hithere234
Member
Cavy Gazer
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2024
- Messages
- 3
Hello All,
Hope you're doing well today! This is my first post here and the first time on the forums so nice to meet you all. Hopefully this question is in the right place so please let me know if I need to move it or if more information is needed. After a round of antibiotics for nasal issues, one of my guineapigs lost a little too much weight and I have been trying to feed him Critical Care and it has been an extreme hassle. I have tried the towel method and holding his head, but he is such a brat, and he always squirms whenever something is happening to him that he doesn't want happening to him. He only wants to do things on his time, as I can actually syringe feed him in the cage through the bars occasionally. Before I really started force feeding him he was only getting about 5ml/day of Critical Care but now I've at least gotten it up to 15ml/day but it's been a major struggle. I've also tried mixing a bit of apple sauce with the Critical Care and it's helped a bit but not a lot. I've gotten lucky by being able to feed him pea flakes and then getting the syringe in his mouth while he's chewing but even that's a process. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, anything would be much appreciated!
Just some health information as well, I got two piggies so I don't believe he suffers from loneliness, only being a brat, and their cage is a big 2x6 CnC. Their diet is oxbow pellets and a very large amount of oxbow timothy and grass hay. They get veggies twice a day which consists of Romaine lettuce and bell pepper/cucumber (alternating every other day). I don't believe he has gut stasis as he still eats occasionally on his own, but he's always been an extremely picky eater which has caused his weight to suffer even before the antibiotics. He weighed at most ~770g before the antibiotics and I always closely monitored his weight; he never lost a significant amount of weight, so I always assumed he is just a slim pig.
Best,
J
Hope you're doing well today! This is my first post here and the first time on the forums so nice to meet you all. Hopefully this question is in the right place so please let me know if I need to move it or if more information is needed. After a round of antibiotics for nasal issues, one of my guineapigs lost a little too much weight and I have been trying to feed him Critical Care and it has been an extreme hassle. I have tried the towel method and holding his head, but he is such a brat, and he always squirms whenever something is happening to him that he doesn't want happening to him. He only wants to do things on his time, as I can actually syringe feed him in the cage through the bars occasionally. Before I really started force feeding him he was only getting about 5ml/day of Critical Care but now I've at least gotten it up to 15ml/day but it's been a major struggle. I've also tried mixing a bit of apple sauce with the Critical Care and it's helped a bit but not a lot. I've gotten lucky by being able to feed him pea flakes and then getting the syringe in his mouth while he's chewing but even that's a process. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, anything would be much appreciated!
Just some health information as well, I got two piggies so I don't believe he suffers from loneliness, only being a brat, and their cage is a big 2x6 CnC. Their diet is oxbow pellets and a very large amount of oxbow timothy and grass hay. They get veggies twice a day which consists of Romaine lettuce and bell pepper/cucumber (alternating every other day). I don't believe he has gut stasis as he still eats occasionally on his own, but he's always been an extremely picky eater which has caused his weight to suffer even before the antibiotics. He weighed at most ~770g before the antibiotics and I always closely monitored his weight; he never lost a significant amount of weight, so I always assumed he is just a slim pig.
Best,
J
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