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Urine Urine - Whitish powder left on the Chloroplast

failur3byh3art

failur3byh3art

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Aug 4, 2013
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242
I'm not sure if im slightly paranoid about this but I would like to know if this is normal or something to be concerned about.


Is this normal?

Urine - Whitish powder left on the ChloroplastUrine - Whitish powder left on the Chloroplast


I do feed my piggies Romaine lettuce, Kale, celery, cilantro(in small amounts). I give them 1 baby carrot but in slices twice a week. I have read that white powdery stuff is bad when they urinate. They all seem really healthy and show no signs of sickness or weakness. They are active and seem happy but should I be concerned with this? Also I took these 10 minutes ago. I am in the process of thoroughly cleaning their floor.
 
They're getting too much calcium in their diets. Normally their bodies will excrete excess calcium that they don't need, but excess calcium has definitely been implicated in urinary tract stones, which are painful for the pig and for your pocket book.

The first thing I'd do is cut romaine lettuce and kale completely out of their diets. Romaine is no higher in calcium than the other lettuces, but some pigs will excrete calcium like crazy when they're fed romaine, while others have no problem with it. Kale is too high in oxalates as well as calcium to be fed very often. Red and green leaf lettuces are good leafy vegetables, and they need bell peppers daily for the vitamin C. You can read https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...vy-Nutrition-Charts-amp-Poisonous-Plants-List for what you can feed and how often.

What kind of pellets do you feed? Some pellets are much higher in calcium than others, and most use limestone as their calcium source. That can be a problem for pigs, so if the change in diet doesn't clear it up, try to find pellets that don't have limestone. The only ones I know about are KMS Hayloft's.
 
Thank you so much for responding. I'll definitely do some reading on that. I just want my guinea pigs to be healthy. Um the pellets I feed them is Oxbow but here's a picture.


Urine - Whitish powder left on the Chloroplast

Is this good? Also, is this safe for baby pigs under 4 weeks?
 
I had this too, I was just told it was from not cleaning it enough.. but thank you for clearing this up bpatters c:
 
I think my piglets are getting too much calcium as well. What kind of veggies do you feed per day? (and how much of each?) For a balanced diet.
 
@failur3byh3art, how many babies do you have in the cage? And how many pigs total? What are the ages of the older ones?

It can be a balancing act to give the pups enough calcium without overloading the older ones. There are ways to do that, but deciding which is easiest requires knowing how many pigs and how old.

That Oxbow food is safe for babies under four weeks, but they need additional calcium. If you continue feeding those pellets, you'll need to supplement with something like alfalfa hay, parsley, or another high calcium veggie.

@Frode789, check out the link on post #2. A balanced diet for pigs would include red and/or green leaf lettuce and bell pepper as the staples. Additionally, they can have tomato, carrot (small chunks), summer squash, other greens that are not high in calcium/oxalates, celery (cut crosswise into fairly small chunks), corn husks and silks (strip the outer husks off to get rid of the pesticides), herbs (cilantro unless it causes them to excrete extra calcium, parsley ditto, basil, thyme, etc), and occasional fruit.
 
failur3byh3art said:
Thank you so much for responding. I'll definitely do some reading on that. I just want my guinea pigs to be healthy. Um the pellets I feed them is Oxbow but here's a picture.


View attachment 54591

Is this good? Also, is this safe for baby pigs under 4 weeks?
Click to expand...

Under 4 weeks? This is for adults which is considered 6 months and older. I am not an Oxbow fan because it has limestone as calcium. KMS Hayloft has the best pellets and it's very fresh too. Smells heavenly. kmshayloft.com If I'm not mistaken, you need to feed alfalfa based pellets for young ones. KMS carries this too and their hay is heavenly too!
 
bpatters said:
@failur3byh3art , how many babies do you have in the cage? And how many pigs total? What are the ages of the older ones?

It can be a balancing act to give the pups enough calcium without overloading the older ones. There are ways to do that, but deciding which is easiest requires knowing how many pigs and how old.

That Oxbow food is safe for babies under four weeks, but they need additional calcium. If you continue feeding those pellets, you'll need to supplement with something like alfalfa hay, parsley, or another high calcium veggie.

@Frode789 , check out the link on post #2. A balanced diet for pigs would include red and/or green leaf lettuce and bell pepper as the staples. Additionally, they can have tomato, carrot (small chunks), summer squash, other greens that are not high in calcium/oxalates, celery (cut crosswise into fairly small chunks), corn husks and silks (strip the outer husks off to get rid of the pesticides), herbs (cilantro unless it causes them to excrete extra calcium, parsley ditto, basil, thyme, etc), and occasional fruit.
Click to expand...


I have 4 pigs in total. All female.

Anna is 1 1/2 years old.
Lily is 5 months
Sushi is 2 months
and Alyssa is 3 weeks old.
 
Artista said:
Under 4 weeks? This is for adults which is considered 6 months and older. I am not an Oxbow fan because it has limestone as calcium. KMS Hayloft has the best pellets and it's very fresh too. Smells heavenly. kmshayloft.com If I'm not mistaken, you need to feed alfalfa based pellets for young ones. KMS carries this too and their hay is heavenly too!
Click to expand...

I'll consider looking into that. I want to be sure my pigs stay healthy
 
I'd feed them all timothy pellets, and take the older one out a couple of times a day and give the younger ones a spring or so of parsley each time. That should take care of their calcium without overloading the older one.
 
bpatters said:
I'd feed them all timothy pellets, and take the older one out a couple of times a day and give the younger ones a spring or so of parsley each time. That should take care of their calcium without overloading the older one.
Click to expand...


I'll do that today for their Dinner. Thank you so much for your response. I have one small question though. Since it is summer time and it is rather warm. Is it safe to give them water with ice in their water bottle? I do give them fresh, cool water(not freezing water). But would it be safe to put a small ice cube or two in their water?
 
Ice water is fine, and my pigs prefer it cool. We give them filtered water, and the best filter in the house is in the refrigerator. So I just fill the bottles from the spout in the door and throw a few ice cubes in.
 
I was wondering about ice in the bottle! Thanks!
 
I though cold water would cause diarrhea am I wrong on that? Sure I read it in a book or even on this forum.
 
No, cold water won't cause diarrhea.
 
Thank you! Alot of stress and worry on my mind has been lifted. I'll be changing their diet today, as well as doing what I can to keep them cool. I have a decent budget so I can provide anything for them.
 
failur3byh3art said:
Thank you! Alot of stress and worry on my mind has been lifted. I'll be changing their diet today, as well as doing what I can to keep them cool. I have a decent budget so I can provide anything for them.
Click to expand...

If you eat watermelon, freeze the rinds. Give it to them right out of the freezer. Another cool cold thing for them to chomp on when it's hot.
 
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