Alvinsfam
New Born Pup
Hi all!
I recently posted a thread here, but just have another quick question.
Recently, my male piggy (Alvin) lost his female friend (she was almost 6 and he is almost 2). They definitely had a close friendship and he was very clearly missing the companionship of another guinea pig friend.
My male piggy is naturally very playful, but unfortunately there was quite an age difference and so he remained more sedentary than I think he would have liked (although we frequently brought him out for floor time, which he loves).
We did make the decision to get him a new baby girl friend- they bonded immediately and he is clearly very happy.
With that being said, he has started dropping weight. On 8/21 he was 1135g and today he is 1087g.
There has been a lot of change in his life recently and I’ve been in contact with his vet (who isn’t immediately concerned about the weight loss). I’ve also read through the guides on here, which have eased some of my anxiety.
I should also mention that around a month ago he had a yearly wellness check where everything checked out with no issues (including things like teeth, which looked great).
Other than what I’m seeing on the scale, he is eating, playing like crazy, popcorning, poops look great, etc.
He is a smaller male guinea pig (my female was always bigger than him in weight before she passed), although he was always a bit on the chunky side.
As of right now, he honestly seems to be a good size. I don’t feel any ribs/bones. He definitely still has some rolls. It just seems like a lot of weight to drop in a short period of time.
The most weight he dropped in one day was 25g (the day we put his new friend in his cage with him going from 1128g to 1125g). Since then, he has lost about 8g per day with fluctuations.
Do you guys think this is normal given all of the changes (losing a friend, gaining a new friend, increased exercise/activity level)? We also had a couple days of having to feed pellets separately (as advised by our vet due to the calcium levels in baby pellets not being suitable for adult piggies). We have since worked this out in a way that works for him, so hoping that will be one less change for him to adjust to.
Thank you all in advance, I think I may just need to ease up a bit as I might be in the “over worrying” category here.
Attaching a cute photo of Alvin and his new friend eating together (she likes to be a big girl and hop into the hay bowl lol).
I recently posted a thread here, but just have another quick question.
Recently, my male piggy (Alvin) lost his female friend (she was almost 6 and he is almost 2). They definitely had a close friendship and he was very clearly missing the companionship of another guinea pig friend.
My male piggy is naturally very playful, but unfortunately there was quite an age difference and so he remained more sedentary than I think he would have liked (although we frequently brought him out for floor time, which he loves).
We did make the decision to get him a new baby girl friend- they bonded immediately and he is clearly very happy.
With that being said, he has started dropping weight. On 8/21 he was 1135g and today he is 1087g.
There has been a lot of change in his life recently and I’ve been in contact with his vet (who isn’t immediately concerned about the weight loss). I’ve also read through the guides on here, which have eased some of my anxiety.
I should also mention that around a month ago he had a yearly wellness check where everything checked out with no issues (including things like teeth, which looked great).
Other than what I’m seeing on the scale, he is eating, playing like crazy, popcorning, poops look great, etc.
He is a smaller male guinea pig (my female was always bigger than him in weight before she passed), although he was always a bit on the chunky side.
As of right now, he honestly seems to be a good size. I don’t feel any ribs/bones. He definitely still has some rolls. It just seems like a lot of weight to drop in a short period of time.
The most weight he dropped in one day was 25g (the day we put his new friend in his cage with him going from 1128g to 1125g). Since then, he has lost about 8g per day with fluctuations.
Do you guys think this is normal given all of the changes (losing a friend, gaining a new friend, increased exercise/activity level)? We also had a couple days of having to feed pellets separately (as advised by our vet due to the calcium levels in baby pellets not being suitable for adult piggies). We have since worked this out in a way that works for him, so hoping that will be one less change for him to adjust to.
Thank you all in advance, I think I may just need to ease up a bit as I might be in the “over worrying” category here.
Attaching a cute photo of Alvin and his new friend eating together (she likes to be a big girl and hop into the hay bowl lol).
it was too stressful on him I think to do the separate feedings and he wasn’t eating many pellets for about two days until I spoke with the vet tonight and made that adjustment. Now he is eating them normally again.