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Weight

Hello and welcome.

Piggies come in a variety of shapes and sizes and they're very much individual just like us humans.

Please have a feel over his body to check his heft/body condition. How well can you feel his ribs, spine and hips? Does he have trouble moving around or breathing?

Here's our guide which will explain it further:
Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
Mclayton said:
Hello. Is my male 10 month old guinea pig overweight at nearly 1.4kg? Thanks
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Hi
He is certainly a big boy but it all depends on his body size. Please feel around the ribs for the 'heft' (or BMI). If you can just feel the ribs, then he is a healthy weight for his individual size. If you cannot feel the ribs at all, then he is overweight and if you can fee every single rib, he is underweight. Knowing in which ball park your boy is playing will help you with the life long vital weekly weight monitoring.

A lot more helpful information on weight (including dealing with overweight and underweight) and weight monitoring and when to see a vet can be found in this guide link here: Weight - Monitoring and Management

Please review your diet. Over three quarters of what he eats in a day should be hay/fresh grass; a modicum of ideally green veg and 1 tablespoon per piggy per day together replace the supplementary role of wild forage.
Getting the diet right means improved health and can add 1-2 years to a normal average life span and take it from the bottom end to the upper or even beyond. Your boy is now at an age where any overfeeding will no longer result in much growth but increasingly in overweight; especially the accumulation of yellow fat around his organs, which can poise a major operation risk, apart from being life shortening. Please also be aware that any treats also count as forage replacement and will have to be weighed up against his veg and pellet allowance.
Here is the link: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Does your boy have a companion or is he a single?
 
He lives with his brother. He has no treats, only a piece of apple once a week. He's quite long. He has plenty of hay, 30g of pellets each, & lettuce, cucumber, pepper, coriander, tomato, broccoli, beetroot, apple as a treat, mixed lettuce leaves. He's been to the vets recently for UTI, & she never mentioned he was overweight. My scales are the traditional ones, & not digital. Just weighed again. He's just under 1.4kg. He's quite active as him & his brother have 4 hours of playpen each day
 
Mclayton said:
He lives with his brother. He has no treats, only a piece of apple once a week. He's quite long. He has plenty of hay, 30g of pellets each, & lettuce, cucumber, pepper, coriander, tomato, broccoli, beetroot, apple as a treat, mixed lettuce leaves. He's been to the vets recently for UTI, & she never mentioned he was overweight. My scales are the traditional ones, & not digital. Just weighed again. He's just under 1.4kg. He's quite active as him & his brother have 4 hours of playpen each day
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Please drop the beetroot (root veg are not recommended; beetroot is like dark chocolate for us) and serve broccoli, tomato (it is a fruit) and apple just as an occasional treat.
Reduce the pellets to 15g - pellets have surprisingly little fibre in comparison with empty fillers but they take away from the hay intake.
Have a read of our diet guide. It looks at diet as a whole but also at each food group in practical detail.

It frankly doesn't matter what your scales are as long as they kitchen or baby scales and not human body scales. At the domestic weight monitoring level you do not need super-exact scales since you are just monitoring weekly weight changes but you do not need to prescribe correct dosages, unlike a vet. ;)
 
Wiebke said:
Please drop the beetroot (root veg are not recommended; beetroot is like dark chocolate for us) and serve broccoli, tomato (it is a fruit) and apple just as an occasional treat.
Reduce the pellets to 15g - pellets have surprisingly little fibre in comparison with empty fillers but they take away from the hay intake.
Have a read of our diet guide. It looks at diet as a whole but also at each food group in practical detail.

It frankly doesn't matter what your scales are as long as they kitchen or baby scales and not human body scales. At the domestic weight monitoring level you do not need super-exact scales since you are just monitoring weekly weight changes but you do not need to prescribe correct dosages, unlike a vet. ;)
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I get my advice from a guinea pig rescue & she serves beetroot. Ok, will drop that. Broccoli high in calcium, so I only feed once a week. I feed tomato once a week. Can I feed that twice then? They have science selective grain free pellets
 
You have been given some fantastic advice on regards of what to feed and what to check for to see whether he is truly overweight or just a big boy.

