How to gain weight please!

[Little_Blackbaby033]

Hi everyone I am new to this forum and have been looking for help online and wanted to see if this place would be of any use. My guinea pig black baby is I think 2 or 3 years old but he is very small and underweight for his age and it worries me constantly! I am also in a pretty messy housing situation myself and need to get rid of him soon since I won’t be able to take care of him anymore either cause of it. my family and I have been trying to find ways to sell him or give him away but nobody wants him so I plan on giving him away to a animal shelter but want to make him put one some weight before I do but I just don’t know how, he’s allways been very small but it just worries me to give him away in the condition he is in. Does anyone have any tips they could give me on how to make him gain weight in a quick and safe manner?

 

[Little_Blackbaby033]

This is what he looks like btw! Is this what they’re supposed to look like at his age? I need help I don’t know what to give him!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear of your situation. He looks like a lovely boy!

If you are going to surrender him to a shelter, then please don’t worry about anything to do with his weight - you just need to surrender him and they will check him and do what needs to be done.
If he was to be determined the he shelter /vet that he was underweight, then making them gain weight has to be done very carefully and healthily. It is a process which would take many months - there is no quick way to do it (not even quick and safe) because piggies gain weight very slowly simply by eating a lot of hay.

Unless a vet determines he is medically underweight then you should not do anything to make him put in weight. Feeding him up unnecessarily would be unhealthy.

There is no such guide for weight to age ie a piggy can’t be small based on their age - the healthy adult weight range is anything between 600g and 1600g. A piggy can simply be small but be perfectly healthy. I have one pig who was 1550g in his prime and another who barely weighs 1000g - they are all healthy, just genetically different sizes.

The way you check whether a pig is a healthy size is to check their heft. You put your hands around their ribs and see how many ribs you can feel. You want to be able to just feel his ribs with a nice fat layer over. That then makes him the perfect size.
If you feel every rib and the spaces between them wirh no fat layer, then that is underweight. Not being able to feel any ribs because of a large fat layer then that means he is overweight.

The way guinea pigs put in weight is by eating a lot of hay.
If his diet is a healthy one and he has unlimited access to hay, one cup of veg per day and just one tablespoon of pellets per day, then it is unusual for piggy to be under or overweight. Barring a medical issue, they tend to maintain their genetically determined adult weight nicely without you needing to intervene.

The guide below explains a lot more about weight and heft

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/weight-monitoring-and-management.171577/

 

[Little_Blackbaby033]

Thankyou so much for responding and for the advice you gave me! I usually give him whatever vegetables we have in stock but he’s allways been a picky eater and hates eating the same vegetables more than twice in a row so I guess that can be a reason why. I was just worried of the idea of him being the smallest at the shelter and having difficulty fighting for his food against the others there. But thankyou for the helpful tips you gave me and reassurance! I’ll use the article given to me and just add some more hay or other foods to his diet slowly

 

[Bill & Ted]

Good luck finding him a new home, he looks lovely A good rescue/shelter will be his best option for finding a new loving home. Good luck

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thankyou so much for responding and for the advice you gave me! I usually give him whatever vegetables we have in stock but he’s allways been a picky eater and hates eating the same vegetables more than twice in a row so I guess that can be a reason why. I was just worried of the idea of him being the smallest at the shelter and having difficulty fighting for his food against the others there. But thankyou for the helpful tips you gave me and reassurance! I’ll use the article given to me and just add some more hay or other foods to his diet slowly

Hay needs to be given at all times - he must never run out of it It is the main food and makes up 75% of what he needs to eat in a day.
Veg is not the main food intake, and if he hasn’t been getting enough hay then that needs to be rectified immediately.

I’ll also add our diet guide below

Thread 'Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets'

Jul 14, 2014

1 The recommended ratio of food groups
2 Hay and fresh grass
3 Vegetables, fresh herbs and fruit with an illustrated balanced sample diet
4 Special dietary needs
- Urinary tract infections, bladder stones and sterile IC (non-bacterial interstitial cystitis)
- Diabetes and long term digestive problems
- Impaction in boars
- Pregnancy and nursing dietary tweaks (only visible to registered members who have accepted our no intentional breeding policy)...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Diet

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[Merab]

Sorry you are having to give your boy to an animal shelter.
It will be a wrench for you.
Well done for considering his needs above yours.

Hope your housing situation improves soon