ladypiggiema
New Born Pup
Weighed my girl at 1548 tonight. That's like 3 pounds. I've cooked smaller chickens... How do I help her trim down? I weighed her veggies and know it's too much but it's veggies they can't possibly be fattening....
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Really fat pig
- Thread starter ladypiggiema
- Start date
Popcorns & Wheeks
Teenage Guinea Pig
Hi, I had a similar issue and the thought of dieting my piggies caused me great concern due to their delicate digestive systems and the fact they constantly need to eat. As far as I know it's her pellet and veggie intake that you will need to cut down. I spoke to my vet about this before and asked how I could diet my piggies. My vet told me that pellets and veggies are the cause for weight gain and advised me to feed my piggies around 12 pellets each per day in two servings so 6 each time and the same for veggies. I now feed them a little more maybe 20 pellets each a day and feed them a veggie treat on a morning and at teatime. Along as they have unlimited hay in-between they should be happy.
Popcorns & Wheeks
Teenage Guinea Pig
I mean 2 servings for veggies too such as a leaf of lettuce on a morning and a slice of cucumber at teatime. I feed my piggies romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, bell peppers and carrots throughout the week. I give them lettuce everyday however, I mix the rest of the menu up for them so they have different treats to look forward to each day.
WobblyPiggy
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi, personally if she is happy and healthy I wouldn't bother putting her on a diet...one of my piggies needed to be weighed using cat scales at the vets...and all my piggies were atleast/are atleast 1300g plus...butbif you do have concerns you can always talk to a vet...
The number on the scales is not indicative of what is healthy for the individual piggy. There is a huge range of healthy weights of adult piggies and just because she is over 1500g does not mean she is overweight. In his prime, one of my boys was very healthy with a good heft and he weighed 1550g for years.
What you need to check is her heft - piggy BMi. That will tell you whether she is a healthy size for herself. If you can feel her ribs then there is nothing wrong with her size and you don’t need to do anything.
If you cannot feel her ribs at all, then she may be overweight so the first thing to do would be to speak to the vet. Being overweight is not something which occurs often at all in well cared for piggies.
Weighing her veggies will not help you. You need to give veggies by volume, not weight. The differing vegetables densities will make weighing veg highly inaccurate. Give one cup of veg and include herbs and a something like bell pepper. The diet guide below has a sample plate to show rough amounts.
As long as you feed unlimited hay, one cup of veg per day and one tablespoon of pellets, then you don’t need to do anything to her diet.
Veg is only 15% of the daily food intake and unless you are wildly overfeeding sugary items such as carrot and fruit then it shouldn’t be enough of the diet (provided you are sticking to one cup), to cause weight gain. Overfeeding carrot, tomatoes and fruit can also cause other health issues - gut imbalance and acidic foods can cause a potentially fatal lip infection. Only give one item in a small amount, once per week. Or dont include them at all! They aren’t things which they need to be given.
The guides below will help further
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Weight - Monitoring and Management
What you need to check is her heft - piggy BMi. That will tell you whether she is a healthy size for herself. If you can feel her ribs then there is nothing wrong with her size and you don’t need to do anything.
If you cannot feel her ribs at all, then she may be overweight so the first thing to do would be to speak to the vet. Being overweight is not something which occurs often at all in well cared for piggies.
Weighing her veggies will not help you. You need to give veggies by volume, not weight. The differing vegetables densities will make weighing veg highly inaccurate. Give one cup of veg and include herbs and a something like bell pepper. The diet guide below has a sample plate to show rough amounts.
As long as you feed unlimited hay, one cup of veg per day and one tablespoon of pellets, then you don’t need to do anything to her diet.
Veg is only 15% of the daily food intake and unless you are wildly overfeeding sugary items such as carrot and fruit then it shouldn’t be enough of the diet (provided you are sticking to one cup), to cause weight gain. Overfeeding carrot, tomatoes and fruit can also cause other health issues - gut imbalance and acidic foods can cause a potentially fatal lip infection. Only give one item in a small amount, once per week. Or dont include them at all! They aren’t things which they need to be given.
