Diet Are my piggies too fat?

[MinoAddict]

We received 2 Guinea Pigs 6 weeks ago that were "babies". They came from a Pet Store ( I had no idea we were receiving them as a gift, have since found out pet store piggies are adding to the problem). Anyway the piggies are healthy and marginally friendly. My question is as follows. I feed them unlimited Timothy hay and water, they have grown quite a bit since we got them. They get 2 cups of veggies per day. I feed 1/4 cup of alfalfa based pellets per day. Sometimes my teenagers give them more "cereal" if they notice their pellet bowl is empty ( they refer to the pellets as piggy cereal). The piggies are starting to look a bit chubby in my opinion. Especially my fuzzy longish haired piggie. Any advice? Are the piggies chubby, or are they simply growing? I don't want them to be unhealthy and I feed plenty of veggies that are high in vitamin C and even switched to a 2*4 C&C cage as well as fleece bedding to make them more comfortable/allow space for exercise.

 

[MinoAddict]

A bad picture of my piggies. If that helps any.

 

[bpatters]

If they're under six months old, you should feed them unlimited alfalfa pellets. They need the calcium for their growing bones.

It's almost impossible for a guinea pig to be overweight. When they are, the two most common reasons are 1) they're adult pigs being fed way too many pellets, or 2) they're unable to move properly for some reason, and lack of exercise contributes to weight gain.

Your pigs look perfectly fine, and at their ages, there's absolutely no danger of them being overweight.

Here's some reading material for new piggy owners:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/107827-What-NOT-to-do-for-your-guinea-pigs!

 

[MinoAddict]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Do you feel I have harmed my pigs/starved them with the diet they have been kept on for 6 weeks? They aren't skinny, you can't feel any bones and they have grown considerably since they came to us. If they seem "hungry" I try to feed extra veggies during the day, but normally we stick to 2 cups of veggies a day because I know that's what adult.pigs require. Should I switch their hay to alfalfa, a feed store employee told me they should be eating alfalfa but I couldn't find a definitive answer on here nor guinealynx. Or maybe I am looking in the wrong area.

 

[Soecara]

No they don't need alfalfa hay, the only reason to feed alfalfa hay is to get them extra calcium for their growing bones but feeding them alfalfa pellets does the same thing so there is no reason to feed them both.

When feeding guinea pigs under 6 months old you have three different options when it comes to meeting their need for extra calcium, you can feed alfalfa pellets, or you can feed alfalfa hay, or you can feed a high calcium vegetable once a day, you only need to do one of those three choices. Even if you did chose to feed alfalfa hay instead of giving alfalfa pellets it should not replace timothy hay as the alfalfa hay does nothing for their teeth. Ideally when feeding alfalfa hay you would want to mix it with the timothy hay at a ratio of roughly 30% alfalfa hay to 70% timothy hay.

No I don't feel you harmed/starved them as they still had an unlimited supply of hay, an ample supply of vegetables and 1/8 of a cup each of pellets, the limiting of the pellets for that period of time shouldn't have any impact on them.

 

[bpatters]

Ditto @Soecara.

 

[NScotia]

They look identical to my two boys, whom we also got from a pet store (uneducated). They were the only two boys there and left. They looked so sad and were trapped in a tiny little box enclosure. I couldn't help myself. My orange boy is a bit chunky (in my opinion), but my black boy is a little smaller. I think sizes also range like personality Your boys look healthy and happy - don't worry! They look a normal weight to me!

 

[lissie]

Since they came from a pet store, please verify their genders. If they are not the same gender, please separate immediately.

https://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm
https://guinealynx.info/sexing.html

 

[NScotia]

Since they came from a pet store, please verify their genders. If they are not the same gender, please separate immediately.

https://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm
https://guinealynx.info/sexing.html

Where we live, Pet Stores cannot sell female rodents. Only males. New law to prevent accidents and breeding purposeful buying.

 

[lissie]

Where we live, Pet Stores cannot sell female rodents. Only males. New law to prevent accidents and breeding purposeful buying.

It's still better to verify by yourself. Pet stores often make mistakes.

 

[bpatters]

You haven't been here long, @NScotia. If you stick around, you'll see how many pregnant males we have on here that come from pet stores that verified that they were female.

