Rapid Piggie Mass Increase

Featheryfriend

Featheryfriend

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi y'all.

I thought I read somewhere that adult guinea pigs tend to be slow to regain weight. If my scales aren't too far off, Penny has gained roughly 50 grams each day for a grand total of around 300 grams in about 6 days. Is this normal? Physically possible? All that from water, hay, lettuce, cilantro and bell peppers?!

On Tuesday morning she wriggled a lot on the scale but appeared to weigh less than 600 grams. Relatives who came over to meet her and pet her said she felt like "the skeleton of a guinea pig" and "skin and bones." Today she weighs around 900 grams and feels like more like sturdy jello. She has an extra chin that wasn't there before and a rounder butt. She's actually oozing out of the bowl on the scale a little. :drool:

I thought regaining body condition was going to take weeks and weeks, how porky is she likely to get? Is there any reason to try and slow her gains down, as long as her tummy is not upset? I thought she was going to be a tiny piggie, was she secretly meant to be enormous all along? For the last couple days, she has started leaving a bite or two of leftover veggies and taking her time with the hay rather than immediately savaging every last bit of greenery like a starving person - will she slow down on her own eventually?

Sooo... many questions. :eek:
 

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Oh my! That really sounds as though she's not had enough food previously. She's looking great. Well done you for getting her back to a good weight. You might need to cut her veggies back to stop her getting fat if she keeps going. One thought did cross my mind though. Is there any possibility she could be pregnant?
 
As far as I know, she was being fed a diet of a type and scope more appropriate for something like a dwarf hamster. Obviously she is not a dwarf hamster... and of what food she did have, she was most likely too stressed to consume due to being trapped in a small environment (also more suited in scope to a dwarf hamster) with no shelter and lots of yappy dogs/cats/a toddler milling around being loud.

As best as I can tell, she's been eating perhaps 2 or 3 times the standard amount of hay and of vegetables. I try to pace the veggies in a bunch of small servings throughout the day, I'm sure that'll need to decrease once she's done chunking out.

Oh dear... I really hope she hasn't been exposed to any boars. I don't want to say 0% chance because I'm not 100% sure what she's been up to, but she has been alone for quite a while and I think if it were chronologically possible at all she would have to be very far along, like on the verge of giving birth. I'm pretty sure it's just zucchini fat! :soz:
 
Sorry, didn't mean to worry you about pregnancy. It doesn't sound very likely, if she was putting on the weight due to that, she'd most likely be showing. It was just something that popped into my head. I like the idea of zucchini fat lol.
 
Poor thing... she is lucky to be with you now... the hay they need is limit less.. hay hay and more hay.... I also thought maybe she could be pregnant but keep an eye on her shape... x
 
Featheryfriend said:
Hi y'all.

I thought I read somewhere that adult guinea pigs tend to be slow to regain weight. If my scales aren't too far off, Penny has gained roughly 50 grams each day for a grand total of around 300 grams in about 6 days. Is this normal? Physically possible? All that from water, hay, lettuce, cilantro and bell peppers?!

On Tuesday morning she wriggled a lot on the scale but appeared to weigh less than 600 grams. Relatives who came over to meet her and pet her said she felt like "the skeleton of a guinea pig" and "skin and bones." Today she weighs around 900 grams and feels like more like sturdy jello. She has an extra chin that wasn't there before and a rounder butt. She's actually oozing out of the bowl on the scale a little. :drool:

I thought regaining body condition was going to take weeks and weeks, how porky is she likely to get? Is there any reason to try and slow her gains down, as long as her tummy is not upset? I thought she was going to be a tiny piggie, was she secretly meant to be enormous all along? For the last couple days, she has started leaving a bite or two of leftover veggies and taking her time with the hay rather than immediately savaging every last bit of greenery like a starving person - will she slow down on her own eventually?

Sooo... many questions. :eek:
Click to expand...

She must have obviously needed it! Yes, she will slow down although she will always have a hang-up about food and not leave any leftovers. I can always tell which of my adoptees have experienced serious malnutrition/starvation at some point.

Please cut down on your veg portions so she eats more hay. Her body is now wired to turn everything to fat for the rest of her life (as I know from my Teggy who arrived in rescue weighing as much as a baby at 1 year old due to malnutrition), so it is imperative that you keep her to a good diet.

DO NOT overfeed on fresh veg; it is not good for the gut and can lead to health issues in the longer term. Veg and pellets should be rather seen in the way of a daily treat and not as the mainstay of the diet.
Unlimited hay should make over 80% of the daily food intake; the more of that she eats, the better her long term health and longevity. Vitamin C rich hay and grass are what guinea pigs have evolved on and what they do best on; the more you encourage her to eat of that instead of veg (which should be only about 10%), the better.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Unfortunately you will have to conduct a 10 weeks pregnancy watch, from the day she could have last been with a boar.
If you notice any signs of pregnancy, please open an ongoing support thread in our specially monitored pregnancy section.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/pregnancy-guide.109375/
Access to the complete pregnancy, birth, mother and baby care advice information: Pregnancy & Baby Care Guide's

All the best! You are doing fine, but now that the quantity issue has been addressed, concentrate on the quality. ;)
 
That's quite some weight gain! Although 900g is still at the smaller end of adult weight.
Our vet was surprised when Blodwen pig who arrived as a 700g adult needing immediate dental surgery gained 400g in 3 months. Blod is a bit chubby as she hasnt grown much, just gained a lot of heft and good body condition! Try not to overfeed, except for hay which they can and should eat all day every day :)
Though admittedly it is hard to resist when they wheek at you with a cute little face that's been starved for so long... but a balanced hay based diet is fine, we've had both super fat and underweight piggies and they've all reached about the same final adult weight of 1100g eating exactly the same meals!
 
