Too much hay?

[Popcorn's pet]

I know that piggies are suposed to have a steady supply of hay, but when I refill Popcorn's hay rack, he goes through it in 24 hours. I don't refill it every day, maybe only twice a week, but is that enough? I'm trying to help him lose weight and be healthy - and the haybag says that hay helps piggies fight obesity - but is there such a thing as too much timothy hay?

[Sabriel]

I always give them more then I think they will eat. That way when I'm at work or sleeping they won't run out. Hay keeps their system moving and their teeth in good shape. They need access to hay 24/7.

If your cavy needs to lose weight it's better to cut back on or carefully eliminate pellets. Also try to cut down on the fruit and stick to greens and bell peppers ans other low sugar veggies. And I would cut out all dried fruit as it is easy to over feed and not essential to their diet.

And only feed grass hays like timothy, orchard, brome, etc. No alfalfa hay or pellets.

[this_lil_piggy]

Definetly dont cut back on hay. If hes eating it all every day, refill it every day. Hay is the most important part of their diet. If he runs out of hay, hes just going to supplement that loss by eating more pellets and an adult doesnt really need more than 1/8th-1/4th cup daily of those.

What type hay rack do you have? I noticed my pigs going through a huge amount of hay--no matter how much I put in, they would be completely out by morning. After paying close attention i realized that because i had a horizontal hay rack...they were crawling their silly butts into the hay rack, shoving all the hay out of one end, and then the hay was getting dragged all over the cage, and getting stomped down under the shavings. They were wasting every bit as much as they were eating. I made one of the vertical hay racks out of a grid and ziptied it to the side of my cage where they can no longer get in and shove it out...my hay is lasting 3x longer now because there is nearly none wasted!

[Popcorn's pet]

Thanks for the comments! I am feeding him 1/8 cup pellets, 1 cup (or more) veggies, an apple or other fresh fruit once a week (which he doesn't really eat) and hay. My hay rack is homemade, a cube secured at an angle against the side of his cage (he can't get stuck in it, although he does love to snuggle in it).

How am I doing? He isn't really losing that much (on any!) weight - how do I improve?

[Sabriel]

Cut back or eleminate pellets (look up pelletless diet on GL.) Skip the apples and use bell peppers for vit c instead.

You can always take your piggie to the vet for a wellness check up and ask what they think you can do to help your pig lose weight.

Also lots of floor time and a large cage will encorage exercise which is part 2 of the weight loss equation. Try to keep the water, hay, pellets and hidey house far apart to encourage him to walk about.

[Ly&Pigs]

How much does your pig weigh? 2-3lbs. is normal.

[Slave to the Wheek]

I'm concerned. Can you help us understand what makes you think you pig is overweight with a little more background?

Guinea pigs are supposed to have full round bellies as that is how they process food. Some folks mistake this as "overweight" when in fact their pig is healthy.

If your pig is eating plain pellets designed for guinea pigs without any added "candy" to it- like seeds, and colored bits, has unlimmited timothy hay and gets appropriate veggies with extremely limited fruits and treats they shouldn't be overweight unless your cage is too small and they simply aren't getting any exercise.

Much like humans, guinea pigs need to burn calories to be healthy and cage size has a lot to do with that. If we simply limit our diet without having any physical exertion we risk multiple health problems. Since guinea pigs are an animal that grazes in the wild, putting them in too small of a cage can cause serious weight gain.

[aqh88]

Grass hay has practically no fat to it and few calories. It's one of the lowest energy foods you can feed. Alfalfa is another matter but you shouldn't be feeding it for that reason so we'll ignore it. You just plain cannot make a guinea pig, or horse, cow, etc, fat on hay unless they are getting absolutely no excercise. Even if your not getting excercise you still require so many nutrients to live and so you cannot just eat nothing in order to keep your weight down. A guinea pig's digestive tract is also quite different from a humans. It requires constant food intake and constant movement or it may just shut down potentially causing death. Reason your not suppose to fast a guinea pig before surgery for more than a couple hours. If you want them to lose weight cut the pellets and increase the excercise but don't ever limit the grass hay. It won't make a difference. Mine eat around 2lbs of hay a day.

[Popcorn's pet]

Wow, I feel much better now!

I posted before that Popcorn is technically my sister's pig, and when she had him, she fed him an all-pellet diet, with spinach and hay as treats. She said that piggies were supposed to be around 1-2 lbs, and Popcorn is about 2.5-3 (my scale is crappy), plus he has a big fat pocket on either side of his body, like piggy love handles!

I try to keep him active, and he has a 2x3 cage. Oh, and I feed him real pellets, no seeds - and no carcinogens. I was worried about him being overweight because of his fat pockets, but if those are normal, I'm very releived!

I'm so glad I rescued him from my sister - I am not letting her take him back unless she gets him a friend and feeds him properly. I don't know why I listened to her about him being overweight - she doesn't know anything about pigs, she read that too much vegetables gave them diarrhea, and thus should be avoided.