Guinea pig not eating.

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi,

There are a number of things that can cause a guinea pig to stop eating. It certainly is possible that changing his diet caused him to go off of his food but there could be another cause.

It is possible that he stopped eating because he didn't like the food and now he has something called gastrointestinal stasis. GI stasis means that his intestines are not moving properly. Some guinea pigs can get this if they don't have enough roughage in their diet.

GI stasis is a serious condition. For this reason, I would highly recommend that you have your guinea pig see a vet. The treatment generally involves fluid therapy, pain medications and also nutrition therapy. The nutrition therapy usually involves syringe feeding a supplement such as Oxbow Critical Care as well as a vitamin C supplement.

There are other possible reasons for a guinea pig to not eat as well including dental problems, having a foreign object in his intestines and other conditions. But, given that this first started after the food change, I think that the food change is likely to blame.

Again, I would definitely recommend having a vet examine your guinea pig as soon as possible. There is no harm in trying to get him to eat some good foods such as guinea pig hay. In some cases, if you can get a pig to eat then they will get better on their own. There is no harm in trying the pumpkin, but if he won't eat it then he will definitely need veterinary care.

I wish I could offer you more! Hope he is feeling better soon!

Dr. Marie



Do you have a pet website? Interested in learning more about SEO for Wix?

---

Check out our dog age calculator and cat age calculator.