Won't Eat Only eating vegetables

[wilburr]

Hello all! I’ve made this account in hopes of getting some insight on an issue I’ve been having. My girl, Momo, stopped eating her hay about a day ago. She’s the pickiest about her hay and I saw her poking around it and grabbing a few pieces, but she didn’t really eat much. Once I saw her hay wasn’t really going down I tried dumping it and putting in fresh hay as she does care about the freshness. However, she still wouldn’t eat it and then stopped walking towards me when the hay bag would rustle altogether. However, when I was giving them their daily veggies both yesterday and today, she happily ate it and was popcorning around the cage. What she had yesterday was romaine lettuce, some celery, and some pieces of broccoli stalks (she had these for the first time in months). Today she had some more celery as I was getting worried and I know she likes it, a bit more romaine, and a slice of a tangerine. I’m not sure if this is important to mention since she ate the rest of her crunchy food, but she did not eat the crunchy middle of the romaine.

I tried to hand feed her some hay pieces as well, and she was eating it out of my hand which is even more confusing. For some background info, I’ve had her her entire life (we thought my female was a male and got her a male friend) and she’s had no health issues, her teeth look good in the front, nothing broken or long, her stomach is not hard and i was patting it to hear if it was hollow and it didn’t sound like it, and she hasn’t seemed to lose any weight though I have yet to weigh her on a scale. We’ve also been using the same bag of hay that she never seemed to have an issue with before, though she always picks at hay the most of all my pigs. She’s also been drinking the same amount of water as usual, and I’ve been keeping her eating area especially neat since finding this out. I was out of town for about 5 days before this (came home on Friday evening) and I had a friend watching them and they didn’t notice anything wrong. As far as I’ve noticed, she’s as energetic and shy as usual and has even squeaked for food when I brought out the veggies.

I’m a bit stumped, so any help would be appreciated! I also do have exotic vets around me and want to get her in but the wait can be long unless it’s an emergency.

Edit: Forgot to mention this but she has been peeing and pooping, and her poop hasn’t softened. They also eat timothy but occasionally get an orchard and timothy blend. While I was gone they did have an orchard and timothy bag as backup since the hay was going to take a bit to get delivered, but it has been delivered. I switched back to our regular timothy on saturday evening and it does seem like she ate some of that. She also has pellets but I honestly can’t tell if she’s been eating them or not as she normally has some leftover since none of my pigs are really big on pellets, though I do plan on switching brands soon.

 

[CavyLover2]

I was told by my vet that if they aren’t eating then need to get them checked. Their diet should be a very high percentage hay, and if they aren’t eating hay and pellets this can cause GI issues.

My Guinea tapered down with eating then stopped, took her in and she had a large cyst on ovary, ended up in the end having surgery and I lost a few days later, she never recovered.

So please get her checked, and I hope all goes well.

 

[4boipigs]

I would take her in to the vet just in case. Better to catch gut stasis early. One of my first boys Chico slowed down on eating til he only touched treats over a few days. He developed GI stasis and died. Altho I am thinking maybe it was age related. His partner got heart failure a month after.

 

[wilburr]

Hi again, thank you for your help! I really appreciate it. I’m also very sorry for both your losses, I lost my girl, her mom, last year and it hit me very hard. Hopefully both of you are doing better. I’ve been calling around and it’s hard to find someone who can squeeze her in on such short notice, but I’m determined to get her to someone. I gave her some hay in a food bowl, and it does look like she ate some of it and she is still drinking but I still want to get her into a vet and hope that it isn’t anything too bad. I’m also planning on running to the store to get her some of the orchard and timothy mix just in case it really is an issue of her being picky. Thank you guys again!

 

[HeatherHeadley]

Hello all! I’ve made this account in hopes of getting some insight on an issue I’ve been having. My girl, Momo, stopped eating her hay about a day ago. She’s the pickiest about her hay and I saw her poking around it and grabbing a few pieces, but she didn’t really eat much. Once I saw her hay wasn’t really going down I tried dumping it and putting in fresh hay as she does care about the freshness. However, she still wouldn’t eat it and then stopped walking towards me when the hay bag would rustle altogether. However, when I was giving them their daily veggies both yesterday and today, she happily ate it and was popcorning around the cage. What she had yesterday was romaine lettuce, some celery, and some pieces of broccoli stalks (she had these for the first time in months). Today she had some more celery as I was getting worried and I know she likes it, a bit more romaine, and a slice of a tangerine. I’m not sure if this is important to mention since she ate the rest of her crunchy food, but she did not eat the crunchy middle of the romaine.

