighed much less than when she was in her younger years, no matter how much she ate.

I guess they are like in humans and that in old age we lose weight. Good idea to have got her checked out at the vets, glad she is healthy. Which piggie of yours is she?
 
Moonpig was losing weight recently ( although still eating healthily, it's her ovarian cysts apparently causing the weight loss) so I talked to the vet and we both agreed that it would be worth supplementing her diet with an extra "treat" of Critical Care each day ( she LOVES the stuff! ). She only has one or two teaspoons each day ( mixed with warm water ) along with her usual meals and I don't know if that's helped but her weight has stabilised ( not gone back up but thankfully not gone down anymore ). Don't know if it's worth you trying that.
 
sport_billy said:
Our Piggie 'Putt' lost weight as she got older and certainly over 5 she weighed much less than when she was in her younger years, no matter how much she ate.

I guess they are like in humans and that in old age we lose weight. Good idea to have got her checked out at the vets, glad she is healthy. Which piggie of yours is she?
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She's Peaches. I posted a photo of her on Sunday I think it was. We recently (and completely unexpectedly) lost our other older lady Maisie which is why I'm worried about her recent weightloss. I'm not ready to let her go yet so I'm trying everything to fatten her up.

There's plenty of life in the old girl yet and she seems alert enough, so hopefully it is just her reaching her twilight years and she's still got a fair bit of time left with us!
 
As wiebke has said, try porridge and sweetcorn. But remember to still maintain the balanced diet
 
Just went and rechecked the photo's thread. I remember the thread now! She is lovely x)

Just keep an extra special eye on Peaches weight, that's what we did with Putt, she decreased and found a plateau that she stayed around.
 
AndreaJane said:
Moonpig was losing weight recently ( although still eating healthily, it's her ovarian cysts apparently causing the weight loss) so I talked to the vet and we both agreed that it would be worth supplementing her diet with an extra "treat" of Critical Care each day ( she LOVES the stuff! ). She only has one or two teaspoons each day ( mixed with warm water ) along with her usual meals and I don't know if that's helped but her weight has stabilised ( not gone back up but thankfully not gone down anymore ). Don't know if it's worth you trying that.
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Hi,
Yes, my little old adopted guinea girl called Caramel has lost a lot of weight, from her heyday at 1.3kg to just 900gr now. Had her checked out and nothing found. She is around 5 or 6yrs old now. Looks lovely, shiny coat, she looks like a young guinea pig. Quite chatty and energetic. I have been giving her a couple of feeds of Critical Care, along with her usual feeds. She likes it best when served warm! Her weight is stable at 900gr, sometimes she goes down to 850gr, but on the whole I keep her warm and comfortable with regular Metacam for her arthritic hands, which resemble flippers, bless her.
 
One of my piggy's Bingo is also about 4 and a half years. My other, Puzzle is about 2 and she weighs about 100g more that Bingo. We weigh the pigs each week to monitor their weight and when Bingy gets lighter, I hand feed her dinner, just to make sure she gets some of it! I wonder if Puzzle steals some of the food off her, but I don't think she does. I tend only to hand feed her her dinner of veggies, as she doesn't take her dry breakfast food from my hand. We feed our piggies Wagg, but in the past we have also tried the Wilko's Guinea Pig Food.

Does anybody have any suggestions of a better food for the pigs? I've wondered about trying the Burgess Excel Pellets, but they are really expensive where I am and I don't know if my piggies would actually eat them as they always leave the pellets in the Wagg mixture.

Also if you want your piggy to gain weight, perhaps try giving them a treat bar, mine love them. You can get them from loads of places, I get mine from Wilko's (it's my pigs favourite!) and they do strawberry, apple, carrot and mixed pellet/seed. My pigs favourite is the carrot one. Plus, they are really good value if your piggies enjoy them. They are 49 or 50p for one and you can also get the ones that hang on the cage for about £1 for 2.
Hope this helped,
Puzzlepigs
 
My two old girls are 6 now and they are both feeling a little thinner, although they haven't lost weight. I think it's redistributed to their tummies. Comes to us all I'm afraid :))

If she's recently lost her friend then introducing her to another piggie is likely to help. I tend to get a placid neutered boar for old ladies as I find it easier to do intros. We had a piggie who lost an alarming amount of weight after we lost his girlfriend. I lent him to someone I knew who had 20 girls to live with him and he was a round little fella again within weeks.

Sadly she could have a problem that isn't easy to diagnose. With the older piggies sometimes all you can do is give them the best quality if life you can and watch them for signs that they are in pain.

I feed quite limited pellets, but I agree that it's important to feed some as they contain all of the vitamins and minerals needed and a bit of extra protein. Mine have always done well on burgess.

Paula
 
Big Fred was exactly the same, normal in every other way except for being skinny, i found it really difficult to get him to put on weight. I gave him lots of barley rings, and unlimited pellets, and banana, which he loved. He ate normally and was still skinny, i think its just a part of getting old unfortunately. x
 
I have a piggy who is 7 1/2, she still eats normally but has definitely lost weight recently. She seems to have stabilised at a lower weight though like another member said, she's not losing more as the weeks go by. She's very lively, very noisy, still always waiting for me to open the cage and top up the veggies! I think it is just a part of getting old for some guinea pigs. I did wonder if her husboar Ed was eating more the food but then I remembered she wears the trousers and would kindly tell him where to go if he tried to steal from her.

I also have Peanut who is 8 but he's still quite chunky for a old man! Some pigs look old before their time and others just don't. Same with people!

Best thing to do in my opinion is keep her happy, warm and comfortable and continue to provide a nice retirement for her.
 
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