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Hi I am new!! and I also have a few questions

Domies the pigs

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Hi I am new to this forum and I just got two guinea pigs. I have some questions about weight, sneezing and things you could do with your guinea pigs.

What is a normal guinea pig weight? One of my guinea pig appears to be 2 or 3 months old and the vet said that I need to put him on a diet which I did research and some people said that it was a bad idea and the other one is super skinny and I could see his ribs.

The " what the vet said is obese " guinea pig of them is definatley sneezing more than once a day and I am not sure about the skinny one.

This is not as urgent as the other two but I want to keep them happy and not bored so a suggestion of enrichment and what you could do with them will help

Thankyou Everyone
 

JaneDoe

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Welcome, Domies the pigs!
 

bpatters

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Welcome!

Here's a thread with some good information for newbies: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners

I'm really concerned that vet said you needed to put a 2-3 month old pig on a diet. Eating is what guinea pigs do. Eat and poop. Eat and poop. And unless they're wildly overfed on pellets, or have some sort of mobility issues that keep them from moving, it's almost impossible for them to be overweight. They're vegetarians, and it would be like you becoming obese while eating nothing but salads. It just doesn't happen.

So that makes me wonder what kind of vet you saw. Small animal vets treat dogs and cats. They get almost no training or experience caring for "pocket pets" unless they choose to do additional training or develop that experience on their own. Some small animal vets are just downright dangerous when it comes to guinea pigs, particularly when they need antibiotic treatment, or surgery. So if this wasn't an exotic vet, I'd strongly encourage you to find one ASAP, particularly as it sounds like you may have a sick pig.

Sneezing itself isn't necessarily a sign of illness. If their hay is dusty, or if the pig is allergic to timothy, that can cause them to sneeze. But if you see discharge from the nose when the pig sneezes, or if there's any drainage from the eyes or nose, then you need to see a vet ASAP.

The best thing you can do is get a kitchen scale that weighs up to about five pounds in both ounces and grams. Weigh your pigs regularly, preferably in the morning before breakfast, and keep a record of their weights. If you think they're ill, weigh daily. Often a slight weight loss will be the first indication you have that something is going wrong.
 

JaneDoe

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Some pigs just sneeze more than others, like people. My late Pippin sneezed a lot and he was one of the longest-lived. My vet pointed out they're low to the ground and they tend to snuffle up stuff anyway.
 

Domies the pigs

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Hi bpatters and thankyou for your reply. I checked the guinea pigs and their hay is really dusty and also sometimes make me sneeze and they don't have discharge from their nose. I will start weighing them tomorow because it is already the middle of the day.

Is there someway to make the guinea pig hay not dusty? Is dusty hay bad for them?
 

bpatters

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Are you buying hay in small bags at a pet store or someplace like Walmart? If so, not only is it generally the dustiest you'll ever run into, it's also the driest and by FAR the most expensive.

If you live not too far from a farming community that has good hay, you can buy a whole bale of hay for less than $20. Even if you wind up throwing a lot of it away, you'll still save a ton of money.

Another option is to buy hay online from some place like Small Pet Select, American Pet Diner, Oxbow (I think they ship boxes to stores where you can pick it up), Rabbit Hole, etc. It's less than half the cost of pet store hay, and is generally good quality.

Of course, everybody ordering hay these days is going to have to ask where it's coming from -- the western sources may be very scarce because of the fires.
 

Domies the pigs

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I was buying 500 grams of hay online and hay is really expensive where I am ( I am in the eastern part of the earth ). That is the largest hay bag that I could find in online shopping.
 

peanny77

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Welcome to the forum, [MENTION=45899]Domies the pigs[/MENTION] !
Same fate here. The largest quantity of hay I could find online is 1kg. Hay is also ridiculously expensive here, like, $4-5 for that tiny 1kg bag!
Now I’m trying to find ways to buy hay in bulk or get cheap but high quality hay. Yes, I can get bales of tim hay, but my house is very small and that bale is 25kg. It’ll also cost me $90, so not cheap. I know tim hay is the best hay I can give my pigs, but their hay doesn’t HAVE to be tim hay,does it? I’ll try to find farmer hay here.
 

bpatters

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You need a long strand grass hay. (Note that does NOT mean that the STEMS of the hay have to be long. It refers to the fibers inside the stem.) Common long strand grass hays are timothy, orchard grass, blue grass, meadow grass, and brome.

If you're outside the U.S., see if you can find a horse farm or racing track near you. Any hay that works for horses will likely work for guinea pigs, except that horses can be fed some alfalfa and adult guinea pigs should not.

LOL, @Domies the pigs! Every place on earth is east of something! Except maybe the north and south poles!
 

peanny77

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I think by “eastern part of the word” @Domies the pigs meant Asia.
 

Domies the pigs

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Yes I am in Asia and I am going to a new vet because one of my guinea pigs has been making weird noises, I am not sure if that noise is normal and he had a very loud sneeze ( this is Dumpling which is the skinny one .) I hope I could convince my parents because the covid here is getting worse and really worse.
 

bpatters

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Domies the pigs

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Is it ok if I give my guinea pigs ice cubes to chew on because it is really really reaally hot in my country?
 

bpatters

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I wouldn't. They probably won't chew them anyway.

You can put ice in their water bottles so they've got cool water. And do make sure they've always got fresh cool water, especially when the weather is hot.

You can freeze plastic bottles of water, wrap them in one layer of a towel, and put them in the cage for them to snuggle against.

If you can get a piece of marble or tile, you can chill it in the freezer, wrap it in a layer of a towel, and put it in the cage for them to sit on.

You can run a fan in the room to keep the air circulating. Just don't let it blow directly on them.

And if they're long-haired, you can give them a short haircut to make them more comfortable.
 

Domies the pigs

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One of my guinea pigs really likes to chewing on it and both like laying next to it.
 

bpatters

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Don't let them lay next to the ice itself. They'll get wet, the bedding will get wet, and in the heat, you can have fungus growing in no time. That's the purpose in freezing the water in a container and wrapping it in something.
 
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