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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 18, 2013 23:02:43 GMT
 im heather and I'm turtles new mommy. we rescued her today from a family who's daughter (out grew her)  . much like most of my other rescues we had to clean her up (she had mites) and super scrub her cage that quit obviously had months old bedding and urin caked to the bottom. she obviously never missed a meal as for the fact she is a lil fatty  . but she has the most amazing and sweet personality! ;D i must say I'm very happy to add this sweet lil girl to may ever growing family of critters. at this point i may as well open up a petting zoo! i have 2 rescued hedgehogs(one just had a litter of 5 babes) a bird and now my guinea pig (turtle!) lol. who is adjusting very quickly to her new home!
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Post by jakodi on Feb 18, 2013 23:36:11 GMT
Lol I know it's super unhealthy but I think fat piggies are cute lol. But no seriously I hope you can get her to a health weight. I'm glad she is adjusting quickly!
And actually now that I'm thinking about it how do you know a piggie is overweight? And do you just need to feed them less pellets or is there diet food? Less veggies maybe?
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Post by lisa21264 on Feb 18, 2013 23:39:17 GMT
hello and welcome. I am sure glad you rescued turtle from those bad conditions. I scrub my cage once a week and spot clean once or even twice a day.
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Post by Orlaith on Feb 19, 2013 0:09:06 GMT
Welcome to the forum! Congrats on your new addition. How much does Turtle weigh? She might not be too bad. It depends on what pellet you're giving, but I think the Burgess excel nuggets say that you should fees 30-50g per day, so feeding at the lower end and encouraging exercise should help. Hay is to be a lead available and don't cut out veggies either, but don't feed anything too sugary like fruit  |
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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 19, 2013 0:48:59 GMT
i havent gotten to a scale yet. but she is huge. when i say huge i mean it takes 4 hands to wrap around her tummy. i honestly don't think it was that they war feeding her too much i think it was the fact she was never exercised or anything. no wheel or run around ball time. she will get plenty of all that here lol. but any advice would be very welcomed. the diet I'm giving her is spinach lettuce carrots cucumbers and her guinea food and flower power timothy hay. witch she has been going nuts on. i don't use wood chips or shavings for any of my animals. i use fleece lining bedding. ty again for any advice on improvements i could make for her |
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Post by Orlaith on Feb 19, 2013 8:06:37 GMT
I would cut down on the spinach and carrots - too much spinach is associated with bladder stones because of the amount of calcium, and carrots are a relatively "sugary" vegetable, so if she's chubby it might help to ease off on them. A great source of vitamin c for guinea pigs is bell peppers (non-spicy). Just make sure they don't get to eat the seeds or stalk. Here is a thread with lots of food ideas |
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Post by Kayleigh on Feb 19, 2013 8:10:54 GMT
Welcome and well done taking turtle in.
Please do not use wheels, balls, harness/leashes etc on guinea pigs. They are dangerous. For exercise a secure run area is best, just let her wander about if she wants too. What size of cage is she in?
Kayleigh
Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards
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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 19, 2013 8:35:13 GMT
def noted on the carrots and spinach! ty. but someone said oranges just not too many cause of the acid can cause mouth sores. but ill def pic up some sweet peppers.  um its large lol I'm 5'3'' and if i lay down next to it its almost as long as me. ty for telling me that. is it safe to set up a movable cage outside (in warm weather and plushy grass) to let her run around in, obviously supervised.  |
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Post by Orlaith on Feb 19, 2013 9:24:28 GMT
Yep, she'll love that. Just make sure the area you're putting her in is free of animal droppings (cats or wild animals, for example) and there are no stingy plants or flowers (except dandelions, they love them). Guinea pigs can eat some flowers but others are poisonous so it's best to be over-cautious.
You can also pull handfuls of grass from your garden and wash it well and give it to her while its still too cold to put her out. If your grass is starting to grow, of course! It's still really frosty here so all the plants think it's winter still.
Oh yes, that's true about oranges. They're pretty acidic. A treat now and then is fine. Just be careful, as with all fruit (except cucumbers and bananas, I guess) that there are no seeds as they're a choking hazard and the pointy ones can hurt their cheeks.
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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 19, 2013 9:27:43 GMT
awesome ty!!! thats good to know cause dandelion grow crazy here in fl lol
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Post by Orlaith on Feb 19, 2013 12:35:07 GMT
Oh yeah, I meant to say that if she definitely had mites, then the best treatment is ivermectin rather than a bath. You can usually get it from the petshop in pipette form (like this, but be sure the active ingredient is ivermectin because there are some other, non-effective droppers on the market), and it's a simple treatment, usually a half a pipette amount or the full one (I can't reMember exactly) on the back of the neck, and again the following week. It's just a liquid, so no injections or anything, and totally pain-free. Mites are characterised by lots of itching, bald patches where the fur has been pulled out, and very sore-looking areas of skin. If she's not scratching and it looks like she has sort of dust in her coat then she might have lice instead. Ivermectin isn't that effective against guinea pig lice because they only eat dead skin, they don't suck the blood. The treatment for static lice, which are pretty common, (ones that look like little black specks, not ones you can actually see wriggling around) is usually a bath with a suitable shampoo, followed by a careful comb-through of the fur (like if your kids had head lice), and then repeat the treatment about a week later to catch any eggs that had not hatched. I'll be totally honest, about half of my pigs have static lice and while I initially tried to get rid of them, I didn't find any treatment to be really effective, and since they don't cause any harm (in my opinion) to the piggy, now I just leave them alone. I don't show my guinea pigs so it's not a big deal if mine have them or not. If she has sores on her skin that don't look like mites, then it could be a fungal infection. They're usually easy enough to treat but take a long long time to fully clear. Usually an anti-fungal cream like Daktarin will do the trick, but it could months before the fungus totally clears. Pictures (if you have them) would be a big help! |
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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 19, 2013 19:00:08 GMT
ok. she has no bald spots and i have never seen her scratch and she don't have any sore spots and is does look like lil black flakes that rant moving around. :/ so i guess thats what she has lol. ty for the info cause i was scared my hedge hogs might get it if i put her in the same room or my bird.
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Post by Orlaith on Feb 19, 2013 20:26:18 GMT
Ah okay. Your other animals should be fine. Static lice are species-specific so they won't infect other animals, but if you're concerned you can just wash your hands between handling them and you should be fine!
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Post by turtlesmommy on Feb 19, 2013 21:44:58 GMT
awesome ty ll. she's coming out of her 24 hour quaruteen (not spelled right) tonight and I'm moving her in with the rest. i just wanted to be safe and find out everything first lol. ty very much |
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