Special Needs underweight baby piggy

rachelappel · May 5, 2013

we adopted a special needs baby whose make 8 weeks old? maybe a little older, nobody really knows for sure. anyways, we've had her for two weeks and she's not really eating many veggies or fruits. she gets alfalfa pellets and timothy hay (won't touch alfalfa hay) from oxbow and i've also been giving her critical care as she has one of her hind legs amputated before we adopted her. i've tried giving her all sorts of fruits and veggies and all she'll eat are baby carrots and lettuce. any suggestions on how to encourage her to eat them? i've tried mashing/blending them in with her critical care and she won't touch it. she does get one oxbow vitamin c tablet a day (which oddly, she LOVES those). its kind of frustrating that she won't eat anything.

she's also underweight still (i can feel her spine pretty easily :/ ), so wondering what veggies will be best for helping with that also. i'm going to call our vet tomorrow and see if i can get her in this week for a check up to look at her incision and make sure everything else is all good with her.

here's a picture of our adorable little mocha

we love her to pieces already, she is such a little snuggle bug <3

foggycreekcavy · May 5, 2013

Yes, she will learn from the other pigs. Guinea pigs are great copycatters.

rachelappel · May 5, 2013

spy9doc said:
Oh, boy, is she ever a cutie! Careful.............I've been known to pig-nap Abys. lol

you ought to see her in person, she is so adorable i don't even know how i stand it some days!!

eventually she will be with my four other girls, but right now she's still getting used to only having one back leg and i don't have the heart to put her with my others because i know they'll bully her, two of them are pretty dominant. i've thought of putting the least dominant with her so she learns to eat. however, i did have success today getting her to eat some stuff. i put her in her floor pen and only put fruits and veggies in there, and she did manage to eat all the blueberries, half a blackberry and shockingly, she gobbled up the kale and cilantro. so its a start. peppers are a no go, i've tried feeding them to her ever since she got here, but the vet says if she's eating the vitamin c tablets, that's okay for now. i feel much better after having seen her eat something else besides hay and pellets!

foggycreekcavy · May 5, 2013

When are you planning on introducing her? The sooner she can be with others the better--your idea to pair her with your least aggressive pig sounds good.

rachelappel · May 8, 2013

I tried pairing her up with our (what I thought) were our least aggressive pigs, at separate times, and she kept attacking poor baby mocha. I tried putting all five together and she wanted nothing to do with those big piggies, and they all kept trying to attack her. Maybe I'm being really soft and over protective of the little peanut because she's like a fraction of their size and isn't able to defend herself or get away from them very easily. So she's back to being by herself in an expanded cage (though she rarely spends time in there because I usually have her out with me). She is eating veggies much better in just these short few days. She's eating all her greens and has started to nibble on peppers and tomatoes. She's plumped up a little and I can't feel all her bones nearly as easily as I could three or four days ago. So its progress. Not 100%, but progress.

scruffytufty · May 8, 2013

maybe they see her as a threat because she could slow them down, i dont know if survival of the fittest works with pigs, she is gorgeous i love abbies xx

rachelappel · May 8, 2013

i actually worried about that because i remember reading somewhere that a mommy pig will kill unhealthy babies (don't know how true that is though) and they all kept checking out her incision like where the heck is your leg?

CallieLovesPigs · May 8, 2013

He's so cute! Good luck!

pinky · May 8, 2013

I think they can sense weakness. When my Truffles developed osteodystrophy, some of the females started attacking her. I paired her with my most nurturing female and it was a good match. You might want to try and pair her with one of them and keep the two together.

foggycreekcavy · May 8, 2013

rachelappel said:
i actually worried about that because i remember reading somewhere that a mommy pig will kill unhealthy babies (don't know how true that is though) and they all kept checking out her incision like where the heck is your leg?

No, it's not true.

Hhbean · May 8, 2013

Oh, my goodness, that is one adorable piggy! Our boy Sheldon wouldn't touch veggies(except carrots) so I would shred the carrot up with a little green pepper and he ended up eating them after a few weeks of this. He still doesn't really care for them, prefers the yellow peppers. We give him yellow pepper half the week and green the other half. Good luck with matching your little girl up with your other piggies!

rachelappel · May 9, 2013

pinky said:
I think they can sense weakness. When my Truffles developed osteodystrophy, some of the females started attacking her. I paired her with my most nurturing female and it was a good match. You might want to try and pair her with one of them and keep the two together.

i've already tried matching her up with my gentlest pig, it was a no go. hopefully once she gets a little bigger and can defend herself we can try it again. its just too pitiful for me to watch her get beat up on and not be able to get away :/

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Special Needs underweight baby piggy

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