Two boars, three and four, living in a converted shed with a run. It has gone properly cold here in the last ten days and the younger one is leaving hay. Not refusing it, but the rack is fuller in the morning than it used to be and he had no interest in pepper yesterday, which is unheard of.
Half of what I read says they eat more in the cold and half says they slow down. Which is it, and at what point does this stop being a seasonal thing?
Neither, and this is the one species question where the answer is blunt. Guinea pigs do not slow down for winter. They do not hibernate and the gut only works while food is moving through it, so eating less is not a season, it is a symptom.
Cold-kept pigs often eat MORE hay, because chewing and digesting it is how they make heat. So a pig in an unheated shed leaving hay in a cold snap is going the wrong way, and ignoring a favourite vegetable on top of that is the bit I would act on today.
Today meaning a vet, or today meaning bring them in and watch?
Both, in that order of urgency. Weigh him now and look at his droppings. Fewer, smaller or misshapen with a dropped appetite is a ring-the-vet morning, not a watch-and-see one. Bring them in regardless, the shed is not helping either of them.
Weigh them weekly, same time of day, write it down. You will see trouble a week before you can see it in the animal.
Adding one thing the thread has danced around: respiratory infections are more common in cold, damp, badly ventilated housing, and they present exactly like this at the start. Off their food, quiet, sitting hunched in a corner.
So while you are checking the hay and the water, look for sneezing, crusty eyes and any noise when he breathes. A shed in a cold snap ticks more than one box here, and the vet will want to know which of those you saw.
@hay_twice_daily · last mo.
Check the water before you panic about the hay. A bottle spout freezes solid and looks completely normal from two feet away, and a pig that cannot drink stops eating within hours. I lost a weekend to exactly that and the pig was fine twenty minutes after I thawed the thing.
While you are out there, top the bedding up and give them a hidey each. Most of mine eat better once they have somewhere to be warm in.
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