How Fat Should A Guinea Pig Be?
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When I had my first guinea pig, I was surprised to learn that they can get too fat. Since they are built like a Tribble from Star Trek, how can you tell if they are too fat? Do you weigh them? The average weight for a female guinea pig (technically called a sow) is one and a half pounds. The average weight for a male guinea pig (called a boar) is about one and a half to two pounds.
Yet, there are always piggies that never read the guinea pig books. Boars weighing four pounds are not uncommon. In Peru, where guinea pigs are a major (and often only) source of protein, they purposefully breed "Superpigs". Genes apparently have not been tinkered with - which means any baby cavy has the potential to be a Superpig.
So, weighing the guinea pigs to determine if they are too fat is out. What can you do?
Looking Down From Above
Although guinea pig adults are mildly pear-shaped when looking down on their backs from above, the bottom part of the "pear" should not be significantly bigger than the smaller part. Baby cavies are shaped like a Tic-Tac when looked down from above. Until they are about three months old, the biggest parts of the babies will seem to be their ears. They will lack any butt development whatsoever.
If your female guinea pig suddenly gets really fat, she might be pregnant. Sexing baby guinea pigs is difficult at best. Most pet stores do not separate the sexes or wrongly sex them and so unplanned piggies are often conceived. Take her to the vet to be sure. If she's not pregnant, then she is fat.
Where Are The Feet?
Although it sounds like a Garfield joke, a guinea pig is too fat when you can't see their feet when they waddle. These guinea pig heavies usually have loose rolls of fat you can feel all throughout their body. When a guinea pig walks, their bellies are entirely lifted off of the ground and do not drag. If they drag their bellies, they most likely need to loose weight.
But if you are still not sure, please take your guinea pig to a vet who often sees guinea pigs in his or her practice. Overweight guinea pigs are in danger of dying early from sickness and disease just like overweight people are. Feed less and make sure your guinea pig has a good scamper around a safe play area for at least ten minutes a day, preferably an hour. Treats like yogurt drops are loaded with calories. Cut back on them.
Your guinea pig will complain when put on a diet, but after a couple of weeks, the piggy should be more active as well as slimmer.
This gp is pregnant. If your gp is this fat and NOt pregnant, then he or she is too fat
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Comments
I need to make my guinea pig fatter. What should I do. i went to a vet and they said that he has overgrown teeth. HELP ME!!!!
Your vet should have already supplied you with this information! You should speak to them, or find a better vet if not! Exotic animal vets are best because they specialise in smaller animals such as guinea pigs. If your pig is happy to eat feed them plenty of timothy hay, lots of fresh vegetables such as carrot, brocolli, cauliflower leaves and a little cucumber. Also an excellent food called Supreme Science Recovery is available which comes as a dry powder, so it can be mixed into balls or a liquid and fed regularly via hand or a syringe. The vet *must* trim the guinea pig's teeth, and perhaps it would be worth having an x-ray done to make sure the roots aren't growing too far inwards which can be very serious. Make sure your guinea pig eats regularly and a fair amount each time - this should help. Good luck!
i have a 2 yr old guinea pig (male) how much should it weigh????????
thx for telling me about the guinea pigs and their weight. Im only in 8th grade and i take care of the guinea pigs in my class and we think one of them is pregnant. I read online that if you can feel the babies in her tummy or if you feel them kick she is pregnant. is that true. How can you tell if the guinea pig isn't just breathing and the baby isn't kicking? thx for all your help =^D.
my guineapig that is 1 year old how much should it weigh ??????????
i had a guinea pig named porche [he died last month] but he was around 3 pounds or so. when he died he was about 1 pound. his teeth werent too long, but somehow he got sick or something. i think maybe because i used soap and a tiny bit of pinesol to clean his cage? or maybe he was old. how old do guineas get? and if u set them outside in the grass is it safe? my guinea pig started running down a hill and tried to dig a hole for some reason! and how do u 'potty train' piggies so they dont go potty on people? mine did that. a lot. and he would poo as well,... but if i get 2 guinea pig thats a girl can they be in the same cage if they are small? one more thing: my guinea pig wouldnt chew on his wood toy thing and i didnt know why. he wouldnt eat his yogurt snack either. how come?
Can someone tell me what my guinea pig is doing?!?!
she eats alot but i don't know if she is pregnant.....
and i can't afford to see a vet! i think she is,but i am not sure.Someone PLZ HELP!!!!!
I've had "Marley" from when he was about a month and he is awesome...in order to train it to not pee or poo is easy. Take it out...when it does pee or poo put it back in its cage quickly and wait half a day. Guinea pigs get really really lonely..if by themselves...so it learns pretty fast ..like by the first week if done everyday. that peeing or pooing equals back in cage. So it'll learn to hold it in..and even is "sneaky about it and sneak a few lil turds..which is part of their thing..they like to taste their own poop..high in proteins..no joke.
my pig has black poo but is sometimes brown is this bad
hi i have two guinea pigs they are so sweet they do poo that color it just depends on what they eat oh yeah i have a q. i think one of my gp is pregnent how do i tell i do not like vets eather she is huge and eats alot help me please
from
Reasess,Buttercupand booka
hi, i highly doubt anyone will answer this, but your welcome to. As you have probably guessed i have a gp named Zoidburg and hes about 2 years old and i am curious to know what weight he is suppose to be, because most of my friends gp's are huge pancake sorta things and mine is some little pear and i'm concered if hes not eating enough. So if you are reading this i would greatly apricate anyone who answers
i dont know if my guinea pig is overweight or not its very hard to tell and we dont have proper scales how can i tell if hes over weight
Can you weigh him? and if you can't then have the vet weigh him. if you know he is over weight I would contact a vet and see what is the best diet to put him on.
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Ginger says:
2 years ago
My guinea pig has chubbies;)