Fat piggies!!

[fridayfreedom]

still struggling with Big Pig's weight. He had lost two ounces but has been on his hols and has obviously been spoilt by his hosts!!
have cut the dry food by half and reduced amounts of carrot and apple, so they are mainly on greens and hay.
Wish he would run around when we get them out but he just sits there , despite being poked!! Even when they went out in the run, they just sat there. They do do a bit of poppcorning but just before breakfast and teatime!
Shall I cut the carrot out completely, they have about half a carrot between them per day?
Any ideas gratefully received. They have put about 4oz on each since we rescued them but I think we were overfeeding the dry food to start with.

sounds like someone was spoilt rotten on their hols! the new diet sounds okay but the main emphasis has to be on hay, keep apple as a treat though as with some piggies it can make thier lips abit sore so keep check on that. are they generally well? bright eyed, clean fur etc? there doesn't seem to be too much wrong with them,esp popcorning around food time! piggies don't care for open spaces [ they are natural prey in the wild] so you might try a couple of upside boxes with big windows cut in them, play tubes with a small treat,and see how that goes. are they friendly, do you handle them much? piggies are like people they all have different personalities, yours might be nervous when out and prefer the safty of their home, you say they are rescues [good for you] they might have had a poor start, and need to trust people abit more. let me know how you get on if you can. i'm a very big piggy fan!!

Hi - your guineas sound like they are very happy, - if they are eating and pooing it means what goes in is coming out. I sometimes used to let ours have supervised 'free range' times, so I would let them run round the garden hiding under trees/shrubs etc until it was their bed time - if you have any outside space and it is not too cold and damp, you could do outdoor time to see if they will move about. In general, their behavious is very much like real big pigs - they like to be in a herd foraging and not really running like rabbits do, although they can move like greased lightening if frightened - so they are not mad keen on exercise, they are happier grazing lazily - if you can let them run around indoors and they dont move, you will have to invent trails, involving food of course, and let them get used to the space and the smells. I would leave ours poo boxes ( shoe boxes full of hay on newspaper) so when they were confident enough they could go exploring by themselves. Keep going with the carrots, any vitamin C at this time of year is needed, curly kale, cabbage, spinach etc - none of this is especially fattening. I guess really they are eating machines, and dont really do anything else during the day! - As long as they are socialised, getting lots of attention, right food and drink and are toasty warm and not too overweight, they have a wonderful life!

It's difficult isn't it? I think "How can you get chubby on vegetables" to my GP1.

He likes cucumber,celery and parsley-all things that use more calories to digest than they contain

Our little boy is a bony little chap (he's part Abby, GP1 is smooth)

Carrots,beetroot,sweetcorn,parsnip are all high calorie food.As is Alfafa hay.
But if you cut the carrots and apples (high sugar) then be careful with the greens, or they get a bit 'loose'.
My GP1 never has soft pooh, the GP2 does.But he's the one I'm trying to keep the weight on.

And the lazy blighters are snuggled up in the haybed at the moment stuffing their faves. (They have to eat pretty constantly, a bit like horses).

Mine were out in the run for an hour today, some popcorning and eating willow leaves
I give mine enough dry pellets that they have a few left to save squabbling.

Do you move their 'houses' round/
I've started playing switcheroo with their Pighouse boxes to keep them entertained .They spent about 20 minutes wandering round thinking "Where's the old bat put my sleepy box now FFS" [hgrin]

loving these posts, these piggies have great lives just as they should. mine get spoilt [within reason] but yes it's all about eatting, pooping and chattering.

70 you are a hoot! I used to move our girls' stuff around now and again, and it really bamboozled them, they get so used to routine and when you change their delightfully smelly bedding to lovely santised clean stuff, they were very miffed and immediately marked it all out again. They got very arsey if you moved anything out of its usual place, rummaging around and chattering as if they were genuinely put out. Loved it when we used to get a hay bale for them to climb in and roost inside, they were so excited at such a big piece of play equipment!

My BigPig is a lard!

The only way I can get the lazy bugger to move is too lure him with food

The main one that works is to pick a few blades of grass and space them out around the floor. He will spend ages snaffling around trying to find a slither of green stuff! leave out the grass and he takes up camp under the dining table until its time to catch him then he will run like the clappers .

Only good thing about having my two separate is I can feed up Little Pig and leave out bits for BigPig. (Shhhh....they don't know they get different meals...)

Big pig has half a carrot once a week and less pellets.

He is currently sprawled out on the kitchen floor watching LittlePig explore

YY to moving things around, although expect a shitty look, but they move, so neh! .

Thanks for the replies.
We only have an indoor cage as no room for all the caging that you fit together in units. But did buy the biggest cage I could find.
In the summer they have a huge hutch in the shed and a run on the grass, albeit in one area as we need to treat the rest for buttercups and daisies.
Big pig was a bit of a porker when he arrived but he is a real character and we love him to bits despite his enormous bum!!
we get them out each evening for a cuddle but need to be better at floor time. will try putting treats around and see if that makes him move??
I give them tons of hay to snuffle through and eat and buy the best I can find.
We love them to bits so want to do the best for them. They are surposed to be my stress busters ( I work for the NHS!!!) but Big pig in particular tests this theory at times.
They are in good condition, nice shiny fur, bright eyed, smell...of hay!!

mum! [fridayfree] what do you mean telling mn's that my bum looks big???? it's all fur really, tell 'em that! love Big.

My GP1 doesn't have a large posterior either - it's his guinea gonads that are so generously proportioned (he reckons)

(DD sometimes wails "Ergh, I touched his 'nads")

Keep your hands to yourself Missy [hwink]

hmmm, Big pig, you are deluded!! you are triangular in shape, and it's not just your gonads...which are enormous!! ( we googled guinea pig testicles to check that you weren't deformed...you aren't but you a VERY well endowed!!)
But we love you.
and small pig found his voice today...haven't heard him wheek before but it was definately him as it was higher pitched than Big pig and his belly was going in and out with all the effort : )