Section
Guinea pigs are prey animals, so they hide weakness to the last. By the time an animal visibly looks ill, the illness has been running for a while. Everything in this section is about the early signals you can catch at home.
Once a week, on the same day, before feeding, on ordinary kitchen scales. Swings of ±30 g are normal. The 5% and 10% thresholds our diary warns about are a practical rule of thumb, not a veterinary standard: there is no single agreed figure. What matters is the direction — weight falling several weighings in a row.
Three things: is the hay being eaten, are the droppings normal in look and number, is the behaviour usual. A guinea pig that has not eaten for more than 12 hours is an emergency: a herbivore's gut shuts down fast and restarts with difficulty.
Source: PDSA
Refusing food for more than 12 hours, no droppings, a hunched posture and reluctance to move, laboured breathing, blood in the urine, sudden weight loss. In these cases waiting until Monday is not an option — and you need an exotics vet, not just any vet.
Why weekly weighing spots illness earlier than any examination.
How to tell that a guinea pig cannot chew.
What to check daily — it takes half a minute.
Topics marked «in progress» are still being written — we do not publish half-empty articles for the sake of volume.
Answers without a source are common husbandry practice, not a figure from a guideline. We show that difference on purpose: a site that promises «no myths» has to separate the verified from the merely usual.