Charlie's thread

[HollyG]

Hello! I just got my piggy about a month ago (my brother had owned her for about a year but then moved to a place where he couldn't have pets so he gave her to me) and took her to the vet for a wellness check and just to get some questions answered. The vet said she is in great health, she was just a bit on the overweight side but just barely. She adviced me to cut down on the hay I feed her.
Charlie (the guinea pig) has a diet that normally consists of about a half cup of spring mix lettuce in the morning with a slice of green bell pepper, between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of Oxbow pellets at dinner, and unlimited hay. She also will usually get a snack/treat once per day, usually a veggie or fruit like watermelon rind or something along those lines.
From all my research, I believed that guinea pigs were supposed to have unlimited amounts of hay because it helps with their teeth. However when discussing cutting back her diet with the vet she said to decrease the hay and continue everything else in the same amounts. Should I be limiting her hay or would that not be a good for her? How else could I help her lose a bit of weight; I don't want her to get too big where it could lead to health problems. Thank you!

[HollyG]

Hello! My brother had previously owned Charlie (the guinea pig) for about a year and had been using a mix of the paper bedding and aspen bedding from Walmart. She's had no problems with them before. However I recently just switched brands of Aspen bedding (bought a much bigger bag for a better price at Tractor Supply) and I think she eats it on occasion. These shavings are much larger; the ones before were almost a powdery consistency or very small. The new bedding is larger chunks, smaller than typical mulch but larger than shavings I have used before. Should I switch back to the previous bedding brand?
Also, she recently went to the vet for a wellness visit (just because I'm so new to guinea pigs and wanted to ask some questions to a professional) and the vet saw that she had a small sore on her foot on one side, both the front and back paw(?). Could this be from the new, larger shavings as well?

Also any advice for bedding would be appreciated. I just graduated college so I don't have a lot of money to spend and she has a very large cage. Obviously I need to switch shavings I will but I wouldn't know what to switch to. I know my brother told me that pine is dangerous and to never use it. I line the bottom of the cage with pee pads for small animals and use a mixture of Aspen shavings and paper shavings. Any advice/reccomendations would be appreciated!

[bpatters]

@HollyG, please stick with one thread for all your questions rather than making new ones. It keeps all the information on your pig in one place so it's easier to find. I'll merge the other questions with this thread.

[HollyG]

Sorry, didnt realize that different topics should be in the same post.

[HollyG]

Charlie has been in my house about a year now, however she just recently was given to me by my little brother because he moved to a place where he couldn't have pets. She's gotten used to me and has been in my room/care for a month and a half. The cage she was originally in was a cage from a pet store and way to small, so I recently bought her a new one that is much bigger. However, now she doesn't like to come out of her cage. She will run away from me if I try to pick her up, but once she is in my arms she absolutely loves cuddling. The problem is getting her out of the cage. Also, when my father comes around she bites him like crazy! She bites him hard and obviously purposely - she draws blood. But again, once he holds her she purrs and is very happy and cuddles right up to him.

One thing I'm unsure of is that she is my only guinea pig and I know they are very social. Does she need a friend? I'm currently in the process of selling my house/moving across the country so right now I don't have the space for a bigger cage to get her a friend, but I'm willing to find a way to do whatever is best for her. I'm not sure if boredom/loneliness could be causing her biting issues, though. When she was with my brother she was borderline neglected - always in her cage, always alone although she did have food and water.

I'm not sure what's causing this biting behavior/not wanting to be picked up but any help would be appreciated!

[lissie]

Hello! I just got my piggy about a month ago (my brother had owned her for about a year but then moved to a place where he couldn't have pets so he gave her to me) and took her to the vet for a wellness check and just to get some questions answered. The vet said she is in great health, she was just a bit on the overweight side but just barely. She adviced me to cut down on the hay I feed her.
Charlie (the guinea pig) has a diet that normally consists of about a half cup of spring mix lettuce in the morning with a slice of green bell pepper, between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of Oxbow pellets at dinner, and unlimited hay. She also will usually get a snack/treat once per day, usually a veggie or fruit like watermelon rind or something along those lines.
From all my research, I believed that guinea pigs were supposed to have unlimited amounts of hay because it helps with their teeth. However when discussing cutting back her diet with the vet she said to decrease the hay and continue everything else in the same amounts. Should I be limiting her hay or would that not be a good for her? How else could I help her lose a bit of weight; I don't want her to get too big where it could lead to health problems. Thank you!

I would find another vet. Sounds like this one doesn't know much about guinea pigs.

You're right about feeding unlimited hay. Guinea pigs should never be limited on hay.

Guinea pigs are rarely overweight. Your vet could be wrong. Follow guideline on this page to determine if she's really overweight.
http://guinealynx.info/weigh.html

If she is really overweight, to help her lose weight, you can enlarge her cage so she has more space to run around. You can also give her more exercise time out of the cage.

