Is one of my female guinea pigs overweight and the other underweight?

[myigglepiggles]

Hi, I have two female guinea pigs which are both 2 years old and they live separately as one bites the other whilst in the same cage but they roam around my room together without any problems. One is a silkie and weighs 660g and she looks a good size and weight, loves to have a good run around my room, she popcorns very often, is very lively, very adventurous and she has had no health problems in the past. But from what I've been reading a female guinea pig should weigh 700g-900g making her in theory underweight. She has unlimited access to hay and water, I don't feed her pellets anymore, instead I give her dried herbs and 'nature's touch guinea pig with Timothy hay' mix which has the same vitamins and other things as pellets but is healthier and she gets 2 small hand fulls of baby leafs a day, and sometimes gets some peppers, cucumbers and small amounts of different fruit but she is pretty picky with what she eats. Do you think she is underweight?
On the other hand, my other piggies is an abbysinian and weighs 1.2kg. Like I said before on the internet it says female guinea pigs should weigh 700g-900g therefore making her 'overweight'. She is a bit chunky, is lazy and she will eat basically everything you give her in any amounts (except hay she doesn't eat all of it as soon as I give some more to her) but let them free roam in my room as often as I can. She has had one health problem in the past where she wouldnt walk on her back leg and would limp and the vet said it might be scurvy (a lack of vitamin c) so we bought vitamin c in powder and mixed it with water and gave it to her and she got better but no other health problems. The same as with my other guinea pig, she has unlimited access to hay and water, I don't feed her pellets anymore, instead I give her dried herbs and 'nature's touch guinea pig with Timothy hay' mix which has the same vitamins and other things as pellets but is healthier and she gets 2 small hand fulls of baby leafs a day, and sometimes gets some peppers, cucumbers and small amounts of different fruit. Do you think she is overweight and if yes what should I do to make her loose weight?

Thankyou for your time of day and some help and advice would be really appreciated!

 

[ScrufflesRules]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I think you'll find this guide really informative: Weight - Monitoring and Management
Your guinea pig is probably not overweight, so don't try and reduce her diet or anything as this would do more harm than good. 660g is very light for an adult guinea pig though, when you say she is picky with what she eats what do you mean by this?
I'm so glad you give your piggies unlimited hay and have cut back on pellets. The free roaming sounds great too.
Do be careful to make sure you don't reintroduce your two girls for free roaming though- guinea pigs who live separately should always stay away from each other. Are their cages next to each other so that they can still interact through the bars? Did your piggies ever draw blood when they were fighting?

Sorry about all the questions. We'd love some photos of your piggies!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Ignore what you have read about ranges for a healthy piggy and what they ‘should be’.
The weight management guide which has been linked in above explains how to check a piggy’s heft. The heft is what tells you whether they are right for themselves.

Each piggy has their own individual healthy size and while the number on the scales is very helpful in telling you that they are eating enough hay, it doesn’t tell you that they are the right size for themselves. Piggies can be healthy for themselves in a very wide range of numbers on the scales. A 600g piggy is not underweight if they have a good heft, a 1200g or even 1500g piggy is not overweight if they have good heft.
Making your 1200g piggy lose weight or your 600g piggy gain weight to fit into an arbitrary range of what they ‘should be’ could put them at health risks - if your 1200g lost weight and weighed 700g, you could feel every one of her ribs and hip bones then we would be telling you she needs to see a vet and find out what is wrong with her!
A specified weight range for what any ‘should be’ are honestly wrong.

Checking their heft, as per our guide, tells you what is right for the individual piggy. If a piggy is fed a good hay based diet and veg and pellets kept to the recommended amounts (which it sounds like you are feeding a good diet) then a piggy will reach their own genetically determined healthy size - they will not be under or overweight.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

The normal weight range in adult guinea pigs is much wider than 'average' weight guides suggest. In fact, 'average' by mathematical definition excludes half of the set it looks at - but this does by no means mean that those guinea pigs are not healthy and well in themselves. Those weight guides are an arbitrary human definition and frankly cause more harm than they help if you take them literally.

The ideal weight and size are genetically determined; there is nothing you can do about that.
I have currently two runts that are just below 600g but well in themselves and have had a boar who was bordering on underweight at 1500g and could have easily packed another 200g without being overweight - Pioden lived to a ripe old 8 years, by the way.