Thanks guys. I will continue to weigh/measure the vegetables to make sure she is getting the right amounts as she adjusts to a more normal diet. I think the vegetables are still in proportion to the hay right now because she is also constantly eating awe-inspiring amounts of hay. I fill half that aquarium with hay and she dives into it and makes it vanish. I ordered a hayrack for the c&c cage so that should make it a bit easier to see how fast she's going through that unlimited hay. I'm considering bulk ordering hay from KMS hayloft. Just gotta figure out where to safely store 50 pounds of hay, lol.

I'm wondering if a lot of her weight gain might also simply be from getting good hydration. Maybe she was really dried up.

I've started working on a more carefully planned long-term diet for her based on what is available locally. Looking at Ca to P ratios and such. I will keep in mind that she will be prone to storing fat. When I have a first draft done I will post it here and ask for any suggestions for improvements.

I'm also looking into switching her to bottled spring water or something since we have some of the hardest tap water in the world. A filter (at least an off-the-shelf one) ain't gonna cut it.

I think it has been more than 10 weeks since she was anywhere near other guinea pigs but I will see if I can find out for sure. The previous owner felt awful and surrendered her to me voluntarily when I explained how poorly she was. I'll give them a call.
 
Featheryfriend said:
Thanks guys. I will continue to weigh/measure the vegetables to make sure she is getting the right amounts as she adjusts to a more normal diet. I think the vegetables are still in proportion to the hay right now because she is also constantly eating awe-inspiring amounts of hay. I fill half that aquarium with hay and she dives into it and makes it vanish. I ordered a hayrack for the c&c cage so that should make it a bit easier to see how fast she's going through that unlimited hay. I'm considering bulk ordering hay from KMS hayloft. Just gotta figure out where to safely store 50 pounds of hay, lol.

I'm wondering if a lot of her weight gain might also simply be from getting good hydration. Maybe she was really dried up.

I've started working on a more carefully planned long-term diet for her based on what is available locally. Looking at Ca to P ratios and such. I will keep in mind that she will be prone to storing fat. When I have a first draft done I will post it here and ask for any suggestions for improvements.

I'm also looking into switching her to bottled spring water or something since we have some of the hardest tap water in the world. A filter (at least an off-the-shelf one) ain't gonna cut it.

I think it has been more than 10 weeks since she was anywhere near other guinea pigs but I will see if I can find out for sure. The previous owner felt awful and surrendered her to me voluntarily when I explained how poorly she was. I'll give them a call.
Click to expand...

Deydration, especially in the Arizona desert climate with strong air conditioning on, could be very much an issue, especially if her diet didn't include much in the way of fresh veg and fresh/clean water.
 
Wiebke said:
Deydration, especially in the Arizona desert climate with strong air conditioning on, could be very much an issue, especially if her diet didn't include much in the way of fresh veg and fresh/clean water.
Click to expand...

Yep, summer in AZ... it's been 100 to 115 degrees out every day so the A/C rarely rests and the humidity is often low enough to give you a nosebleed. I just got two more water bottles in the mail for her this morning, I want her to always have at least two available so she won't dry up if one were to stop flowing. Though I used water bottles with birds for over a decade and never had a faulty or misbehaving bottle. Can't be too safe.
 
Whew! I confirmed that it's been at least 85-90 days since she's had any contact with another guinea pig. It's zucchini fat.

I'm glad I called and asked though, because that was a closer call than I thought, yikes.
 
Guinea-pigGaga said:
I do question/wonder if it is possible that your guinea pig is a cuy/part cuy?
Click to expand...

Anything is possible I suppose. She's originally the product of random home breeding by an irresponsible person who just lets them run amok. I think she has a normal number of toes, she isn't orange, and she is easily handled, though, so if she's got any giant fast-growing mega pig in her background I'd wager it's only a little. I don't think she's ever had an appropriate healthy diet before at any point in her development so whatever she is, she could be a bit stunted compared to her potential, whatever that might have been.

Thanks for mentioning it anyway though, now I've learned what a cuy is. I'll know what they are if I run across one, and on the off-chance Penny decides to grow into a 3-pound half-cuy monster I won't be completely shocked. :))
 
Gah, that comment inspired me to actually get out the tape measure, I think she might be 11 or 12 inches long when she extends herself all the way. Okay, not a tiny piggie! Long piggie.
 
Oh my gosh, you were right! I tracked down some information about her sole littermate, a male.

I'm told he's over 14" long and weighs more than SIX POUNDS.
 
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