Hello! My brother had previously owned Charlie (the guinea pig) for about a year and had been using a mix of the paper bedding and aspen bedding from Walmart. She's had no problems with them before. However I recently just switched brands of Aspen bedding (bought a much bigger bag for a better price at Tractor Supply) and I think she eats it on occasion. These shavings are much larger; the ones before were almost a powdery consistency or very small. The new bedding is larger chunks, smaller than typical mulch but larger than shavings I have used before. Should I switch back to the previous bedding brand?
Also, she recently went to the vet for a wellness visit (just because I'm so new to guinea pigs and wanted to ask some questions to a professional) and the vet saw that she had a small sore on her foot on one side, both the front and back paw(?). Could this be from the new, larger shavings as well?

Also any advice for bedding would be appreciated. I just graduated college so I don't have a lot of money to spend and she has a very large cage. Obviously I need to switch shavings I will but I wouldn't know what to switch to. I know my brother told me that pine is dangerous and to never use it. I line the bottom of the cage with pee pads for small animals and use a mixture of Aspen shavings and paper shavings. Any advice/reccomendations would be appreciated!

For inexpensive bedding, look into wood pellets and fleece.
See this thread for more info:
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum...f-wood-pellets

[lissie]

I've merged all your threads.

You can wait until you move to find her a friend.

See this article about biting:
http://www.cavyspirit.com/biting.htm

[HollyG]

I would find another vet. Sounds like this one doesn't know much about guinea pigs.

You're right about feeding unlimited hay. Guinea pigs should never be limited on hay.

Guinea pigs are rarely overweight. Your vet could be wrong. Follow guideline on this page to determine if she's really overweight.
http://guinealynx.info/weigh.html

If she is really overweight, to help her lose weight, you can enlarge her cage so she has more space to run around. You can also give her more exercise time out of the cage.


For inexpensive bedding, look into wood pellets and fleece.
See this thread for more info:
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum...f-wood-pellets

Thank you so much for the advice. I?ve followed the guidelines in the link you provided about weight and I can feel her hips, spine but her ribs are a little harder to feel.

Also, in response to the link you provided, I am making the switch to fleece. I was thinking of using puppy pads under the fleece but the wood pellets sound like a really good alternative. I thought pine was toxic to guinea pigs though?


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[lissie]

Pine is fine to use if it doesn't smell. The phenol is toxic. If it's been dried out, it can be used.

You can also find hardwood pellets like aspen. Those will not have phenol that's toxic to guinea pigs.

[HollyG]

lissie, are these wood pellets the ones for horses or are these the ones for wood ovens? I've heard of people using both but I feel it would be difficult to find the ones used for heating in July. My local Tractor Supply sells the ones for horses, though. After reading the reviews it still seems to be split on whether they have a strong smell. Also, do they need to specifically be kiln dried, or can they be dried via rotary dryer? The reviews say "the product is dried from 30-50% initial moisture down to 9-12% moisture out of the dryer prior to pelleting.The oils are diminished and reduced through the drying process and also through the natural leaching process that occurs." Is this okay? I looked into aspen hardwood pellets and haven't seen them.

[HollyG]

So I think my pig might have a very early case of Bumblefoot. I know this can get serious so I want to treat it/prevent it quickly. I have seen the links on other discussions on Bumblefoot that discussed what it is and the link to the guinea pig lynx page but I?m not sure about treatment.

I?ve read a lot of people using epsom salt soaks. How do you soak your pigs foot? And how long should it soak for? I know to make sure to dry the foot and monitor the whole time her foot is soaking but I?m just not sure how to soak it and how to make her stay still long enough to soak.
Thanks in advance!

[bpatters]

What pig is this? I'll rename this thread to make it the medical thread. You get ONE medical thread per pig.

And if you read the GL link I gave you, it has several treatments you can choose from on it.

[HollyG]

This is Charlie; I don?t believe I?ve posted in the vet/medical forum yet but I apologize if I have.
I followed the link you suggested yesterday I just wasn?t sure what any of the suggested treatments were except for the epsom salt soak; I believe most of the others may have been medication names but I?m not sure.
Like I said, it seems to be pretty early, it?s just a tad swollen on one foot, so I don?t want to do anything too extreme in terms of treatment. I just switched her to softer bedding so I?m hoping that helps as well.

[bpatters]

I'm combining this with Charley's thread.

[HollyG]

I'm sorry for posting another thread but I was just hoping that I could get some advice on my pigs' diet. At a recent visit to the vet (nothing wrong, just a wellness check since I just got her) I was told that Charlie is on her way to being overweight. She gets around fine, but it's so hard to tell if she's really that big; when she is scrunched up she looks quite chubby but when she is stretched out she looks completely normal. The vet told me she should go on a diet but she told me to limit her hay which I know is a no no.