You feel whether your piggies are a good weight for their individual size (i.e. for the BMI or 'heft') easiest around the ribcage. In underweight piggies you can feel every single rib and in overweight piggies you can't feel them at all. Ideally, you should just be able to feel the ribs. That tells you whether the weight of your piggy is actually in the right area or not, independent of their size or age. The overall condition of the body can give you further hints - older piggies tend to be bonier around the hips and spine.
The weekly weigh-in then monitors any health related changes but you can then put them into the right perspective for each piggy of yours. Please accept that the overall weight changes naturally over the course of a lifetime.

If you have concerns after checking for the heft, you can find some practical advice in the Weight Guide but may also want to review your general diet. However, with having a good-sized piggy and a large piggy in the same household, you are likely to be in the right area and are just dealing with normally occurring variation.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

You may find our information resource with lots more helpful advice and how-to tips interesting. We cover a wide range for browsing, reading and re-reading at need. The Guides format allows us to update and add to at need without becoming outdated at all the time. You may want to bookmark the access link: Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection

I hope that this helps you?

 

[myigglepiggles]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I think you'll find this guide really informative: Weight - Monitoring and Management
Your guinea pig is probably not overweight, so don't try and reduce her diet or anything as this would do more harm than good. 660g is very light for an adult guinea pig though, when you say she is picky with what she eats what do you mean by this?
I'm so glad you give your piggies unlimited hay and have cut back on pellets. The free roaming sounds great too.
Do be careful to make sure you don't reintroduce your two girls for free roaming though- guinea pigs who live separately should always stay away from each other. Are their cages next to each other so that they can still interact through the bars? Did your piggies ever draw blood when they were fighting?

Sorry about all the questions. We'd love some photos of your piggies!

Hi, by picky I mean she will refuse to eat different fruits and vegetables that she has ate previously and picks things out of the herbs I give her, leaving other ones. Their cages are on top of each other but when I let one out to free roam when the other one realises it wants to come out and free roam with it (it shows this by bitting the bars or interacting with it) and no blood was drawn but there was biting, teeth chattering and following around. (The heavier guinea pig (Mimi) is the one that attacks the lighter one (Lily), Lily doesn't fight back), Mimi has bit me and drew blood 2 or 3 times before though, that was because she got annoyed by things like catching her or drying her with a towel. It's is alright, thankyou for the advice, I would attach some pictures but it isn't letting me.

 

[myigglepiggles]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I think you'll find this guide really informative: Weight - Monitoring and Management
Your guinea pig is probably not overweight, so don't try and reduce her diet or anything as this would do more harm than good. 660g is very light for an adult guinea pig though, when you say she is picky with what she eats what do you mean by this?
I'm so glad you give your piggies unlimited hay and have cut back on pellets. The free roaming sounds great too.
Do be careful to make sure you don't reintroduce your two girls for free roaming though- guinea pigs who live separately should always stay away from each other. Are their cages next to each other so that they can still interact through the bars? Did your piggies ever draw blood when they were fighting?

Sorry about all the questions. We'd love some photos of your piggies!

 

[myigglepiggles]

Ignore what you have read about ranges for a healthy piggy and what they ‘should be’.
The weight management guide which has been linked in above explains how to check a piggy’s heft. The heft is what tells you whether they are right for themselves.

Each piggy has their own individual healthy size and while the number on the scales is very helpful in telling you that they are eating enough hay, it doesn’t tell you that they are the right size for themselves. Piggies can be healthy for themselves in a very wide range of numbers on the scales. A 600g piggy is not underweight if they have a good heft, a 1200g or even 1500g piggy is not overweight if they have good heft.
Making your 1200g piggy lose weight or your 600g piggy gain weight to fit into an arbitrary range of what they ‘should be’ could put them at health risks - if your 1200g lost weight and weighed 700g, you could feel every one of her ribs and hip bones then we would be telling you she needs to see a vet and find out what is wrong with her!
A specified weight range for what any ‘should be’ are honestly wrong.

Checking their heft, as per our guide, tells you what is right for the individual piggy. If a piggy is fed a good hay based diet and veg and pellets kept to the recommended amounts (which it sounds like you are feeding a good diet) then a piggy will reach their own genetically determined healthy size - they will not be under or overweight.

