Sitemaps

Rex/teddy guinea pig owners2007-11-24 22:14:53

Are you able to pick up your guinea pig by putting your hand over its shoulders and lifting,supporting its bum, or do you have to scoop them up from underneath? i'm trying to tell if our pigs are overweight and too large, as it's not possible for us to pick them up from the top, they have to be scooped!

Answers:

alway scoop with support on the bum - lifting is ok when they are babies but they are fully grown at around 8 mnths, so should be supported properly.

I weigh my piggies (2 girls - Smoke and Patch) every week andd at the mo they are 1125 and 1165 g respectively.They go up on average by about 20g per week or stay the same. More than a 33g drop in a week and you should get them to the vet or sooner if you notice they are not eating. I have asked many pet shops both national and small independant if this is too heavy and the general concensus is they are a little chubby - but I can't resist dropping some beans/greens/sweetcorn/cabbage in if they hear me open the fridge, becasue they know I am a sucker for their cute calls for food (you'd think i never feed them to hear them when the fridge is opened or a food packet is rustled!!)

Hope this helps

---

Hmm... difficult to answer without a good visualization. Do you have a fenced in yard? What we do is let our guinea pigs out in the yard and they are able to get plenty of exercise. If you did this it would also extend their life.

---

Really, the best way to tell if your guinea pig is overweight is to weigh them. I use a kitchen scale to weigh mine - they all come in between 2.1-3.1 pounds. And when I pick my boys up, their bums are always supported.