Feeding a guinea pig with broken teeth

Recently, Nibbles jumped off my lap and broke his 2 top teeth. They were broken above the gums, Hardly visible at all.
It required special care to get him eating again, as he is a very picky eater even when he’s perfectly healthy.
Right after the accident, His weight was 2 LB 2 OZ. It quickly went down, and I believe his lowest weight was 1 LB 5 OZ
He couldn’t eat hay, pellets, or  any veggies more solid than lettuce ripped into tiny pieces.

How Nibbles reacted to my ideas: 

I couldn’t get him to eat while in the cage, so I took him to the house in their small pet carrier with some of his favorite toys, and his old special “blankie” to keep him comfy. I tried watering his pellets down, This works for some pigs but not all. Watering the pellets down makes them easier to eat, but it also makes them get very stinky very fast, So keep in mind the bowl should be cleaned twice a day when feeding mush-pellets. Nibble would eat less than half of his pellets every day, so I tried something else. Grass! This was the first thing he would really eat since the jump, and he obviously  loved the treat. After he had a nice nap, I got him into a little basket to see what else he could and couldn’t eat. I tried ripping up his lettuce, and he loved it. but he couldn’t eat pieces larger than about 1 x 1/2 inches.
Then, I tried grating carrots, celery, and pepper. (his favorite foods) I must say that was one of the cutest things I’ve done with him, and it worked out perfectly. I would grate his normal breakfast and dinner, then put a small pile of the grated food on my finger. He happily ate it all, and it was a wonderful bonding activity. I would hand feed him grated food and lettuce for 20 minutes, break for 10, and feed for another 20. I did this 3 times a day, and soon he started eating crunchy pellets again. This is 4 days after he jumped, and I decided to move him back to his cage. he started eating small amounts of hay, and from there he quickly recovered. He is now a happy piggy, still regaining weight, but is currently at 2 LB 2 OZ.

What helped for me:

1: Water down pellets, Just remember to clean the bowl twice a day.

2: Try feeding fresh grass, it’s very easy for your furry friend to chew up and digest.

3: Ripped/cut up lettuce, This will be easy to eat, and a healthy treat.

4: Grated veggies, You can grate pretty much any veggie your pig likes, and it’s so hard to resist the little piggy lips!

5: cut up hay, I would only cut the hay down to 1 or 2 inches. Hay is essential to digestion, and also to keep the remaining teeth from overgrowing.

This is just what I did for Nibbles, And it helped him from loosing too much weight. I hope this helps if anyone has a pig who cant eat right. Always remember, if your guinea pig refuses to eat and you’ve done everything you can think of, Take him/her to an experienced exotic vet! No website is a substitute for real veterinary care.

Bye for now! 😀 -Anna

 

 

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Update on Nibbles, and some cute photos of the trio!

 I just wanted to say, Nibbles has been a lot more active and happy. I can feel his ribs less and less every day, and he is back on the pellets. mostly. That’s pretty much it about him, but I feel like I’m excluding the Trio! So here are some cute pics of them. Enjoy!

 

The mostly white one is my Goobie bear, the one sticking his adorable face in the camera is the evil Freddy, and the Cutie cuddled up in some hay is Pickles. I sadly don’t have many photos of  Pickles or Freddy, But I will take more soon! Thanks for reading! Bye for now.

Pickle you meanie!

I am a bit late to be posting about this, but better late than never right?

Ok, so last time I cleaned the piggies cages Freddy and his herd all got to run around the whole room while I swept it out. and I’m guessing they marked everywhere as their territory. After putting the playpen/mid west guinea pig habitat setup back, They were acting normal so I thought it would be okay to put the munchkins back.. (Munchkins being Zeke and Nibbles) Then after I did, the herd started going crazy! — Pause story: On the playpen wall side of the cage there’s this piece of metal bars that we used as the side of the old cages, and is now being used to keep the pigs from getting over the playpen sides. call it the “Wall” Back to story–   Before I put the “Wall” back into position, I was just cleaning up the last of the chew toys I found from all the cages, and Freddy ran top speed away from where I was watching him, right over the playpen side into Zeke’s cage! –Pause story again: There is a little wooden hut with a latch and door with a chicken wire top that I use to keep the piggies in while cleaning, and I had left it in his cage as a hay room. I call it the hutch. Back to story–  When I saw Freddy in there I freaked out and shut Zeke into the hutch before Freddy got to him. Grabbed Freddy, and plopped him into his own cage. Skip to later that day, and I find Pickles in Zeke’s cage walking around peeing! And then I saw Zeke.. He was in the hutch on his side with his head resting under some hay.. I thought for sure Pickles was trying to kill him. or already did. Although Zeke is okay now, He sadly suffered a few large bloody cuts on his back. I saw how I think Pickles got in and closed it up. both of them are doing fine now, Although that did scare me a lot.  Thank you for reading, Bye for now. -Anna 

Nibbles is under weight..

About a week ago we noticed Nibbles was not eating much of his pellets. I didn’t think much of it because he has never really liked them a lot. But yesterday when I picked him up I noticed something had to be done. so I cut some carrot and some cucumber into little tiny pieces, and mixed them into some watered down mushy pellets. He ate most of it, and seems to be a bit more active. I am also giving him extra of all the foods, he is getting a little fruit. He usually doesn’t get much fruit because he enjoys non-sweet stuff, but I thought it would do him good to get some fattening stuff. He will hopefully get better soon, but until then, I’m gonna go.

The piggies weird cage setup

 Yup pretty weird cages. But its just until nibbles gets better and he can move back in with Zeke!  More stuff  about the piggies will be posted soon! Lots of love from the Piggies! -Anna

One happy pig!

Don’t worry, we know our piggy and we know when hes not happy. If he didn’t like it, he would wiggle a lot until he gets free. he was very happy. 😀

 

Look at the little piggy lips!

 

 

Happy nibbles!

We went to the vet on Monday, and found out that nibbles broke a tooth! (The vet also showed us how to check a guinea pigs teeth. That way we can just look at them instead of drive for an hour and a half to have a vet check him out!) Much better than being sick and needing treatment, but he does need special care. He is now living in his own cage, next to Zeke, Because we need to make sure he is pooping and eating all his food. And the others got to move out of their smaller cage and now live on the floor next to it.. pampered lil buggers. 😀 Hoping to get the new cage worked on soon! Lots of love from the Piggies. -Anna (and the munchkins)  PS. He will move back in with Zeke after he is eating normal foods again.

Nibbles feeding problems

Last night when we went to feed the piggies their night time veggies, We noticed that while all the others were munching happily on their carrots, nibbles was just sniffing it and looking at it, but never actually taking a bite. So I went to ask my brother Hans to look up what was going on, we only found this.

Maloccluded teeth are teeth that have not worn properly and over grow.

For more information about Malocclusion visit http://www.guinealynx.info/malocclusion.html

But this is not whats going on, he does not drool and does not leave him mouth open all the time. If he stops eating/drinking, or acting weird we will take him to the vet. Thank you for reading, and if things change I will post more about it.

How complex is a guinea pig’s mind?

As usual today the piggies had somehow knocked the water bottle off of the cage, and as usual it was sitting on the floor leaking. And that got me to thinking, do the piggies even process in their minds that chewing through the twist-tie for the hay feeder makes it fall down upon them? (Don’t worry they don’t get hurt, it’s light.) And does Nibbles even think about  the fact that when he pushes the bendy playpen bars away from the other cage and squeezes through that he can’t get back in?  Anyway, I’m still out to find out how that stupid water bottle gets knocked onto the floor.  Haha have a good day, 😀 -Anna.