I am ashamed to admit that all 3 of my piggies are overweight especially Elizabeth 😞 I can’t feel their ribs and they just feel fat (this has been confirmed by @Wiebke and a vet nurse)

I am in the process of trying to slim them down but it’s hard work like it is in humans. I have cut down their pellets and am trying to encourage them to eat more hay.

Please do not feed them tomato more than once a week. It is very acidic and can cause mouth sores if fed too often x
 
Claire W said:
You have been given some fantastic advice on regards of what to feed and what to check for to see whether he is truly overweight or just a big boy.

I am ashamed to admit that all 3 of my piggies are overweight especially Elizabeth 😞 I can’t feel their ribs and they just feel fat (this has been confirmed by @Wiebke and a vet nurse)

I am in the process of trying to slim them down but it’s hard work like it is in humans. I have cut down their pellets and am trying to encourage them to eat more hay.

Please do not feed them tomato more than once a week. It is very acidic and can cause mouth sores if fed too often x
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Yes. Thats why I only feed tomato once a week, but if I'm to from the beetroot, what can I substitute it with? They don't like celery, green beans. Melon too sweet etc.
 
It doesn’t matter what brand is pellets you feed, 30g is too much, so definitely reduce them

You don’t need to substitute beetroot with anything.

Coriander, bell pepper, cucumber and lettuce are the four main safe daily veggies. Everything else should be used in moderation. My four piggies don’t get anything other than the lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander.
 
Mclayton said:
Yes. Thats why I only feed tomato once a week, but if I'm to from the beetroot, what can I substitute it with? They don't like celery, green beans. Melon too sweet etc.
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As mentioned, you don’t need to substitute the beetroot. My piggies only have cucumber, pepper, coriander and lettuce on a daily basis
 
Piggies&buns said:
It doesn’t matter what brand is pellets you feed, 30g is too much, so definitely reduce them

You don’t need to substitute beetroot with anything.

Coriander, bell pepper, cucumber and lettuce are the four main safe daily veggies. Everything else should be used in moderation. My four piggies don’t get anything other than the lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander.
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Thank you very much for all advice. I'm a first time piggie owner, & I keep reading contradicting advice online. Like romaine shouldn't be given daily cos of the calcium, & not peppers daily cos of the sugar
 
There is unfortunately a lot of contradictory information out there. Squeak is absolutely handsome 😍😍😍

My piggies only get pepper, cucumber, lettuce and coriander if I have it in. Then if I get green beans they’ll get one a day as well. Pellets they probably get shy of a tablespoon each a day. They’re happy with their lot so that makes me happy.

Perhaps you could get some forage to give them occasionally?
 
Siikibam said:
There is unfortunately a lot of contradictory information out there. Squeak is absolutely handsome 😍😍😍

My piggies only get pepper, cucumber, lettuce and coriander if I have it in. Then if I get green beans they’ll get one a day as well. Pellets they probably get shy of a tablespoon each a day. They’re happy with their lot so that makes me happy.

Perhaps you could get some forage to give them occasionally?
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What is forage? Please
 
You could try adding in a bit of fresh grass when the weather improves again? He's a belter! I have to say I don't worry about weight unless they're losing it and I realise they're feeling poorly. Maybe I should be concerned about the fat one (I have a fat one) but she seems happy enough.
I eat like a bird me!.webp
 
Siikibam said:
It’s natural food such as herbs, flowers, plants, leaves etc. some do still need giving in moderation due to the high calcium content.
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I have a bag of dried mix of these items. This is forage then. I sprinkle it on their hay once a week
 
Mclayton said:
I have a bag of dried mix of these items. This is forage then. I sprinkle it on their hay once a week
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Yes that’s forage.
Mine get a small amount of forage daily. I give pellets three times a week so they get forage instead
 
Claire W said:
As mentioned, you don’t need to substitute the beetroot. My piggies only have cucumber, pepper, coriander and lettuce on a daily basis
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Mine seem to be doing well on that too. They haven’t had coriander for a good while tho. Must get them some.
 
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