Queries about my piggies and if their health is ok

[Hannahb2804]

So I recently adopted two sows and I’m taking them to the vets tomorrow for a check up just to make sure they are healthy and all is ok but there’s a few things I wanted to ask the forum just to make sure it’s nothing to worry about as I’ve got a list of a few things to voice to the vet just to give them a clean bill of health as I’ve only just got them.
So I’m noticing with my girls when they’re peeing it’s quite whitish yellow and seems to be slightly powdery, and I’ve looked at their diet and there isn’t really much calcium, I vary lettuce through the week with peppers daily and cucumber and celery and corriander varies through the week so not much calcium I don’t think so wondered if that is ok.
The next thing is what is a normal weekly weight gain? I’ve started weighing them weekly but only have been able to measure it twice and there was roughly a 10g average increase in weight. One sow is 861g and the other is 1264g, but she’s got quite a chubby belly so is this normal?
Lastly I get them out for floor time and they give a good walk about for 10 mins and then they go into their beds and rest, is this normal? I want them to exercise but they just don’t seem interested, they run round their cage abit but I’m not sure. Any help would be great like I said I’m taking them both to the vets tomorrow just to make sure their breathing is fine and their fur and if their nails need cutting but if these things are an issue I can ask the vet about this queries aswell.

 

[Siikibam]

Guinea pigs get rid of excess calcium through their urine. You can’t completely eliminate it, but as long as it’s not very gritty then it should be fine. The biggest culprits for calcium content are actually water and pellets. So if you’re in a hard water area then it’s advised you filter the water. And pellets should be kept to a tablespoon per pig per day.

A general weight gain of up to 50g is okay. The best indicator is heft rather than weight.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

It’s normal for them to just sit in their beds at floor time. They won’t necessarily run around all the time.

 

[Hannahb2804]

Guinea pigs get rid of excess calcium through their urine. You can’t completely eliminate it, but as long as it’s not very gritty then it should be fine. The biggest culprits for calcium content are actually water and pellets. So if you’re in a hard water area then it’s advised you filter the water. And pellets should be kept to a tablespoon per pig per day.

A general weight gain of up to 50g is okay. The best indicator is heft rather than weight.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

It’s normal for them to just sit in their beds at floor time. They won’t necessarily run around all the time.

Okay thank you! I’m in the middle of switching them between their old pellets from the rescue to the ones I’ve bought and I’ve generally done it with 15g of pellets and sort of done so many of the new ones each time and still weighing at 15g which I think is the recommended amount, but right now I’m at roughly 8g of the old pellets and 7g of the new ones do I keep doing it this slowly and decrease every few days or am I ok to start increasing the new pellets each day

 

[Siikibam]

How long have you been mixing them? You can slowly increase each day till they’re on the new ones.

15g sounds like a lot. Use a tablespoon for measure. So half a tablespoon of each pellet.

 

[Hannahb2804]

How long have you been mixing them? You can slowly increase each day till they’re on the new ones.

15g sounds like a lot. Use a tablespoon for measure. So half a tablespoon of each pellet.

Well I got them two weeks on Saturday so fed them a few days on the old one then began mixing them, and on here on the ‘pellet’ section of recommended food etc it says between 15-20 g recommended pellets and it looks like a tea spoon to me when I pop it into the bowls so I thought it was ok x

 

[Piggies&buns]

Actually measure out a tablespoon of the pellets and pop it in the scales to check. I have done this mine and one tbsp actually came to just 6g

 

[Hannahb2804]

Actually measure out a tablespoon of the pellets and pop it in the scales to check. I have done this mine and one tbsp actually came to just 6g

Okay I’ll do that!