Advice Please

[guineamommy]

I brought home Jasmine today. The family that she has lived with no longer wanted her. The exact words were 'we are over her'! So, she is at my house! I was so disgusted with the way she has been neglected. Her nails were curled under and were hurting her feet (we clipped those). She was in a 1 1/2 foot by 2 foot cage! We now have her in a two by three- that is the amount of cloroplast we had left after building the gigantic cage for the boys. She has light colored poo from eating store bought food with all kinds of seeds, etc. in it and she is overweight. She appears to be healthy though. There is no diarrhea and she is eating romaine lettuce. She is curious about her new home and she sits so sweetly in my lap for petting. I was told that she has not been let out for floor time!! Poor baby! She is very cute but we aren't able to keep her because of the 5 boys.

My question is, can you put a piggy on a diet? I am worried about her health. I don't want to stress her out all at once. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[VoodooJoint]

Most likely she will lose the weight all by herself. She is in a cage where she can move around. She should start losing that excess weight through exercise. Plus she won't have those fatty seeds in her food anymore.

Just feed her a healthy diet and try to keep her active with toys, tubes and floortime. She'll fit back in her swimsuit in no time.

 

[Cherryrosed]

Good for you for taking her on! She sounds adorable and with your good care I am sure that it will be as Voodoo says and she will "fit back in her swimsuit in no time." That is such a cute way of putting it Voodoo.

 

[guineamommy]

Do I need to be concerned that she is a year old and her poo's are smaller (about half-3/4 the size) than the year old boy and the 5 month olds?

 

[VoodooJoint]

Her poos are probably small from poor nutrition. Due to good food and the fact that she isn't used to it they may become a bit soft soon. Once she gets used to her new diet they should start to look normal.

 

[Percy's Mom]

Good luck with Jasmine! At least she started out with a lovely name, so that's a good sign, and she is definitely in a better place now that she has a mommy who knows how to take care of her and love her the way she should be. We want pigtures when she gets all settled in!

 

[gingerlvr]

Could you just imagine a cavy in a swimsuit...

 

[Ly&Pigs]

On veggies, I don't know if her previous owners gave her many but if she hasn't had them much before, only intro one or two new foods a week until her poos start looking more normal. You don't want to upset her digestive system more than it is already.

 

[guineamommy]

Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it.

She seems to be adjusting well. She likes her bigger cage and her bigger house! The tiny log house was too funny--in a very sad way. She hung out the front and the back. She would take a piece of lettuce and scrunch into it like she was actually hiding from someone. I did leave it in her new home though so she would feel more comfortable. She likes the bigger house better though!

I gave her timothy hay and romaine lettuce today. She seemed to enjoy it and her poos are now darker--still small though. I threw away the Wal-mart bought food that they were giving her.

I am looking for a home for her. She has never had babies so she really needs to be with another girl or neutered males.

If I were to keep her, I would need another female friend for her. Considering we have the 5 males already (none are neutered), that would require separate cages, separate floortime, etc. They can never be together. That is my husband's and my biggest concern.

 

[CuteButShyPig]

you could spay her.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Spaying her and putting her with all the males is not a good option. A couple of good options would be to 1) Spay her and put one male with her or 2) Neuter one of your males and put with her.

If neither of those options will work for you or hubby and you need to rehome her, you can post in the adoption forum here and at gl, pigloo.net, and petfinder.com

 

[CuteButShyPig]

why couldn't she put all the pigs together if she spayed her? Would it cause stress on the pig? Just wondering.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

We are talking 5 boars and 1 sow here. The boars would more than likely fight over her. If it were 5 sows and 1 boar then it's ok to put them all together in one pen.

 

[CuteButShyPig]

oh that's true, wasn't thinking about that.

 

[guineamommy]

The funny thing is that I went to get my hair done in May and came home with #1 Boar- we named him Peanut and then read all about caring for him, etc. We then got two more males (he needed friends and we didn't want to separate the brothers) and then two more (they were so cute and we didn't want to separate them). All together 5. We built a huge 6x2 (bottom floor), 2x4 (almost) middle floor and 2 x 2 top floor cage.

Well, I went to get my hair done again yesterday and came home with another piggie--girl. She now has her own 2x3 cage. My husband was not happy. He has banned me from bringing another piggy home. He really wants a new home for her. If I do end up with her, I would adopt another female to keep her company since the boys have been living together- I would hate to split them up. And, I would not want to do any surgery on anyone unless absolutely necessary. But, I did mention another girl to keep Jasmine company. My husband had steam coming out his ears! I will keep you posted. I did put a listing on the adoptions page.

 

[RubyPiggie2]

Yeah, your best bet is to neuter a boy and put her and him together, or rehome her.

Ah, nevermind what I said. Just saw your post, I was 2 minutes behind. If you really need to,, rehome her.