Broken Teeth

Question
Hi,

Recently I've noticed that my guinea pig had not been eating very well, and infact he has lost a bit of weight, at first I attributed it to him recently moving to a new enviroment, unfortunetly I've had to move him twice in the last three month, but I just noticed yesterday that one of his teeth was broken and today I saw that both of his bottom teeth are in fact broken, I was wondering what I can do to help him while his teeth grow back. I'm not sure what he broke them on, but he's been having a lot of trouble eating because of this. Also, I was wondering if another of his problems could be that my mom has two cats, one of which is constantly harassing him whenever he's outside of his cage, could this also be a problem with his eating problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

-- Zach

Answer
Zach --

Well, first I would say this - are they broken off evenly?  If not, you will need to take him to the vet or a reputable groomer and have them trimmed so that they are even.  If they aren't even when they grow back, he will still have trouble chewing.

I would make sure that while they are growing back you feed him lots of soft foods.  He will like things like all-natural applesauce, milk sop (which is bread soaked in milk), bananas, etc.  As for the alfalfa he needs, you will need to probably crush it up a little bit and add some water to make it kind of mushy so that he can eat it without chewing.  Treat his food like you would be feeding it to a baby.  Also, keep an eye out for weight loss, that would be a sign that he isn't eating enough and you may need to help him eat.

Hope this is helpful. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me again.  Good luck!

Lorena