Hi. I have a guinea pig who is around 3? years old and he has gotten skinny, (but not life threatening thankfully!) I realized his cage mate has been stealing food from him so I ordered pellets, a new cage for separation, and critical care. my guinea pig DOES eat still but I just want to know how I can fatten him up again
Hi
Over three quarters of what a guinea pig eats in a day is hay, hay and more hay. You cannot control that by eye but that is where the weight loss usually comes from. The critical care formula is mainly there to replace the vital hay/grass fibre intake. Veg, pellets and any treats all together only replace the supplementary role of wild forage.
During and illness and recovery with diminished or total loss of appetite you are looking firstly at slowing down the weight loss, secondly at stabilising it and only thirdly, once the appetite improves again during the recovery at weight gain. The latter goes hand in hand with eating more on their own. How much and how often you feed during the day depends on how much your piggy takes in each session. If you struggle to get 5 ml in, then you should feed every 2 hours during the day and possible once in the night (total loss of appetite), 10-15 ml, feed 3-4 times a day, 15 ml plus per session, feed 1-2 per day.
You manage that process by weighing daily on your kitchen scales first thing in the morning when the daily weight swing is at its lowest (for best day to day comparison). As long as the weight continues to go down each day, you up the feeding sessions and support as much as possible; if the weight is stable you, continue with the current level until your piggy is eating more in each session; then you can gradually reduce to the degree that they are eating by themselves and switch to weight building top up feeding once or twice a day. By that stage, you can stop feeding offer the mush in a bowl.
Also offer a syringe full of water for every 3-5 syringes, depending on how loose or dry your mix is and whether you piggy is still drinking or not.
More practical how-to tips and information in these links here (worth reading and watching the videos):
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Weight - Monitoring and Management
All the best with the recovery, whatever the problem is. Please take into account that antibiotics can suppress or kill the appetite since they can also impact on the digestive bacteria in the gut. Some piggies react much more strongly than others.