 

[MinoAddict]

As soon as I received them I verified their genders myself using several online guides to make sure we don't have guinea babies. It's the last thing I want. When I was a child, 20years ago, we received 2 "female" rabbits. Needless to say we ended up having 21 baby rabbits over a short period of time. My father ended up building two separate bunny enclosures for the boys and the girls. My piggies are definitely boys.

 

[MinoAddict]

Same in my city. Only boys are sold. How many of those boys are accidentally girls is up for debate but both of mine are definitely boys. They have the little i's . I checked multiple times.

 

[NScotia]

Same in my city. Only boys are sold. How many of those boys are accidentally girls is up for debate but both of mine are definitely boys. They have the little i's . I checked multiple times.

We've also checked our boys I feel some people are quick to make assumptions - a law is a law, and by all means they don't always get followed. I for one think it's awesome that they only sell males now and aim for that. I'm sure if we can tell our piggies sex through google photos, pet stores can attempt (if it's law and regulated, as it is here) to do the same. Not every pet store is evil, some don't even sell animals, and some rarely bring animals in for sale. In our area, all dogs and cats in pet stores now are from shelters and rescues. I don't know how things work in other areas, but I do give our local area some credit for the changes they've made over the past couple years. Pets Unlimited was shut down here because of the cruelty that was reported.

 

[lunarminx]

You have two perfect slim growing piggies that will fatten up to be perfect chubby adult piggies! Adult pigs are chubby! Slim ones like yours are almost always young. Look at the various sizes of the adults from the google images you will see most are chubby and hippy. Males also get a lot bigger. The extra weight helps them handle a sickness better.

Two 6 month old boys with two 4 1/2 year old males.

My hippy boar at not quiet 2 and almost 4 lbs.

I bet you can tell which is the young one!

 

[jaycriae]

I have a friend who works at a male-only Petsmart, and from what I understand it's often the mass producing breeders who mis-sex the pigs. At the store he works at, they're only supposed to be sent males of any rodent species, and sometimes females get in the mix because the breeders didn't do it right, and the pet store employees just trusted the breeders and didn't double-check. Needless to say, my friend is always the one to double-check when he's there.


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[MinoAddict]

Thank you so much for the pictures as a reference. That helps SO MUCH. This and guinealynx are the only two sites I trust because people seem to know what they are talking about, and everyone is so helpful. Thank you once again. Your piggies are adorable.

 

[CavyMama]

Your pigs don't look fat. So no worries there. On the topic of male-only or female only pet stores...yes "laws are laws" but when it comes to animal laws, some places are not quite a stringent about following them. Guinea pigs for pet stores are mass produced in breeding mills. The breeding mills have hundreds and their process for checking gender (to send to pet stores) is probably a 3 second look so yes, mistakes are made. If you have verified on your own, great but please don't just trust that if the pet store is "males only" then they must both be males. Even if stores try to verify gender on their end, they can make mistakes as well.

 

[MinoAddict]

I know my baby pigs need more calcium than an adult pig. I've studied the various food charts and have tried to make their diet of veggies like that of an adult pig. Now here is my question. I received them almost 7 weeks ago from a pet store, they could fit on the palm of my hand. They have grown about 1/3 in length and weight. How old does everyone think they might be? I called the pet store and all they could tell me is " they are young, baby young, not sure how young". Can anyone try to guess? I looked at their nails (guinealynx guide talks about nails in babies) and they seem to have baby pig nails. My guess was they were around 2 months when I received them.
Should I be feeding them any special blend of vegetables to make sure they get the calcium they need? Currently they get bell pepper 1-2 times a day, cabbage leaves 3 times a week, broccoli and cauliflower leaves 2-3 times a week, carrots 4 times a week, finely chopped celery 4 times a week, parsley 3-4 times a week, radishes 2 times per week. They've had apple once and strawberries once, banana slice once. I'm growing my own parsley and Swiss chard when the chard comes in they can have that 1-2 times a week as well. When should I switch them to "big boy" Timothy based pellets?

 

[bpatters]

You switch to timothy pellets at six months of age, and restrict them to 1/8 cup per pig.

You can assume that pet store pigs are 4-6 weeks old.

You're feeding too much gassy stuff -- cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Switch those to occasional greens, and use red or green leaf lettuce instead.

Here's some recommended reading for new pig owners:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/107827-What-NOT-to-do-for-your-guinea-pigs!