I tried to hand feed her some hay pieces as well, and she was eating it out of my hand which is even more confusing. For some background info, I’ve had her her entire life (we thought my female was a male and got her a male friend) and she’s had no health issues, her teeth look good in the front, nothing broken or long, her stomach is not hard and i was patting it to hear if it was hollow and it didn’t sound like it, and she hasn’t seemed to lose any weight though I have yet to weigh her on a scale. We’ve also been using the same bag of hay that she never seemed to have an issue with before, though she always picks at hay the most of all my pigs. She’s also been drinking the same amount of water as usual, and I’ve been keeping her eating area especially neat since finding this out. I was out of town for about 5 days before this (came home on Friday evening) and I had a friend watching them and they didn’t notice anything wrong. As far as I’ve noticed, she’s as energetic and shy as usual and has even squeaked for food when I brought out the veggies.

I’m a bit stumped, so any help would be appreciated! I also do have exotic vets around me and want to get her in but the wait can be long unless it’s an emergency.

Edit: Forgot to mention this but she has been peeing and pooping, and her poop hasn’t softened. They also eat timothy but occasionally get an orchard and timothy blend. While I was gone they did have an orchard and timothy bag as backup since the hay was going to take a bit to get delivered, but it has been delivered. I switched back to our regular timothy on saturday evening and it does seem like she ate some of that. She also has pellets but I honestly can’t tell if she’s been eating them or not as she normally has some leftover since none of my pigs are really big on pellets, though I do plan on switching brands soon. [SUP][SUB]cuphead[/SUB][/SUP]

I think your girl is quite annoyed with hay and wants to change the taste of other dishes. My girl is the same, even after 2 days she barely eats anything but drinks water, I was very worried until the 3rd day I gave her carrots which was quite strange when she ate a lot again. delicious.

 

[maple&teddi21]

Hello all! I’ve made this account in hopes of getting some insight on an issue I’ve been having. My girl, Momo, stopped eating her hay about a day ago. She’s the pickiest about her hay and I saw her poking around it and grabbing a few pieces, but she didn’t really eat much. Once I saw her hay wasn’t really going down I tried dumping it and putting in fresh hay as she does care about the freshness. However, she still wouldn’t eat it and then stopped walking towards me when the hay bag would rustle altogether. However, when I was giving them their daily veggies both yesterday and today, she happily ate it and was popcorning around the cage. What she had yesterday was romaine lettuce, some celery, and some pieces of broccoli stalks (she had these for the first time in months). Today she had some more celery as I was getting worried and I know she likes it, a bit more romaine, and a slice of a tangerine. I’m not sure if this is important to mention since she ate the rest of her crunchy food, but she did not eat the crunchy middle of the romaine.

I tried to hand feed her some hay pieces as well, and she was eating it out of my hand which is even more confusing. For some background info, I’ve had her her entire life (we thought my female was a male and got her a male friend) and she’s had no health issues, her teeth look good in the front, nothing broken or long, her stomach is not hard and i was patting it to hear if it was hollow and it didn’t sound like it, and she hasn’t seemed to lose any weight though I have yet to weigh her on a scale. We’ve also been using the same bag of hay that she never seemed to have an issue with before, though she always picks at hay the most of all my pigs. She’s also been drinking the same amount of water as usual, and I’ve been keeping her eating area especially neat since finding this out. I was out of town for about 5 days before this (came home on Friday evening) and I had a friend watching them and they didn’t notice anything wrong. As far as I’ve noticed, she’s as energetic and shy as usual and has even squeaked for food when I brought out the veggies.

I’m a bit stumped, so any help would be appreciated! I also do have exotic vets around me and want to get her in but the wait can be long unless it’s an emergency.

Edit: Forgot to mention this but she has been peeing and pooping, and her poop hasn’t softened. They also eat timothy but occasionally get an orchard and timothy blend. While I was gone they did have an orchard and timothy bag as backup since the hay was going to take a bit to get delivered, but it has been delivered. I switched back to our regular timothy on saturday evening and it does seem like she ate some of that. She also has pellets but I honestly can’t tell if she’s been eating them or not as she normally has some leftover since none of my pigs are really big on pellets, though I do plan on switching brands soon.

I would recommend bringing Momo to the vet. If shes not eating hay, that's a really big issue because it's supposed to be most of their diet. I know I can't help much, but I would try to get her in as quick as you can.

 

[ItsaZoo]

If Momo isn’t eating hay, you will need to make a vet appointment. In the meantime I would supplement with Critical Care to keep food moving through her GI tract.

Another thing you can try is hay smoothies. If you have a smoothie maker like a Ninja blender, mix hay, water, pellets, and just a little carrot or lettuce and whip it into a smoothie. Keep it in the refrigerator and offer a little at a time so it doesn’t sit out and get moldy.