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Newbie with new piggie

BellaAdele

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Hi all. We adopted Bella (American) from pet rescue just before Christmas. Decided she needed a friend, so we took in a neighbor's widowed piggie (an Abyssinal). It's been a week, and they're finally acknowledging each other. :)

Here's where we need help/advice from those with lots of experience. Bella has non-stinky poop. New piggie's smells like poop. I can't find any info if that says different breeds makes a difference. We had a dog for 11 years, and our house never smelled like dog. I can't have a home that smells like poop, for so many obvious reasons. I could smell it as soon as I opened the front door, and the piggies are upstairs!
I completely cleaned out & sanitized the cage yesterday, and I smelled it again before I even saw that she'd gone. Is this normal? We are considering giving her back and adopting another American from the same rescue.
 

NikkisPigs

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I wonder if it could be her old diet? How long have you had her? The coat type won't make a difference in the poop smell.
 

Rywen

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My piggie had a bacterial imbalance in her intestines and it was causing her poop to be mushy and smell. Is her poop looking normal? You may want to try giving her some benebac for small pets (or another piggie safe probiotic) first before returning her. It could also be what she was eating at her previous home, the bulk of her diet should be long strand hay (Timothy, orchard, bluegrass, brome, etc). Fruits can cause sugar imbalance in their gut so if you are feeding fruit try not feeding it for a few days and just feed hay, Timothy pellets and raw fresh veggies.
 

Starthecavy123

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Well breed has nothing to do with it. Are you sure the new pig is female. Cause I know males scent mark which does smell. Their poop shouldn't smell unless something is wrong. So I doubt its that reason. But I'm not great on illnesses so maybe someone else will be more helpful. I just know from hearing from others on here that the poop shouldn't smell. But I hope I've helped even a little bit.
 

HannibalLecter

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Well breed has nothing to do with it. Are you sure the new pig is female. Cause I know males scent mark which does smell. Their poop shouldn't smell unless something is wrong. So I doubt its that reason. But I'm not great on illnesses so maybe someone else will be more helpful. I just know from hearing from others on here that the poop shouldn't smell. But I hope I've helped even a little bit.

Fresh poop does smell and if the pig lived in a small cage, chances are she slept in her own poop. :) Many messy pigs need a bath once or twice a year, mine included.
 

maddy harper

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hi and welcome to g p c
you'll learn lots of information here....
:D
 

Princess_Piggie

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Ditto [MENTION=28349]Starthecavy123[/MENTION], my girls poop never smells, fresh or otherwise. [MENTION=30078]Rywen[/MENTION] pretty much covered everything you should try, but when my girls dropping change in shape I cut all fresh produce out for 24-48 hours (depends on how significant the change was) and add them back in one at a time. That gets things back to normal for a while. Regardless of how slow I add each one back in, I never find the "culprit" because once it's sorted, it stays that way for a while. My feeling is that it's the way that certain lettuce/pepper/etc was grown or something along those lines.

Either way, if you aren't feeding fruit/cutting fruit out doesn't help, try all that too.
 

BellaAdele

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Thanks for all the great & quick advice. Since the new piggie's poop looks normal, and I know her diet was lots of hay, same veggies, and fruit, I'm going to try no fruit or a day or two. I'll talk to my neighbor to double check cage size, too. Hope it works.
 

HannibalLecter

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Thanks for all the great & quick advice. Since the new piggie's poop looks normal, and I know her diet was lots of hay, same veggies, and fruit, I'm going to try no fruit or a day or two. I'll talk to my neighbor to double check cage size, too. Hope it works.

Fruit shouldn't be fed daily because of the high sugar content, once or twice a week at most.
Sugar disrupts the gut flora & can allow bad bacteria to grow.
 
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