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Diet How much calcium for a guinea pig of unknown age?

Thunder

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My friend has a guinea pig she got from a family member who could no longer take care of it. She doesn’t know how old it is. I know if it is under 6 months it needs extra calcium. If we don’t know how old it is do you give the extra calcium to be safe? She said it was little. She showed me a unclear picture and it did look little.
 
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bpatters

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The best indicator of a young pig's age is the weight and the condition of its nails. If she doesn't have a kitchen scale, she needs one -- it's the best medical equipment she can have for her pig. And the nails of young pigs are thin and have very sharp points.

She could also ask how long the family member had the pig, and that might help her make an educated guess.
 

Thunder

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Ok. Thank you.
 

Thunder

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I will get her to weigh it and send me pictures of the nails.
 

spy9doc

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Do we know if this is a boar or sow? I know you are curious about the cavy's age, but it really doesn't matter very much insofar as what to feed it. If the diet consists of good quality pellets, hay, and some veggies, s/he will do just fine. I have two very young boars and I make no effort to feed them anything special. The only way that I take age into consideration is that I'm less cautious about feeding high calcium veggies until they are about 6 mos. old. After that age I'm quite careful to restrict the calcium intake for boars.

I'm sure that you know this, but a sow's urethra is short and wider and a stone may be less problematic for her. OTOH, a boar's urethra is long and narrow and they rarely can pass stones. As an example, a few years ago I had a sow who had a stone lodge in the wall of her urethra.......and stayed there until her death. Other than a rare UTI, it didn't seem to cause any problems.
 

Thunder

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It is a boar. She said her family member did not have it very long at all and she said it was smaller than her hand and she has very small hands. She couldn’t find her scale.
 

bpatters

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Well, if she wants any help, she needs to find a scale and weigh the pig. It's likely very young, but there's no way to know.

She can buy a scale someplace like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. for less than $15.
 

Thunder

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Ok I will tell her if she can’t find hers that she should get one.
 

spy9doc

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You may want to suggest to her that she should weigh the cavy weekly, same day, same time. For instance, I weigh my boys on Sunday morning BEFORE they have had any substantial food or water intake for the day. That way you get a more consistent weight and don't have food, water, and a full bladder to factor into the equation.
 

Artista

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Do we know if this is a boar or sow? I know you are curious about the cavy's age, but it really doesn't matter very much insofar as what to feed it. If the diet consists of good quality pellets, hay, and some veggies, s/he will do just fine. I have two very young boars and I make no effort to feed them anything special. The only way that I take age into consideration is that I'm less cautious about feeding high calcium veggies until they are about 6 mos. old. After that age I'm quite careful to restrict the calcium intake for boars.

I'm sure that you know this, but a sow's urethra is short and wider and a stone may be less problematic for her. OTOH, a boar's urethra is long and narrow and they rarely can pass stones. As an example, a few years ago I had a sow who had a stone lodge in the wall of her urethra.......and stayed there until her death. Other than a rare UTI, it didn't seem to cause any problems.

I now have a 3 week boar. I'm not buying alfalfa stuff. He eats bellas kms pellets and orchard grass hay. I got kale and parsley and he loves it. Under 6 mo, is there too much calcium for a boar? I've only had females.
 

bpatters

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The requirements for calcium have nothing to do sex except in the case of pregnant females. If you're not feeding alfalfa, he needs a couple of sprigs of parsley or a small piece of kale, maybe half the size of your hand, every day.
 
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