Diet Ca:P

[Petlovr]

OK, I've been tooling around Guinea Lynx for hours, and I can't find the ratio of Ca that I'm supposed to stay within. One of my piggies, I'm not sure which one, has gritty white urine. :sad: I'm trying to amend their diet to reduce calcium.

Also, I was thinking of separating them with grids until they all pee, so I can see which one has the white gritty urine. They would stay in the same cage, just each be sectioned off in to a corner until I figure out the culprit (victim?). What do you think? I would think it would only be for maybe an hour, and intros went very smoothly, so maybe when I take the grids back out it won't be too bad?

 

[lovemypigs.]

If you feed alot of parsly that could be why . Do you give it more than 2-3 times a week?

 

[Petlovr]

No. I had been giving my Daisy parsley every day, and never had a problem. Now I know better, so I only give a little once in a great while.

I forgot an important question: why does everyone seem to restrict carrots?

 

[lovemypigs.]

well on this chart: https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...y-nutrition-charts-poisonous-plants-list.html it says they can have 1 baby carrot per pig per day so idk know why cuz mine love carrots Lol

 

[bpatters]

Carrots are too high in vitamin A to be given in large amounts.

Petlovr, how long has it been since you introduced them? If its just been a few days, I'd leave them be for a while. Gritty urine isn't an emergency, although it doesn't need to be ignored.

You want a Ca ratio of 1.33:1 or higher. There's a calculator over at GL that you can download and use to see what your pigs are getting: https://www.guinealynx.info/diet_order-cal.html

 

[Petlovr]

They've only been together a few days. I'll work on amending the diet, then see if it continues before dividing them in the cage. How long should I wait to see a change? Days or weeks?

 

[Petlovr]

SOme of the items-endive, celery, and spinach, have high Ca ratios, but htey are also higher in calcium to start with. Should I eliminate them, or feed them?
endive = 30.59 Ca, 1.9:1 Ca
celery = 25 Ca, 1.7-1 Ca
spinach = 43.04 Ca, 2.0-1 Ca
(They do get spinach, it's in the organic baby spring mix I feed)

 

[bpatters]

You can feed those things, just not in huge amounts. The Ca ratio is really good, they're just awfully high in calcium to begin with.

I'd leave them together for a while before I separated them. But then if you're leaving them in the same cage and just penning them up for a short while, it should be ok.

 

[Petlovr]

Yes, I just was going to block them off individually in their 3 ft x 6 ft cage for about an hour (or less) to see who had white urine. I don't have enough cages tototally separate them, and I don't want to ruin my good luck so far with the intros.

I was thinking I could have lap time, and feed the culprit a special diet while the others enjoy their normal diet, thus making sure that the gritty urine one doesn't get anything she shouldn't have. I think I need to save up for surgery, just in case it comes to that down the line. Errg!

 

[cavyluvr]

Carrots have a lot of sugar so you don't want to feed to many too often. Separating them would be fine since it will only be for and hour or so. look up the different fruits and veggies you feed them on a daily basis and see what the calcium content is I'm pretty sure broccoli has a good amount of calcium so that could be it if you feed that a lot.

 

[bpatters]

Actually, carrots aren't as high in sugar as you might think. They do have some, but not enough for that to be the major reason not to feed them. It's the vitamin A, particularly, and the oxalates that you have to watch out for.