Get Your Guinea Pig to Lose Weight
Many cavy owners feel like their guinea pig is a little too chubbier than normal. As much as obesity is a true issue with guinea pigs, it's actually quite uncommon and often misidentified. Please avoid taking incorrect measures but once you confirm that the pig is actually obese this should help to get them to shed a few pounds!
Contents
Steps
- Understand what an overweight guinea pig looks like. Guinea pigs are naturally on the larger side and chubby. They're constantly eating to keep their guts working and forever growing teeth filed down. If you want an accurate opinion on whether your guinea pig needs exercise, book an appointment with an exotic vet.
- If you think you won't be able to see a vet, you can also get a second opinion from many guinea pig owners on an online cavy forum such as Guinea Pig Lynx which is a popular forum with helpful guinea pig experts on hand.
- If your guinea pig lives outdoors in a colder climate, it will naturally try to gain weight to keep warm in the winter months. This is actually good for your guinea pigs health and comfort.
- Don't overfeed your guinea pigs. Stick to a correct dietary guide which can be found with research online. Guinea pigs should only have 1 cup of vegetables per day whilst hay should be kept unlimited. Pellets can be made available whenever, but consider cutting back if you're concerned about your pet's obesity.
- Keep track of their weight. Weigh your guinea pigs weekly and keep track of how much they have gained and how much they have lost. An average mature boar weighs about 900-1200 grams whilst an average mature sow weighs 700-900 grams. Boars are naturally 20-25% bigger than sows.
- Keeping track of your guinea pigs weight can also be handy to indicate any sudden weight loss which is a sign of illness. By detecting sickness early you lessen any serious risks.
- Introduce floor time. Floor time encourages your guinea pig to explore, exercise and mental stimulation. The smaller the cage the more important the floor time. You should introduce floor time more often to help your guinea pig to lose weight. A few hours of floor time a week should suffice, but the more the better.
- However, avoid stressing your guinea pig out when it comes to introducing your guinea pig to a new area. Make sure all pets are locked away from the same room as your guinea pig and make sure your guinea pig cannot escape.
- Your guinea pig may hide away when first being introduced to floor time. This is normal and the behavior is expected. She/he should soon get used to the concept of floor time with it primarily being a way for your guinea pig to run around and exercise.
- Add toys and obstacles in the cage. By incorporating obstacles inside of the cage it can help achieve more exercise from your guinea pigs. Add bricks/blocks for your guinea pig to hop onto in order to get to one area to another or some tunnels. Add toys that actually stimulate your guinea pig to play and use its energy.
- However, avoid adding too many toys that crowd the cage. As much as toys are stimulating and can encourage exercise, they can also become discouraging obstacles. Your guinea pig needs room to run around too.
- Only use toys and accessories specifically designed for use within a hamster or guinea pig cage. Many plastics contain harmful toxins such as BPA that make their way into your pig when ingested. Similarly, some products are painted with lead-based paints, another fatal substance when ingested.
- Cut back entirely on commercial treats. Commercial treats contain way too much sugar to be fed to guinea pigs and aren't beneficial at all. Vegetables are a healthier alternative.
- Cut back on fruits. Fruit can, in some cases, be just as bad as commercial treats as they contain a lot of sugar. Guinea pigs don't need fruit in their diet, so you should avoid giving it to them. Vegetables, hay, and pellets are the only three things they require.
- Limit their pellets. Pellets can be a primary cause of weight gain in guinea pigs. Limit the amount you give them whilst still making sure they're getting enough. They do still need the vitamin C intake!
- Expand the cage size. Sometimes obesity has to do with the cage size. If you have a small cage, or one stuffed with too many obstacles, it will limit your guinea pigs exercise space. Expand your cage to ensure you're preventing any weight gain from occurring again.
- Avoid exercise wheels and balls. These aren't designed for guinea pigs and can seriously harm their backs. Please restrain from using these at all costs as they don't benefit your guinea pig in any way.
- Leashes and harnesses should also be avoided as guinea pigs have fragile necks and spines that shouldn't be tugged at.
Tips
- Keep a couple of huts/bridges in the floor-time space so that your guinea pig can get used to the new area.
- A guinea pig's teeth never stops growing, so providing guinea pigs with a safe and effective way of trimming their teeth is vital. Try a lava rock, available at most pet stores, or a chunk of Himalayan rock salt.
Warnings
- Don't put your guinea pig on a diet just because you think they're overweight. They should still be getting pellets, hay and 1 cup of vegetables.
- Never use exercise wheels or balls.
- Don't use leashes or harnesses as an exercise method.
