Sudden weight change

[Guinea pig love123]

Gary, one of my piglets, suddenly went up in weight, drastically, when he should be going down in weight because I lowered their daily veggie intake, he was at 1326g and now, 3 weeks later, 1362, does anyone know why?

 

[weepweeps]

Maybe he’s eating more hay? If you’re worried I’d take him to the vets for a check up.

 

[Guinea pig love123]

Maybe he’s eating more hay? If you’re worried I’d take him to the vets for a check up.

Yes he is definitely eating more hay as it is better quality now but a vet, yes also something that will happen

 

[Eddie & Elvis]

Veg will not have much of an impact, if any, on a piggies weight as it only makes up 10-15% of their diet, it's hay intake (80-85%) that will make a difference. It's only when there's a noticeable drop in weight that you need to be worried

It's perfectly healthy for a piggy to be around 1300g as long as their heft is fine. There are some pretty chunky and healthy piggies on the forum.

This guide includes a section on how to check the heft Weight - Monitoring and Management
I hope this helps

 

[Swissgreys]

How old is Gary?
And is he weighed at the same time weekly?
This will give you the best indication if this is a slow gain or just an odd one off.
It isn't a huge gain and as long as he has the correct amount of pellets, things like hay and veg shouldn't really cause weight gain.
Of course a lot will depend on the vegetables fed - things like fruit and carrots are high in sugar and should be limited, but otherwise a cup of veg per pig per day is fine.

Our diet guides might help:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Have you also reduced the pellet serving to 1 tablespoon max per piggy per day?
What veg and herbs are you feeding? Some of them are much more calorific than others.

What you are aiming for is a healthy sustainable diet and an active lifestyle - whether that translates to a weight loss or not, depends on whether your boy is actually overweight or not.
Apart from our diet guide, which looks at all aspects connected with diet, our weight guide is looking at everything connected with weight, how to work out the BMI; over- and underweight as well as weight swings throughout the say and life-long health/weight monitoring etc.
Here is the link: Weight - Monitoring and Management

Please take the time to carefully read both guides. You may find them helpful. If your boy is a healthy weight for his size, he will not necessarily
lose weight but he will have a healthier and hopefully a longer life.. However, eating more hay means that he is eating more healthily.