Nutrition: Weight Gain

[Peggysu]

So my new addition seems to be doing ok so far in quarantine. He's beginning to eat his veggies and hay and gobbles down his pellets. I don't think he had a good diet at all prior to coming to me. He's supposedly about two years old.

Since being here yesterday he has gained 1.4 oz. Is this normal for a guinea pig, especially if their diet is improved or is there a potential problem with it? I know weight loss would be a bad sign but I'm not sure about weight gain.

He's eating KM timothy pellets, blue grass/third cut timothy hay. He's not to fond of the veggies yet so I'm starting him slow with green bell pepper, red leaf, green leaf lettuce and cilantro. He likes carrot but if I put that in there that's all he eats so I've only given him that once. I overwhelmed him yesterdy afternoon with zucchini, cucumber, grape tomato and strawberry included. He didn't care for the strawberry which I thought was odd as my girls will eat that first.

[Ly&Pigs]

Sometimes switching to a better diet will cause a bit of weight gain but once on the new diet for a while, the weight should level off.

[Peggysu]

Thanks, that's what I figured. He's a little thin now that I feel him more. His diet was crappy before and it's definitely improved now. He does seem to have a lot of white spots from his urine and some are a little gritty. Will being on a better diet and limiting his calcium intake change that?

[Ly&Pigs]

It should. He could also be predisposed to sludge/stones too meaning that he would need to be on a pretty low calcium/oxalic acid diet for his entire life too. It's one of those "wait and see" games. Keep his calcium and oxalic acid contents low for a while and see if it improves.

[TheJiraks]

Just something to think about....

I've had my pigs basically since the first of the year, and have been weighing them every few days. I keep track of their weight in an excel file and even have a chart to show their growth. (I'm a nerd, I know.)

Anyway, I went to weigh them yesterday evening without really thinking about the fact that I had just given them both a nice salad that they wolfed down in five minutes. Needless to say, when I weighed them my jaw dropped because of the amount of weight they had both "gained" in the last few days. I realized it was most likely from the food they just ate, and reweighed them after I got home from work around midnight. They had both dropped down to a more realistic weight by that time.

So I guess I'll answer your question with a question. Did you weigh them soon after you gave them all that great food? If so, a lot of that weight might just be the food that hasn't...um....digested yet. No wonder guinea pigs poop a lot. They eat a TON!!

[Peggysu]

I weigh him before I feed veggies at 1800 every night. I understand the food thing and when to weigh. It's a good point for other people when they weigh their piggies.

He's still getting used to the idea of veggies though. He likes the pellets.