Impaction I found an abnormal, wet fecal-like clump in Gimli's cage, and cannot identify it.

[Cubmodee]

Hello! I'm new to the forum, but I'll be sure to make this brief, I hope to post more meaningful things in the future- but this certainly caught me offguard.

This evening(It is now 1AM) I cleaned Gimli's cage, and his pooping habits seemed pretty ordinary, all relatively the same size, color, and shape- and he's not acting too different from normal. I come back a couple hours later to find a wet lump by his kibble, but that looked absolutely nothing like any of the treats that could've come from there. (it was far too big!)

For reference, I've taken pictures of his normal stool, the lump I found, and the kind of kibble he eats(Vitasmart Fortified Nutrition)- he has also been eating his hay as normal- and the only real change was that a day ago I fed him a grape. But I feel there's a chance this is unrelated. Without further ado, here are the pictures I snapped.

Odd lump paired with his average stool about the rest of the cage; only the lump was wet. It didn't seem to have a smell. It looked undigested, was dark and kind of disjointed like potting soil, and had bits of hay inside. Gimli just likes to expel wherever, and if this was kibble, that wouldn't explain the slightly smelly liquid spot(Not like a large urine spot) underneath it.

Mysterious wetspot, which left a gnarly stain.
A shot of his kibble from the container.

Now yes, this could possibly be just a soaked piece of his foot that separated, but it feels strangely unlkely, and I'd appreciate a second opinion.

On an offhand note, I have been a bad pig parent in terms of limiting Gimli's kibble consumption. Like a spoiled child, he likes to eat certain bits, and then chomp the bars of his cage until he gets "fresh" kibble with more of what he wants in it. Could habits like that cause digestive issues that may've led to this mystery problem in the first place? Thanks!

 

[scoottie]

That is such a bad food for them this site only recommends KMS Hayloft or Oxbow

 

[bpatters]

Yep. That food is totally unsuitable. You need a plain hay pellet -- timothy if he's older than six months or is housed with older pigs, alfalfa if he's younger and alone. If you're in the U.S., KMS Hayloft and Oxbow are the best. Oxbow is available in some other places, KMS in only a few, but it's horrendously expensive to have shipped out of the country.

My guess would be that the problem is related to the grape. If it's only the once, I wouldn't worry about it. If it continues, it may be from other veggies. If it happens again, post his exact diet back here and we'll see if there's any other problem.

 

[Cubmodee]

Yep. That food is totally unsuitable. You need a plain hay pellet -- timothy if he's older than six months or is housed with older pigs, alfalfa if he's younger and alone. If you're in the U.S., KMS Hayloft and Oxbow are the best. Oxbow is available in some other places, KMS in only a few, but it's horrendously expensive to have shipped out of the country.

My guess would be that the problem is related to the grape. If it's only the once, I wouldn't worry about it. If it continues, it may be from other veggies. If it happens again, post his exact diet back here and we'll see if there's any other problem.

Thank you, and the person above you for your quick responses! I'll look into changing Gimli's pellets. I've heard that straight timothy pellets are the way to go, but for some reason it didn't stick- and I haven't gone to my parents(who are still the main source of income right now) to suggest changing it up. He's an old boy(6, but hes never seemed to have a severe impaction), and I wasn't old enough at the time to do things as perfect as I should have done. He and I both have some bad routines.

Until then, I'll try to keep him off of grapes, and I'll sift his pellets to get all the bits out and see if he still eventually eats them, thanks!