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Loss of appetite - vet says fine

My boys likes a few oats in winter too. Hope Clover is on the mend now, I give whatever we have in the fridge veg wise, mine hate peppers and coriander. Luckily the water here is quite soft so don’t have to worry too much about calcium which is where they get most of it from x
 
Thanks everybody for the advice - wouldn't it be great if guinea pigs self-regulated and knew exactly which foods were good/bad for them?! Clover's not shown much interest in the oats so I might try the Oat Hay, with just a little alfalfa twice a week as suggested. But I'm really pleased to say she has started to regain weight steadily (I actually said my goodbyes to her a couple of times as she had got so thin) and is looking so much happier again. I just hope she doesn't relapse and continues to gain weight once we wean her off syringe feeding. Should we just be guided by her as to her appetite and how much she wants?
 
As she has started eating a bit for herself, I'd see if you can cut out a feed during the day and encourage her to eat on her own. You don't want to fill her up so much with syringe food that she is too full to eat. Slowly withdraw the syringe feeds. Keep weighing her daily at the same time and this will give an indication of how much she is eating. Remember that around a 20g weight difference is normal as this is the difference between a full and empty bladder.
 
Betsy said:
As she has started eating a bit for herself, I'd see if you can cut out a feed during the day and encourage her to eat on her own. You don't want to fill her up so much with syringe food that she is too full to eat. Slowly withdraw the syringe feeds. Keep weighing her daily at the same time and this will give an indication of how much she is eating. Remember that around a 20g weight difference is normal as this is the difference between a full and empty bladder.
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Thanks Betsy, ideally I would like her to be fully eating on her own within the next 2 weeks as we are going away for half term and my friend will be looking after them. We've dropped down to 2 syringe-feeds a day (morning and night) to see how that goes. I just want to make sure she is strong enough to get her veggies before dominant piggy Blossom eats it all (I have separate food bowls).
 
It sounds like you are doing great. Hopefully it'll work out that she's eating enough for herself to maintain her weight. I would drop the night feed as the last one as you can top her up properly at first then gradually reduce it. She will let you know when she doesn't want syringe feeding anymore.
 
Merab's Slave said:
Mine love the oat hay - hopefully Clover will too.
Hope you are bearing up too
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I'm fine now, but it was a bit stressful for a week or so. A few good things have come out of this: 1) I lost a few pounds out of worry! 2) My husband has now fully bonded with the guinea pigs (he was much better at syringe feeding than me) 3) we've learnt an awful lot about guinea pigs! I hope all of your piggies continue to well also. Thanks again for all the support x
 
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