Scottish Oats for gaining weight

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harkren

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Hi all,

I've gone through old historical threads and discovered that feeding oats to Guinea Pigs is a completely valid way to gain weight for pigs that might be at their lower range; I never knew they could eat oats!

One thing I wanted to ask that was still unclear to me though: are "Scottish Oats" fine to feed them? I'm not entirely sure if there is a nuance here, but these types of oats look to be the same as regular dry porridge oats, just the method in which they are made is a bit different. Attached pictures of an example of Tesco Scottish Oats.

Would really appreciate feedback on if these are good to go to help one of my pigs gain some weight.

Regards,
Joshua
 

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Yes they are the right thing.
Although you need to be sure that making your piggy gain weight is the right thing to do - the most common reason would be following a period of illness and illness related weight loss

Why is your piggy underweight?
Has a vet confirmed your piggy needs to gain weight?
Has your piggy been unwell?
Have you checked your piggy’s heft? This is the way to confirm that a piggy actually needs to gain weight. The number on the scales does not tell you whether a piggy needs to gain weight.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Yes they are the right thing.
Although you need to be sure that making your piggy gain weight is the right thing to do - the most common reason would be following a period of illness and illness related weight loss

Why is your piggy underweight?
Has a vet confirmed your piggy needs to gain weight?
Has your piggy been unwell?
Have you checked your piggy’s heft? This is the way to confirm that a piggy actually needs to gain weight. The number on the scales does not tell you whether a piggy needs to gain weight.
Click to expand...
Thank you for confirming!

Our Maja has always had a bit of a volatile weight, she is the blue in this chart:
1690539226143.webp

We were worried a bit as her weight was approaching her lower lifetime range. Whilst she is approaching her 4th birthday this November, and it is to be expected that her weight profile might be changing, we felt the drop was too sharp. She did not go through any illnesses recently either.

We did take her to an exotic vet specialist and nothing could be found, she seems perfectly fine. The vet administered an anabolic steroid which helped her gain 33g (the last spike in the chart on the blue line), and also advised that we can help by adding extra food to her diet. We have another appointment in a week's time and just wanted a small amount of padding to the diet between now and then as she dropped to a level that we haven't seen since her original growth spurt.

Checked her heft, and it was all fine, can feel just her ribcages. I believe the vet did the same and did not note any irregularities there. Her behaviour is completely normal, if we didn't weigh her we wouldn't think anything was wrong.
 
It’s good she is under vet care. I hope you can get to the bottom of her issues.

If she is losing more than 50g, and the fact it is a overall downward decline then she ought to be syringe fed/have a bowl of critical care put in the cage rather than just being given oats.
Oats are still fine to be given, a small amount.
 
Yes we have critical care ready to whip out and are considering doing that this week.

Her peak in the chart was 1,305g and she is currently at 1,135g; this has happened over the span of 4 months however. When you say 50g, over what time span is that?
 
harkren said:
Yes we have critical care ready to whip out and are considering doing that this week.

Her peak in the chart was 1,305g and she is currently at 1,135g; this has happened over the span of 4 months however. When you say 50g, over what time span is that?
Click to expand...

Weight loss of 50g in a week.
A gradual decline is a bit different to a sudden drop but your piggy has lost beyond the amount at which you step in even during a gradual decline.
Make sure you are weighing her daily now she has lost more than 50g
 
If her heft feels fine I would not feed anything to increase her weight but continue to monitor for ongoing weight loss. I have mixed oats with syringe feed for very poorly piggies who I was struggling to get to maintain weight
 
Piggies&buns said:
Weight loss of 50g in a week.
A gradual decline is a bit different to a sudden drop but your piggy has lost beyond the amount at which you step in even during a gradual decline.
Make sure you are weighing her daily now she has lost more than 50g
Click to expand...
She hasn't lost 50g in any given week, her average loss of weight (when she loses rather than gains weight) is between 10-30g; the large weight loss that I have observed took place over 18 weeks. What type of loss should we be looking at for a 'gradual decline'? I take it the 50g a week is more a rapid/short term loss?

Since she is still somewhat in her lifetime range, and almost coinciding with her older age, I'm not entirely sure if this is problematic or not yet. My wife is more of the opinion that she has lost too much and it is a problem, but I am still more on the fence about it since her eating habits haven't changed and she is still eating food by herself regularly with no change in personality, and the current weight level isn't unprecedented, nor is the volatility
 
Lady Kelly said:
If her heft feels fine I would not feed anything to increase her weight but continue to monitor for ongoing weight loss. I have mixed oats with syringe feed for very poorly piggies who I was struggling to get to maintain weight
Click to expand...
Ok thank you for the advice, I think we will try a small combination of these two for just for this week until our next appointment.

Thanks again everyone for the advice
 
harkren said:
She hasn't lost 50g in any given week, her average loss of weight (when she loses rather than gains weight) is between 10-30g; the large weight loss that I have observed took place over 18 weeks. What type of loss should we be looking at for a 'gradual decline'? I take it the 50g a week is more a rapid/short term loss?

