So I restarted doing the weekly weighing for all my pigs (daily for now with the piggie who lost her mate) and one of my girls is 1.297 grams .. which i know is more then average for female guinea pigs. I just need advice on how to get her weight down. She’s the biggest pig i’ve ever had Ive done reaserch on how to lose weight but nothing has been successful…
Hi
Please feel her around the ribcage for the 'heft' or BMI. If she checks out as having a good weight/size ratio in herself, then there is nothing wrong with her. She is simply a larger healthy girl.
The problem with arbitrary human categories like 'average weight range' is that just half of all piggies fall into it while there is actually nothing wrong with the other half; they are just somewhat smaller or larger than half of all piggies.
You can only monitor weight from week to week once you know whether your piggy is actually in the right ball park for their individual size in the first place and then also take their age into account - a piggy around 2-4 years will be at the peak of their lives and at their naturally heaviest, for instance.
You can find out more about how to feel for the heft in chapter 3 of our weight guide:
Weight - Monitoring and Management
If your girl checks out as overweight, then please firstly review your diet whether you overfeed on pellets and calorific veg. Guinea pigs have a fast metabolism so a good diet will make itself feel fairly quickly. A healthy diet is also the most health and life prolonging measure you can take.
Our diet guide looks at all food groups and their role in the overall diet as well as in practical detail at each food group on their own:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
PS: I have had sows as low as looking at 800g from the wrong side and one that was 1500g in her prime living perfectly healthy lives to celebrate their respective 8th birthday, just to show you that weight on its own and out of context is not a relevant measure.
