Poorly chicken

[chunkdoobiest]

Hi,

 

We have 5 guineas, all boys between 12-18mth old, but one is much 'fatter' than the others.

 

He lives on his own because he has fought with one of the others he used to be housed with. He's always been keen on his food, usually being the first up and about and whooping when he see's you. But I've noticed that he can no longer clean or maintain his fur at his back end, like the others can, which has a few knots in it. (I'm not sure of the exact term, but he has quite crazy fur that sticks up in a lot of directions.) I think the reason its starting to knot is that he just can't reach his fur, because he might be a little overweight.

 

Would anyone recommend putting a guinea on a diet?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

[jam]

I guess if you can put people on a diet, why not guinea pigs too!

I used to feed my guinea pigs a bit more in the winter so that they'd stay full and warm, but If you say that your guinea is getting so fat that he's having trouble cleaning its behind, then perhaps its time for him to cut down!

Guinea pigs can be greedy, well all the ones I've ever owned have been! So you do have to control what they eat otherwise they won't stop. Especially as yours is on his own he has no one to share the food with.

My suggestion would be to keep his dried food the same, as this has all the basic vitamins in, but ration his 'treats' like bread and veg.

Hope this helps

Scarlett

[Princess Leia]

We have always fed our GPs on Burgess Excel dry food, as it prevents selective feeding. I believe they now make a "lite" version as well. We haven't tried it but it may be worth a go.

Abyssinian is the word I think you are looking for regarding the coat?

If there is a problem with the cleanliness of the coat, you can bath them quite easily using pet shampoo. Most enjoy it, ours love being blow dried! Seek out Peter Gurneys website and books if you need more sound advice.

[pagesguineas]

How much pellets do you feed them daily? Mine only get a handful of pellets between three daily, the they have a constant supply of meadow hay, timothy hay, oat hay and a handful of herbs every day, as well as their veggies (2 spring green leaves, bit of pepper, bit of broccoli, the odd piece of cucumber). I have never had a problem with any of their weights.

 

Guinea pigs diet is meant to be made up of 70 - 90% hay and hay shouldn't make them put on weight, so I'd recommend reducing the amount of pellets you give

[chunkdoobiest]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice. we ended up taking him to the vet, because when we were bathing him, we found mites in his coat. It seems they were causing the matting. We had been using Spot On, but for some reason it hadn't worked, so the vet has treated him, and hopefully it will kill them off, once we dose him a second time in 2 weeks.

The Vet weighed him and he is 131g, which is a good weight We've also got some of the Blackcurrant and Oregano Burgess Excel that we are mixing with their usual dry food, Wagg. We've also started giving them herbs, with teh usual Carrot, Cucumber, Pepper, sweetcorn, green beans and salad stuff.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

[kazmac]

Your piggy should be treated with Ivermectin (which is probably what the vet used) three times in total, each treatment a week apart. Otherwise it won't kill the life cycle of all the mites.

Was it a topical application he / she used on the back of the neck?

[star89]

Thats great, and I didnt know that about the hay, so it is very helpful!I have used Burgess excel with my guinea pigs, but I think the results were mixed 8it was a while ago, so I am not exactly sure. But please let me/us know how successful it is!