How much should guinea pigs weigh? I’m Ludo, and I’m answering the question today from my experience. And with Mummy’s help.

Average weight

Most of the books say that guinea pigs weigh 600 to 1200 grams. I wonder whether they are taking that as a young adult, or if that’s the range for sows.

Mummy says she doesn’t recall any of her adult boars consistently weighing less than 1200, but she concedes that she prefers her guineas to carry a little extra, because if they get ill, they can lose a lot of weight very fast. In her experience, a healthy weight for a full grown boar is 1200 to 1500 grams.

Regional differences?

She has a theory that Norfolk pigs are heavier than average, though. Many of them were steady in the range from 1300 to 1500.

The Jersey pigs were noticeably smaller than Dylan, Dougall, Hector and Humphrey who they lived with. Kevin rarely went over 1300, she said, and Colman was generally around 1100.

Our Geordie pigs, Roscoe and Neville, came in at 1100 to 1280 and then went up to the ‘normal for Norfolk’ level.

Breed differences

They say that Rex guinea pigs are often heavier, and that’s true of Midge and Biggles, who were in the 1500-1600 range for most of their adult lives. But Mummy says both of them carried a bit too much fat! And Bertie was similar, although he didn’t look like a Rex, he was Biggles’ twin.

Heaviest?

Mummy thinks some of it may be due to the higher level of calcium in the water in Norfolk, so it makes the bones of Norfolk pigs heavier. Either that or she gave them too many carrots.

Hugo seemed huge when he first came, but he rarely went over 1400. The porkers of the clan have been Midge, Biggles and me, Ludo. I got up to 1600, and Midge and Biggles both went over that. Neville once hit the 1700 mark, but didn’t seem that heavy, and Mummy got new scales that showed he was only 1650.

We rarely go over 1500 now. Mummy keeps me on low rations to keep my weight down nearer to 1400. I don’t even have a food bowl. I have to hunt for my pellets among the hay each morning. That’s quite fun, as well as giving me extra exercise.

Lightest

Mummy says she’s rarely had a pig consistently below 1100 gms who didn’t have health problems. Colman was probably the lightest healthy adult pig, but he was also quite old when he came to her, although he managed to live to 8 years old.

Mummy’s noticed that her pigs tend to lose about 100 grams over a period of time when they get to about 4, and then they settle at the new weight for a long time. She thinks it’s something about boars losing their muscle mass as they age. As long as they stay the same weight, she doesn’t worry.

Weekly weigh-in

Mummy weighs us on the kitchen scales every week. She writes it down in her book, as well as notes on the state of our teeth and nails, and anything else she wants to say.

The weekly weigh-in is an easy way to keep an eye on our health. Most of us vary from week to week, but if we keep losing, or keep gaining, she knows to do something about it. It’s given her good guidance over Locksley’s teeth, and she reckons now he’s going to have quarterly teeth maintenance at the vets.

So keep a record of our weight, and if you like doing this sort of thing you can make a graph of it.

This is my last post for the A to Z, but I will be leading the Reflections post on the first post in May.

See you then

love

Ludo xxx