In a normal day, at about 9:30 she gets a loose half cup of spring mix salad with usually 2 slices of green bell pepper. Occasionally during the day she may get a small piece of watermelon rind (I keep them in the fridge and give her a piece on hot days as a treat) or a blueberry or a couple of slices of cucumber. Obviously she has unlimited hay and unlimited water. Then at around 5-6:30 I give her between 1/8 -1/4 cup of Oxbow Simple Harvest adult guinea pig food. Normally she finishes heer pellets within 24 hours before I give her pellets again the next day. She eats the salad and pepper very quickly, typically within 10 minutes or so - she loves it.

I know one thing I need to work on is exercise. She does have a cage that is larger than what she needs and she has room to run around but she doesn't typically get a lot of floor time. She does come out of the cage a couple of times a day, but when I try putting her down on a mat or something on my bed she just walks back to me and climbs on me to cuddle again. I'd like to put her down on the floor so she has more room to run around but I'm in the process of moving so our house is pretty messy with lots of places that she could hide/places where I can't get to her.
Your advice is appreciated, thank you in advance!

[bpatters]

@HollyG, if you start another thread about this pig, you will be caged and all your posts will have to be approved by a moderator before they're visible on the forum. Most people who read the forum read all the new posts, which are easily visible if you click the "New Posts" link at the top of the page. Starting a new thread does NOT make them more prominent.

How much does your pig actually weigh? It's very difficult for a guinea pig to be overweight. They're herbivores, and their getting fat would be like you gaining weight eating nothing but salads. In guinea pigs, obesity usually happens only when an adult pig is fed unlimited pellets, or has a mobility problem that keeps them from moving around.

On the other hand, the weight recommendations in veterinary books, which is what vets usually refer to, are based on lab animals, not on pets. They're light, and your pig can weigh considerably more than the recommendation without being overweight. There's a section in this article on knowing whether your pig is too heavy.

That said, you've got an adult pig, and she should be limited to 1/8 cup of pellets per day.

[HollyG]

[QUOTE=bpatters;1004289]@HollyG, if you start another thread about this pig, you will be caged and all your posts will have to be approved by a moderator before they're visible on the forum. Most people who read the forum read all the new posts, which are easily visible if you click the "New Posts" link at the top of the page. Starting a new thread does NOT make them more prominent.
@bpatters, your impatience and rudeness is unnecessary. My understanding was that besides the vet/medical thread where you get one post/pig that different topics could be different posts. I share this account with my roommate who is also looking after my pig so she also posts at times; in the future we will communicate more on what is being posted by this account. My mistake in thinking that this forum was open to all looking for advice on their pets or who were interested in a forum with other guinea pig owners. My intentions were not to make my posts more prominent, but to instead properly sort questions/posts so that those who may have similar questions could find posts under the correct categories similar to sites like Yahoo Answers.

[bpatters]

This is not Yahoo Answers. And the knowledgeable people on this forum who respond to questions about pigs like to have all the pertinent information about a pig on one thread.

You've been asked several times to keep any questions that may even possibly relate to Charlie's health on this thread. I won't remind you again.

[HollyG]

I know it?s not Yahoo Answers, what I said was that it was my understanding that it was run in a way similar to that in which you post a question to the forum in which that topic is dedicated to; for example a question about diet goes under the diet and nutrition forum, biting would go under behavior, etc. (or discussion, whichever) rather than everything you post go in the same thread. I have come to you asking for clarification after you moved my posts several times. As a moderator I was hoping you?d me more interested in helping understand rather than scolding.
In regards to weight I am unsure of her weight. She gets around okay; I am in the process of getting a scale to measure her weight in. If anything needs to be cut down should it be veggies or pellets?

[spy9doc]

@HollyG.......perhaps you should consider that participating on this Forum is a privilege, not a right! It is entirely free and I know of no other place that one can find such knowledgeable people with regard to cavies. This Forum is more than ten years old and one can find the answer to almost any question by going back into the archives......use the search function on the upper right by the eye glass. Those of us who are veterans here and are knowledgeable about cavy care never mind answering well thought-out questions, but in the process we often get weary of the same questions over and over. Do your homework and you will learn a lot in the process. When I first joined the Forum, I literally spent two days going back in the archives, doing research, and catching up on recent and current discussions.

Have you considered for even one second just how much work it is to moderate this Forum??? It literally takes hours of time and it isn't even a paid position. I thoughtfully and carefully made some posts this morning and it took two hours of my time. Just imagine how much time it takes when @bpatters answers multiple questions throughout the day? It becomes a full-time activity. It is a good thing that she is semi-retired and has the love of cavies to devote the time.

This Forum is the place to come when one is seeking good advice about cavy care. We veterans have all different personalities and some will be more patient than others. But, you should leave your ego at the door and consider that there are rules of conduct here. The bottom line is that we all love our piggies and only want the best for them. That's why many of us veterans stick around long after most of our questions have been answered......to pay forward what others have done for us and to share our knowledge.

If you don't like the way the Forum is conducted and moderated, the choice is simple......leave. But, I think that would be a shame because by sticking around you will learn far more than you ever imagined about cavy care.