weight checking your guinea pigs

[Annie's pets]

hello, i have two guinea pigs that are both now three years old. My question is how can i weigh them i only have one weighing scales used for cooking and baking that i used to weigh them in when they were young they have grown alot bigger since then and not dont fit in the holder to weigh them what can i do ?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Normal digital kitchen scales are the right thing to be using.
I have a flat plate at the top of my scales so I just put my boys in a box. I put the box in the scales, zero the scales and then put a piggy in the box

 

[Claire W]

I use normal digital kitchen scales. I put a bowl on the scales, zero the scales then pop each piggy in the bowl and weigh

 

[Wiebke]

hello, i have two guinea pigs that are both now three years old. My question is how can i weigh them i only have one weighing scales used for cooking and baking that i used to weigh them in when they were young they have grown alot bigger since then and not dont fit in the holder to weigh them what can i do ?

Hi

Kitchen scales are perfectly fine for monitoring guinea pig weights since you do not need caculate any medication doses like a vet. I use mine as what I want to measure is relative weight changes. Kitchen scales are in fact much better than human scales for their weight range.

You can find a video and practical tips for how to weigh on your kitchen scales in this guide here: How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely

Keep in mind that the weight actually swings within a ca. 30-40g band over the course of 24 hours, depending on how full or empty the belly and the bladder are. Just the difference between a full and an empty bladder can made as much as 10g! That is why I prefer to weigh first thing in the morning before I fee breakfast and refill the hay trays and any empty water bottles; that is when the weight is at it lowest and gives you the best comparison from day to day with ill guinea pigs. That is the reason why we talk about weight loss only from 50g onward.
You can learn much more about weight; how it changes over the course of a life time; to work out your piggy's heft (i.e. BMI) at any age to see whether they are a good weight for their current size and practical tips for over- and underweight piggies in this our weight guide here: Weight - Monitoring and Management

These practical how-to guides are part of our much more comprehensive support and information resources which you may find very useful; they are one of the largest currently around. Bookmark the links, browse, read and re-read at need as you will pick up on different things at different levels of experience:
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners
Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection