Exhausted mama pig losing weight

[Dreamweaver1]

While my guinea pig Neely is very good to her babies, they drive her crazy - now that they're able to eat on their own, she mostly tries to stay away from them, but they keep following her around and bothering her. She's losing weight, despite my constantly refilling the hay. I've been giving her some Critical Care, but she only wants to eat so much, and I don't want to stress her out even more by force-feeding her. I try to give her some floor time away from her babies, but she always worries about them and wants to go back immediately. Does anyone have any advice for helping her?

 

[bpatters]

How much weight? Over what period of time?

 

[Dreamweaver1]

Her weight was steady for the first week, then the second week it fluctuated somewhat. Then today she lost almost two ounces compared to yesterday.

 

[bpatters]

I'd force-feed her, whether she likes it or not. You can experiment with different tastes -- add juiced cilantro, or watermelon, or something she likes. But she'll die far quicker from weight loss than she will from the stress of the feeding.

 

[Dreamweaver1]

I've fed her one syringe worth of Critical Care. She was super wiggly to start, but very good for the second half of the syringe.

 

[bpatters]

What size syringe? And how much Critical Care?

I'd guess she needs at least 20-30 cc a day to stabilize her weight.

 

[Dreamweaver1]

It's an 8cc syringe, so I was planning on feeding her at least four times a day.

 

[bpatters]

That should be enough to maintain her weight.