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Sounds Talking More Than Usual

Portal_Corgi

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My guinea pig is normally on the quiet side, but lately he talks to himself a lot. He makes little squeaking and grunting noises sometimes while he's walking around his cage. He also does it during lap time when I try to pet him. Is this something normal or should I be worried that something is bothering him? He also squeaks and acts bothered when I try to touch his tummy, but he's never really liked his tummy touched, he's just never squeaked when I touched it in the past. Everything else seems normal. He's eating and drinking normally and going to the bathroom normally. He does have sludgy pee, but it's not gritty at all. I'm just worried because his friend used to do the same thing before he passed away from what I think were bladder stones. I'm pretty new to guinea pigs and I only had his friend for three weeks before he passed away so I thought it was normal behavior for some pigs to run around talking to themselves. Any advice or am I just being an overprotective pet parent?
 

Princess_Piggie

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Does he seem to itch at all, or try to nibble at his back end? It could be mites irritating him.
 

bpatters

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Some pigs talk, some don't. I wouldn't worry about the talking, but I would worry about the urine deposits. What exactly are you feeding him? What kind of hay? What kind of pellets and how many? Which veggies, and how many of each? Urine deposits don't have to be gritty to be a problem.
 

Portal_Corgi

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Does he seem to itch at all, or try to nibble at his back end? It could be mites irritating him.

He's not itchy, but his feet are kind of scaly. He's not chewing on them though. Could that be a sign of mites? He's not scaly and doesn't have skin problems anywhere else.
 
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Portal_Corgi

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Some pigs talk, some don't. I wouldn't worry about the talking, but I would worry about the urine deposits. What exactly are you feeding him? What kind of hay? What kind of pellets and how many? Which veggies, and how many of each? Urine deposits don't have to be gritty to be a problem.

I'm feeding him unlimited timothy hay and about 1/8th a cup of alfalfa based pellets because he's under 6 months. I'm also feeding him a about cup of green and red leaf lettuce every day. Our city water is really hard so I've been running it through a filter before putting it in his water bottle, but I'm not sure if it's helping. Is it safe to switch him and his friend (who's about 1 month old and also has sludge) to timothy pellets? I've heard that not having enough calcium can cause sludge and stones too because their bodies leach calcium from their bones. :confused:
 

piggielover200

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You can just give a few sprigs of parsley each to supplement the calcium and put them on timothy pellets.
 

bpatters

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Ditto the parsley. And I wouldn't worry too much about the calcium at their age. After they're six months old, you can address calcium in the diet.
 

Portal_Corgi

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OK, thanks for the advice piggielover200 and bpatters. I bought some Oxbow timothy pellets on the way home from work and they're both face first in their bowls at the moment. :) I think my piggy is going to be ok, I caught him racing a couple of laps around his cage and he seems a little spunkier and actually popcorned for me once while I was giving him his pellets. Maybe the toilet paper tube I gave him to chew on (no glue or ink) didn't agree with him. No more cardboard for Riki. Too bad since he was really having fun with it.
 
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