Urine Calcium in the urine?

[Kimberly713]

I have two pigs, both girls. I always noticed their urine dried a creamy white color on the fleece but it wasn't gritty or powdery at all so I thought nothing of it. Every now and then I would see ones that were more like calcium deposits on the fleece. I cleaned the cage 4 days ago and there are about 10 or so on the fleece now. I don't think i feed them anything with large amounts of calcium and About a week and a half ago I changed their water to reverse osmosis (R.O.) water so there is nothing in it.
Daily they eat: Cilantro, Green Leaf Lettuce, Endive Lettuce, cherry tomato,
A few times a week i substitute one of the following: cucumber, green bean, red bell pepper

My mom asked me if I could give them cranberries to help their urinary tract, since that works for people. Also, I know I could eliminate all but one veggie and introduce one each week, but I want to touch all other bases first because my mother is convinced it's "torture" (I'm well aware it's not) and she feeds them while I'm in school...

An image of two spots close to each other.

 

[pinky]

What kind of pellets and hay are you feeding them?

 

[Kimberly713]

Oxbow Cavy Cuisine for the pellets. Right now we have bluegrass hay but it's normally Timothy, from Kleenmama's Hayloft.

What kind of pellets and hay are you feeding them?

 

[bpatters]

You don't want to give them water with nothing in it -- filtered water is just fine if you have hard water. If your water isn't hard, you may not need to do anything to it.

I'd switch them off Oxbow pellets to KM pellets. Oxbow and KM use different calcium compounds in their pellets, and a number of pigs with powdery/sludgy urine that were on Oxbow have cleared up on KM. Don't go overboard on the endive.

 

[Kimberly713]

We have hard water, and my dad has the RO filter for his aquariums. Can I mix the tap with the RO water instead of buying another filtered system? We drink the RO water too.

I can try KM pellets, hopefully that's the problem. I have a hunch it's mostly, if not only coming from one pig too because the sludge spots are in the one area she pees most often.

With the pellets, I don't really have space to store 10lbs of pellets in my freezer. Will they stay fresh for a few months? It will take quite a while for my two pigs to get through that much food...