General Drinking a lot and dry poop

[faculae.angel]

So my one pig Loki drinks so much. I constantly hear him at his water and I time how long he just sits there and drinks and a lot of times it’s five minutes or more. I’ve had him for around a year and he’s always drank a lot but he’s just been drinking so much lately i find myself constantly changing his water.

i also noticed that he has really dry poop. He’s always pooped a lot more than my other pigs but his poop has always been normal until recently. It’s so dry where it’s just crumbling and it’s impossible to keep his cage clean. I wasn’t too worried about it because he’s not losing weight and there’s no change in his eating habits. The only thing I’ve noticed is that he’s just drinking a lot more.

i tried doing my own research but all I keep finding is that he could be dehydrated and that’s why his poop is dry, but that’s obviously not the case.

hes also not struggling when he poops and he appears to be pooping the exact same amount as before, it’s just dry and crumbling and completely covers his cage.

any suggestions?

id really like to solve this issue because it’s such a pain trying to clean his cage when his poop just crumbles.

 

[bpatters]

Is he getting any veggies? If so, which ones, and how much of each?

Same pellets and hay as he's been eating before?

 

[faculae.angel]

Is he getting any veggies? If so, which ones, and how much of each?

Same pellets and hay as he's been eating before?

Yes. In the morning they get a cucumber slice and a piece of carrot and either red lettuce or green lettuce. In the afternoon they get either red lettuce or green lettuce, a piece of celery, a bell pepper slice, and a cherry tomato.

They get 1/8 cup of Oxbow guinea pig cuisine pellets I believe its called and unlimited Oxbow timothy hay.

 

[bpatters]

I'd weight him every morning for a few days, before he eats, and see what his weight is doing. Excessive drinking can be a sign of diabetes, but that would show itself in weight loss if that's the problem.

If he is losing weight, then of course he needs to see a vet. If not, I'd try increasing the cucumber and tomato and see if the additional water in those veggies help any. You can also give the lettuce very wet, and possibly increase the amount of lettuce he's eating.

 

[faculae.angel]

I'd weight him every morning for a few days, before he eats, and see what his weight is doing. Excessive drinking can be a sign of diabetes, but that would show itself in weight loss if that's the problem.

If he is losing weight, then of course he needs to see a vet. If not, I'd try increasing the cucumber and tomato and see if the additional water in those veggies help any. You can also give the lettuce very wet, and possibly increase the amount of lettuce he's eating.

Yeah I've been keeping an eye on his weight and it hasn't changed. Like I said, he seems physically fine in every sense. He definitely hasn't lost weight. So I don't think it's diabetes, but might I ask what steps do you take afterwards if you find out your guinea pig has diabetes?

He already gets a pretty big slice of cucumber. I usually give him more than my other pigs because despite the fact that hes smaller than the others his appetite is quite a lot bigger. And i'm not sure about increasing the tomato. I'm pretty sure the cherry tomatoes are acidic and can't it leave sores on their mouths if they get too much?

I wash the lettuce every time before I feed them so the lettuce is already wet and I give them usually a big leaf or two depending on how big each serving.

What about fruits though? That's the one thing I don't really feed them as often as I probably should. I've been a bit paranoid because a while back my mom went and fed them all a huge bowl of fruit while I was at work (despite the fact that I informed everyone in the household to not feed them without my permission). Like half a kiwi, a bunch of grapes, a banana slice, blueberries, orange slice, a strawberry- basically every fruit she could possibly find at once.

Thankfully Thor and Bugbsy didn't touch the fruit that much but Loki ate it ALL and had diarrhea and I know that can be really dangerous for guinea pigs so yeah, I've been paranoid since that happened. He recovered the next day and his poop was fine again thankfully and I haven't had an issue like that again. I did go out and buy a bottle of wet-tail drops though just in case something like that were to happen again.

Should I try putting more fruit into their diet?

 

[bpatters]

No, I wouldn't do that. Guinea pigs don't process sugar well, and fruit should just be an occasional treat.

Guinea pigs can be treated for diabetes -- it's not the problem for them that it is for humans.

Just so you know, guinea pigs don't get wet tail the same way hamsters do. In hamsters, it's a disturbance of a specific part of the intestinal tract, and is generally caused by stress. It's very common in hamsters. Guinea pigs aren't susceptible to it.

 

[faculae.angel]

No, I wouldn't do that. Guinea pigs don't process sugar well, and fruit should just be an occasional treat.

Guinea pigs can be treated for diabetes -- it's not the problem for them that it is for humans.

Just so you know, guinea pigs don't get wet tail the same way hamsters do. In hamsters, it's a disturbance of a specific part of the intestinal tract, and is generally caused by stress. It's very common in hamsters. Guinea pigs aren't susceptible to it.

Okay, thanks for letting me know.

And wow, I didn't know that. On the packaging for the wet-tail drops I bought it said it was for guinea pigs and how deadly it was. I guess they were just trying to sell their product. Thank you for letting me know so I don't have to worry about that any more.

So I guess from here I'll just try to put more water in his diet. He just drinks so much right now that I have no clue how his poop can possibly be so dry.