The guides below will help further
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Pound Shilling & Pig
Adult Guinea Pig
Hi, as piggies are grazing animals who have evolved to extract maximum nutrition and calories from grass when it comes to veggies, yes, they can be fattening if they have too many, their digestive system is very different from ours, which means they are able to break down fibre to release calories in a way humans can't.
Nuggets can also be fattening and it is recommended to feed a maximum of a (measuring) tablespoon a day, which is about 8g. Personally I think of nuggets as a treat and only feed them once a week in winter and not ar all in the summer when my piggies have access to fresh grass.
Hay is the most important part of their diet and they must have access to it at all times.
I think it can be quite easy for piggies to become a little overweight without their owners realising, in part because they are naturally a round sort of shape with short legs. You should be able to feel their ribs with light pressure but if you have to dig around to find them then they are a bit overweight.
Nuggets can also be fattening and it is recommended to feed a maximum of a (measuring) tablespoon a day, which is about 8g. Personally I think of nuggets as a treat and only feed them once a week in winter and not ar all in the summer when my piggies have access to fresh grass.
Hay is the most important part of their diet and they must have access to it at all times.
I think it can be quite easy for piggies to become a little overweight without their owners realising, in part because they are naturally a round sort of shape with short legs. You should be able to feel their ribs with light pressure but if you have to dig around to find them then they are a bit overweight.
Hi and welcome
A guinea pig diet can indeed be very fattening; including veg. Carrot for instance is like feeding a bar of chocolate to your guinea pig, as is regular overfeeding of pellets - that is like a diet based on chips.
What sadly many owners are not aware of is the fact that over three quarters of the daily food intake should be hay. Veg and pellets together only replace the supplementary role of wild green forage with very few small roots or fruits. Pellets are mainly calorific fillers with precious little fibre in them when you have a closer look at the ingredients. The more you take away from them eating hay, the more life-shortening a diet you give them; it can easily make a difference of 1-2 years or even more in extreme cases.
Please firstly check whether your girl is indeed overweight for her size. You feel that around the ribcage. If cannot feel the ribs at all, your piggy is definitely overweight.
Our weight guide tells you exactly how you check whether your piggy is a good weight for their individual size (chapter 3: checking for the heft/BMI) but it also has plenty of practical advice on what you can do for an overweight piggy. Please take the time to carefully read through the guide since we cannot explain it all in detail in every single post - and it is the little details that you will find most helpful.
Here is the link to our Weight guide: Weight - Monitoring and Management
The other guide that you will find very helpful is our diet guide. It looks at all food groups as a whole but also in practical detail. Please reduce the pellets to 1 tablespoon per piggy per day and also reduce the range (preferably green) of veg and the amount of pellets you feed. Instead of giving treats turn feeding time into enrichment time and make your girl walk and work for her food and come to you over a distance for every single pellet you give her. Exercise is important but fat adult piggies are usually couch potatoes, so it is up to you to get them moving for regular stimulation of the digestive tract.
This is our diet guide link: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
We also have lots more helpful tips and practical information on a very wide range of topics via this link here, which you may want to bookmark, browse, read and re-read at need: Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection
ladypiggiema
New Born Pup
My fat girl went from huge to 800 grams and then dead in 2 months and she was at the vets twice. Poor thing was bloated with infection not fat. I got her very sick from a terrible man with no soul. I miss her but she hurt so much that sending her in for her big sleep is sadly
I am very sorry. Severe bloat is very difficult to treat in guinea pigs and is a potentially fatal disease.
Thank you for the feedback. I am sad that it isn't a happier one.
ladypiggiema
New Born Pup
Thank you and yes I cried all the way to the vet poor girl and shame on the man who said their kid was allergic to hay just to abandon her with me. I hope he never gets another little piggie