Ok thankyou for your advice, I will check her heft tomorrow!

 

[myigglepiggles]

Hi

The normal weight range in adult guinea pigs is much wider than 'average' weight guides suggest. In fact, 'average' by mathematical definition excludes half of the set it looks at - but this does by no means mean that those guinea pigs are not healthy and well in themselves. Those weight guides are an arbitrary human definition and frankly cause more harm than they help if you take them literally.

The ideal weight and size are genetically determined; there is nothing you can do about that.
I have currently two runts that are just below 600g but well in themselves and have had a boar who was bordering on underweight at 1500g and could have easily packed another 200g without being overweight - Pioden lived to a ripe old 8 years, by the way.

You feel whether your piggies are a good weight for their individual size (i.e. for the BMI or 'heft') easiest around the ribcage. In underweight piggies you can feel every single rib and in overweight piggies you can't feel them at all. Ideally, you should just be able to feel the ribs. That tells you whether the weight of your piggy is actually in the right area or not, independent of their size or age. The overall condition of the body can give you further hints - older piggies tend to be bonier around the hips and spine.
The weekly weigh-in then monitors any health related changes but you can then put them into the right perspective for each piggy of yours. Please accept that the overall weight changes naturally over the course of a lifetime.

If you have concerns after checking for the heft, you can find some practical advice in the Weight Guide but may also want to review your general diet. However, with having a good-sized piggy and a large piggy in the same household, you are likely to be in the right area and are just dealing with normally occurring variation.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

You may find our information resource with lots more helpful advice and how-to tips interesting. We cover a wide range for browsing, reading and re-reading at need. The Guides format allows us to update and add to at need without becoming outdated at all the time. You may want to bookmark the access link: Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection

I hope that this helps you?

Hi, yes thankyou this helps a lot. The only question I have is which part of the ribs do I need to feel, near the spine or lower down near her stomach or under her? Thankyou

 

[Piggies&buns]

You feel the ribs under her. The guide explains.

Two important points though -
- you say the piggies cages are above one another.
I’m afraid that isn’t suitable for piggies who don’t live together. Single piggies need their cages to be side by side on the same level so they can interact through the bars at all times rather than only when you choose to bring one down. Stacked cages means they lose their ability to fully interact whenever they want to. The fact she is bar biting when the other comes down doesn’t surprise me if they don’t normally get to see each other. Bar biting is not necessarily a sign they want to or are able to interact and form a hierarchy, it can be a territorial defensive behaviour or just plain excitement at seeing another piggy particularly if their living arrangements don’t normally allow it.

- If they cannot live in the same cage then they cannot usually share floor time, particularly if they are trying to bite each other when they do. Her cage biting when the other is out is not a sign they want or are able to be together.
To them, each time you let them out for free roam is seen as a full bonding session where they try to form a hierarchy every single time but never with success due to repeated separation. That is stressful for them and not how piggies function. The piggies either need to be properly bonded, have a functioning relationship and live in the same cage or kept apart but side by side at all times.

 

[myigglepiggles]

You feel the ribs under her. The guide explains.

Two important points though -
- you say the piggies cages are above one another.
I’m afraid that isn’t suitable for piggies who don’t live together. Single piggies need their cages to be side by side on the same level so they can interact through the bars at all times rather than only when you choose to bring one down. Stacked cages means they lose their ability to fully interact whenever they want to. The fact she is bar biting when the other comes down doesn’t surprise me if they don’t normally get to see each other. Bar biting is not necessarily a sign they want to or are able to interact and form a hierarchy, it can be a territorial defensive behaviour or just plain excitement at seeing another piggy particularly if their living arrangements don’t normally allow it.

- If they cannot live in the same cage then they cannot usually share floor time, particularly if they are trying to bite each other when they do. Her cage biting when the other is out is not a sign they want or are able to be together.
To them, each time you let them out for free roam is seen as a full bonding session where they try to form a hierarchy every single time but never with success due to repeated separation. That is stressful for them and not how piggies function. The piggies either need to be properly bonded, have a functioning relationship and live in the same cage or kept apart but side by side at all times.

Ok thankyou for your help!

 

[PiggyPoo]

Oh my! They are incredibly adorable xx