Since she is still somewhat in her lifetime range, and almost coinciding with her older age, I'm not entirely sure if this is problematic or not yet. My wife is more of the opinion that she has lost too much and it is a problem, but I am still more on the fence about it since her eating habits haven't changed and she is still eating food by herself regularly with no change in personality, and the current weight level isn't unprecedented, nor is the volatility
Click to expand...

100g of loss over a term such as the one you have experienced is the point at which I would be syringe feeding.
She may have ups and downs within that time but it is when it is amounting to a downward trend.
 
Hope that your piggy can build her weight up a bit.
A bit of grated carrot mixed with the oats goes down well, as does a bit of mashed banana mixed in with the critical care
 
So we made it to the next appointment and the vet performed a blood test and xray, which needed her to go under GA. I'm going to spare the tale of the anxiety-inducing recovery that followed; the results came in a week or so later and her blood test results were normal. The xray showed her heart had a shadow around it though, so now we are regularly giving her heart medication with critical care mixed in and hoping to see a bounce on the weight.

Her weight has somewhat stabilised around the 1,120-1,130g level, though waiting for more data to come in. It's worth noting that other than the post-GA recovery, her behaviour hasn't changed at all and she is pretty bright and energetic, eating plenty by herself in addition to the syringe feeding.

We are actually starting to run out of critical care, and our new shipment isn't in which has forced us to make our own with pellets. I was hoping someone could maybe advise what we're doing wrong here, as no matter the combination and ratio of water to ground pellets, we cannot seem to push the mixture through a syringe. I'm currently feeding with a spoon instead, as the water doesn't appear to properly bind to the ground pellet mixture, and when we push through the syringe, the liquid goes through but the dry hardened mixture remains stuck in the syringe? We're grinding the pellets up with a mixer so it is pretty fine, and have tried between 1:1 to 1:3 pellet to water ratios and no luck.
 
I wonder if the fact you are grinding the pellets might be the issue.
I’ve never done that - just put the pellets in with some warm water and let them soak it up. Adjusting water amount to make the right consistency (if too much water added, pop in a few more pellets). Once soft, stir/mash with a fork and draw into the syringe.

Are you cutting the end off the syringe? It’s important to do so with pellet mush.

I hope she is ok
 
We've tried both grinding and not grinding - both methods yield a stuck syringe. We're using a small pets recovery syringe and never had a problem with the actual Oxbow Critical Care, only the homebrew.

1693339011594.webp

We did try cutting the edge off one of our smaller syringes and that seemed to work so we'll probably look to get a larger one as it is only a small 1mm syringe. I guess the mixtures aren't quite the same makeup and consistency.

She is doing well so far, this is her daily weight chart as of the last few weeks:
1693338919143.webp
Still holding out for a definitive increase in weight, would love to see that 1,140 level get breached again
 
Ah I see your issue now.
So with pellet mush you need to completely cut the thin part of the syringe end off so it is fully open at the width of the syringe.
Pellet mush won’t go through a syringe with that fine of a point (it doesn’t work the same as critical care). All it will do is squeeze the water out.
A 1ml syringe with the end cut off is the recommended syringe to use
 
harkren said:
So we made it to the next appointment and the vet performed a blood test and xray, which needed her to go under GA. I'm going to spare the tale of the anxiety-inducing recovery that followed; the results came in a week or so later and her blood test results were normal. The xray showed her heart had a shadow around it though, so now we are regularly giving her heart medication with critical care mixed in and hoping to see a bounce on the weight.

Her weight has somewhat stabilised around the 1,120-1,130g level, though waiting for more data to come in. It's worth noting that other than the post-GA recovery, her behaviour hasn't changed at all and she is pretty bright and energetic, eating plenty by herself in addition to the syringe feeding.

We are actually starting to run out of critical care, and our new shipment isn't in which has forced us to make our own with pellets. I was hoping someone could maybe advise what we're doing wrong here, as no matter the combination and ratio of water to ground pellets, we cannot seem to push the mixture through a syringe. I'm currently feeding with a spoon instead, as the water doesn't appear to properly bind to the ground pellet mixture, and when we push through the syringe, the liquid goes through but the dry hardened mixture remains stuck in the syringe? We're grinding the pellets up with a mixer so it is pretty fine, and have tried between 1:1 to 1:3 pellet to water ratios and no luck.
Click to expand...
I have an unopened packet of Oxbow Critical Care which I can send you if you need it - and you live in the UK
 
Piggies&buns said:
Ah I see your issue now.
So with pellet mush you need to completely cut the thin part of the syringe end off so it is fully open at the width of the syringe.
Pellet mush won’t go through a syringe with that fine of a point (it doesn’t work the same as critical care). All it will do is squeeze the water out.
A 1ml syringe with the end cut off is the recommended syringe to use
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming, yes it does seem that the syringe edge is the case so should be smooth sailing now, I cannot wait to stuff that pig
1693339903736.webp
 
Merab's Slave said:
I have an unopened packet of Oxbow Critical Care which I can send you if you need it - and you live in the UK
Click to expand...
Thank you for the offer, we ordered the Anise one several days ago and I think there is some type of shortage as they haven't even dispatched it yet. My wife has ordered the banana and apple flavour one now as it is available on prime so we should get that tomorrow, we hope that Maja will like the flavour
 
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