Overweight Pig?

[kaycejonesgrl]

Chilla is very.. plump... She's on a restricted pellet diet with free choice hay(timothy) and daily veggies but to me she seems very overweight.. what can I do?

[Canadian Comforts]

How much does she weigh?
How old is she?
What brand are you feeding (Both hay and pellets)?
What does her average veggie list look like?

If she is not on a timothy pellet like Oxbow she could be gaining weight because of the junk in the pellets. Veggies can also be an issue. But it depends on how much she weighs (in grams if possible), I had a girl weigh 1200gs and she wasn't fat at all. My boars weigh between 1000gs and 1400gs. None of which are fat .

[kaycejonesgrl]

I'm not sure how much she weighs but it's her appearance that makes me think she is fat. She is very plump, no inward curve to her body at all and quite the chin roll. She is one a basic pelleted pig food as that's all I've been able to find here and I also received an entire other bag with my new pig but she only gets a small closed handful once a day which is about 1/8th of  cup. The hay is timothy hay from my horse's barn, I'd say it's average quality hay as far as horse hay goes. A bit too much stem for my preference but it's not low quality hay. She get's a small amount of mixed salad greens (spinach and spring mix this time), cilantro and parsley with a slice of two of cucumber and a whole carrot (long but thin) broken into smaller chunks. I do not supplement with any other foods, treats or anything.

I can weigh her but it would mean taking her to work with me and that is pretty stressful for her as she's not entirely comfortable being handled yet. She just looks overweight to me, especially in comparison to my new pig who is a bit smaller but much more healthy lean looking.

[RattiesSix]

The type of pellet is really important. Can you list the type of food or the ingredients? Can you take a picture of her?

[Canadian Comforts]

I agree with RattiesSix.

Weighing her is VERY simple, I do it at home. Get a digital food scale (walmart always has some under $20). Make sure it is able to do grams. If its base is too small for the pigs to sit on, use a bowl. Put the bowl on and zero it out, then place them in it. You should weigh them weekly because their weight is usually the first thing that changes when they get sick. I weigh my 4 boys every weekend. (http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html)

Pellets, I notice you are in the USA. I loath PetSmart but they do carry Oxbow Pellets. They are pricy but WELL worth it. If you shop online I would HIGHLY recommend KMS Hay loft: http://www.kmshayloft.com/ They sell hay and pellets, both are AMAZING and you will never find anything better than theirs.

Your veggies sound ok but you need to limit the carrots to 1 baby carrot or the side of your pinky. Be careful of the cucumber, it can cause mushy poops.

Do you happen to know what cut your hay is (ask the farmer), if its 1st cut, meaning the first time they harvested it, toss it and get 2nd or 3rd cut. The higher the number the softer and better it is. I personally use a dried grass timothy blend for SUPER softness. (HMS can't ship hay here as far as I know).

Veggies should be 1 cup per pig. (if that helps at all).

Do you know what kind of breed she is? If she is short haired all over, that's called an American short haired, and they tend to look VERY chunky with extra chins (dewlap).

[kaycejonesgrl]

I have three bags of guinea pig food, pretty good sized bags too. Two of them came with my new pig and one I had to buy because that's all they had. They're bad food I know.. Two are hartz (both are 1/2 full) and one is Sunscription. They're the basic food they tell you to avoid, namely Alfalfa. They also have corn but it's aways down the list. I would be willing to get a new food and will switch but I need to use these up.. I may be able to get oxbow in town but they were out last time I went down there. Think I'll get a bag of that next paycheck and then just mix them a bit. The hay is second cutting and I'd say she gets about a cup, maybe a little more of veggies. I'll lessen then carrots. They are her favorite though. She's had perfect poops, no problems at all and is active and appears totally healthy just seems plump to me but I have limited experience (just a lot of research) with pigs. She is an American shorthair so maybe she's just a husky version of that or I just think she's too plump, I prefer my animals lean. I'll keep an eye on it and get the oxbow next chance I can (or order online but I don't understand why I can't see ingredients and nutrition analysis of KMS Loft's food? Is it available somewhere?)

[Canadian Comforts]

Here is the information your looking for: http://www.kmshayloft.com/pellets.html

They are the best you can get for guinea pigs in the world from what people tell me. For me the shipping is too crazy (I'm in Canada). Its like $90 for 20lbs (that's the cost and shipping), no in my price range.

I would change as soon as you can because pigs get stones, which can end up being lethal to them. Alfalfa can help build up the calcium in their pee that causes the stones (But I am sure you know all about stones ). A member of GuineaLynx recently lost her skinny pig to a stone. Its very sad and I personally do everything I can to cut Calcium out of my boy's diet.

[Anjel]

When I had some guinea pigs my granmother dumped on me, our Boar was VERY overweight. A cavy breeder once told me when needing to go on a diet, feed only timothy hay, water, and a selection of veggies, and forage, and feed pellets only once a week. I did follow that advice (We had oxbox pellets I believe) and he did slowly get back into shape. I'm not sure if there's negative effects from this (He lived to be roughly 8yrs) so I would look into it and maybe check with some cavy breeders or rescues. I've been told as long as the selection of veggies and forage is wide enough, it's supposed to be safe with the pelleted food once a week. I'm not sure if you have access to good clean forage however (We don't have it here now), so that might be something that's a deal breaker.

[kaycejonesgrl]

I'm not really worried about stones because those are most typically for males and mine are both little ladies but I will switch when possible.

I'm not sure the once a week will work for me because now my new girl is perfectly slim and fit on free choice pellets (It doesn't sound like she'd been getting any hay at her old home and veggies were likely not as often as daily) so I'll have to be catering to them both as they share a cage. Chilla is more active lately with Claire in there so maybe she'll slim down some due to activity level. Thanks for your help!

[RattiesSix]

You really may as well throw the crap food out. Hartz itself is a terrible company well known for producing products that kill and cause serious illnesses in animals. There's really no reason to continue using the crap stuff. There are much better foods out there.

[kaycejonesgrl]

The ingredients really aren't very different with the exception of alfalfa vs timothy and the addition of corn in the list and both of these pigs have been on it I'm sure as long as they've been alive and seem no worse for wear. I'm not going to throw three bags of very nearly the same ingredient food away but I will purchase the oxbow when available and mix/switch them over. Of all the crap these pigs could be receiving I doubt that a couple bags of this mixed with slightly higher quality food and supplemented with appropriate hay and veggies variety is going to harm them.

[Canadian Comforts]

Its not so much the now that you need to worry about when it comes to their food harming them, its more about the future. Being fed junk pellets with corn and alfalfa in it can cause health issues in the future. I for one don't feed any of my pets (or kids) corn because 91% of corn is GMO corn and GMO has been linked to cause cancer in many studies. Here is a great read for you about the nutritional needs of guinea pigs:

http://www.guinealynx.info/diet.html
And more importantly:
http://www.guinealynx.info/pellets.html