Hi gang!!

Lilly is not eating her pellets anymore and she has lost 6 oz. in the last 30 days. She eats hay and veggies and drinks plenty of water but is suddenly not interested in pellets. She stopped eating them last week.

I even gave her some "gourmet" Oxbow pellets -- still not interested.

She had diarhhea a few nights ago -- seems to have cleared up since then.

Does anyone know what could be going through her pretty little head? Is this just a picky eating phase?

I would get her teeth looked at. It very well could be she is having troubles with her molars, if you do rule out her molars, then it could be picky eating, but she should be eating pellets.

I would not offer her veggies, "if" she has shown diarrhea in the past. That could make things worse. Have you tried a slurry with her to see if she will eat? Water/unflavored pedialyte mixed with pellets to soften them. With the excess water/unflavored pedialyte in the slurry I would be once again worried about the diarrhea.

With her weight loss, are you checking weekly or was the last time you weighed a month ago? I would (if you are not already) keep track of her every other day until she gets over this not eating. If she loses more than 4 ounces in a week you should be on "RED ALERT" and have her in the vet that same day.

That is all I can think of now. I will go and see if I can find anything else worth sharing.

Thanks, crzy. I checked her teeth a few days ago -- after Olivia, I learned WAY more about piggie malocclusion than I ever cared to, so I know what to look for in that area, at least. I stuck my pinky inside her little mouth several days ago to feel those molars and they all felt normal. And yeow, can she bite!!

I buy the PetSmart brand of piggie food which has yellow flavor pieces interdispursed throughout -- she LOVES those flavor pieces and will gobble them up in a New York minute, but is still not interested in the green pellets. So, I know she can chew hard things, the little booger.

Must just be picky. Wonder if she'll hurry through this phase for me so I can get back to concentrating on school and not worrying to death over her!!

Crzy -- could you find any info on picky pigs??

She's only eating the colorful pieces? There's your problem, I do not feed anything with those colorful pieces in it, so all they have is the pellets. She is a junk food addict.

Try finding a food with only the pellets and no colorful pieces and seeds in it. I feed Mazuri and my herd loves it. I know there are other foods out there without the colors in it. Kaytee Forti Diet doesn't have the colorful pieces and that is what I fed about 2 years ago.

Other than that I don't know what I can tell ya about Miss Fussy there.

Hey SP! I just wanted to add my thoughts. I agree with crzy4piggers, I think the junk food is your culprit. I've had that exact problem with chins in the past!

I appreciate the great advice, but she is NOT a junk food addict!

There are NO seeds and junk like that in their food. No way I would feed that to my babies. Come on, guys -- it's SpottyPoo you're talking to!!

The food is straight pellets with yellow flavored pieces. Here -- I'll attach a picture:

It's Nutriphase brand and it's all my girls have ever had. In fact, Squeekers, Abby & Katie really don't even care for the flavor pellets.

So, now what gang????

Okay, then it is not junk food, she is addicted to your words here "yellow flavor pellets", and if that is all my pigs were eating I would switch to something without the culprit in it.

Maybe you can try slowly weaning her off these yummy yellow flavor pellets. You've probably tried, just do it real slow so she won't notice that she's getting less and less of them. Good luck! Hopefully Ms. Lilly will stop being a finicky lady.

I didn't mean to say you were feeding your pigs junk or anything. I was just saying that if there is one thing that tastes a little better some animals will pick those out and eat only those. I've seen it many times with all kinds of animals that eat pellets. If that's not the issue then I'd have no other ideas.

Kaytee puts out Exact Rainbow that has similar items in in it (but no pellets). Some house-rabbit people use it and some rabbits are known to prefer the yellow pieces. I used the guinea pig version but my guinea pigs don't seem to care for it like the rabbits do.

This is the link to the info on the Exact Rainbow by Kaytee: http://www.kaytee.com/products/mamma...1&aid=4&pcid=1

Okay, okay -- she IS addicted to the yellow flavor pellets.

She's a crafty little thing -- she'll root around in her food bowl until she finds ALL of the flavor pellets, eats them all at once and doesn't touch her green pellets one bit. How can you wean her off of THAT?! Her pellets have been sitting there for days and she just won't eat them. I'll catch her rooting around for more flavor pellets once in awhile, but she never eats the green ones.

I keep telling her she's gonna DIE if she doesn't eat her pellets, but she is still young so she hasn't realized yet that she, too, is mortal.

The photo below shows Kaytee's Exact Rainbow. I also have the rabbit and hamster Exact Rainbow; each one looks different from the other. The regular guinea-pig pellets are on the right.

They sure are colorful!

So they have the SAME nutritional value as regular green pellets??