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Guinea Pigs losing weight

Cherry Berry

Cherry Berry

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello Guinea Pig Parents,

I hope this message finds you well.

My guinea pigs, Cherry and Berry are losing weight, please see the image attached.
I suspect it could be because of the hot weather as they are losing fur and drinking a lot of water. I am considering monitoring them for a few days.

Do you think I should take them to the vet?

Best wishes
 

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In terms of the weight, Berry looks to just be having normal fluctuation. Swings of up to 50g up or down is fine and within normal limits.

Cherry on the other hand, while most of the weight changes are still within normal fluctuation, it has now made a downward trend which has now hit 100g so, yes, I would step in with support feeding to stabilise the weight and do have her checked by a vet.
Ensure you continue to weigh them both daily while you have concerns.

When you say losing fur, I assume you mean amounts beyond what is normal shedding?

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
 
Piggies&buns said:
In terms of the weight, Berry looks to just be having normal fluctuation. Swings of up to 50g up or down is fine and within normal limits.

Cherry on the other hand, while most of the weight changes are still within normal fluctuation, it has now made a downward trend which has now hit 100g so, yes, I would step in with support feeding to stabilise the weight and do have her checked by a vet.
Ensure you continue to weigh them both daily while you have concerns.

When you say losing fur, I assume you mean amounts beyond what is normal shedding?

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply. I should have mentioned that both my guinea pigs are boys my bad haha.

Sure I would start supporting Cherry with syringe feeding and contact their vet too.

Their behaviour is normal and fur lost has been more since the heat wave started. They used to finish one of their water bottles along with watery vegetables during the hot days. Today they didn't had as much as water so I am not sure about if it is too much water that has caused this weight change but I will keep an eye
 
Hi,

I took Cherry and Berry to their vet. She had a complete health check and said that both the boys look fine, they are not underweight so she is not worried at the moment.

However, with their regular food Cherry Berry are still losing weight. If I give them some extra food to increase their weight, I have also ordered some critical care for them.

Their behaviour is normal, they still get excited for the food, and toys, as well as their poop, is normal.

Can you please advise me on what to do?
 
Cherry Berry said:
Hi,

I took Cherry and Berry to their vet. She had a complete health check and said that both the boys look fine, they are not underweight so she is not worried at the moment.

However, with their regular food Cherry Berry are still losing weight. If I give them some extra food to increase their weight, I have also ordered some critical care for them.

Their behaviour is normal, they still get excited for the food, and toys, as well as their poop, is normal.

Can you please advise me on what to do?
Click to expand...

What do you mean by their regular food?
They maintain their weight through adequate hay intake.
 
Cherry Berry said:
By regular food, I mean vegetables, pellets and hay. In order to get their weight increased, I have to give them extra vegetables, pellets
Click to expand...

Is that what the vet said?
That’s not how you get them to gain weight.
Suddenly overdoing veg can cause gut disturbance. Overdoing pellets can lead to excess calcium intake and unhealthy weight gain.

Their main food is hay - 80% of the daily food intake
Veg is one cup per
Pellets once tablespoon per day
 
Piggies&buns said:
Is that what the vet said?
That’s not how you get them to gain weight.
Suddenly overdoing veg can cause gut disturbance. Overdoing pellets can lead to excess calcium intake and unhealthy weight gain.

Their main food is hay - 80% of the daily food intake
Veg is one cup per
Pellets once tablespoon per day
Click to expand...
So how should I help them increase weight as it is more than 100g for Cherry and Berry is also close to 100g. Should I just use their critical care along with vegetables, hay and pellets?
 
You give them plenty of hay.
You then syringe feed as much as is necessary to stop weight loss each day.
Feed the normal amount of veg and pellets
 
You can only reduce the syringe feeding once they are eating enough hay independently to stop losing weight.
Mystery weight loss is such a difficult thing to be dealing with. If there is a medical reason then you can deal with it but without a diagnosis all you can do is syringe feed.

Do they live indoors?
 
Piggies&buns said:
You can only reduce the syringe feeding once they are eating enough hay independently to stop losing weight.
Mystery weight loss is such a difficult thing to be dealing with. If there is a medical reason then you can deal with it but without a diagnosis all you can do is syringe feed.

Do they live indoors?
Click to expand...
They are hay normally as they eat, I am filling their hay rack three times like usual but I have no idea what is gone wrong and yes they live indoors
 
This is their weight chart, I stopped weighing them daily as their vet said it was not needed but when I did the weekly health check I was worriedScreenshot 2022-08-20 at 15.10.04.webp
 
I would switch back to weighing once daily and use that as a guide on whether you are giving enough topup. Mystery weight loss, as said, is really difficult. Hopefully with the top ups they will start at least maintaining.
 
It’s so frustrating when the weight loss is a mystery.
You’ve been given excellent advice.
Maybe put a dish of the syringe feed into the cage as well as the feeds.
It will encourage them to eat.
Hope they gain weight for you.
 
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