Urine White powder??

[GinnyandRoxy13]

Recently, I've noticed white powdery stuff on top of the fleece in our guinea pig's cage. I'm guessing it's from urine. My long haired pig also seems to have some of the powder caked to her fur around her bottom. Is this normal and okay? Is there a reason this is happening? Thank you ahead of time for your help.

 

[bpatters]

It's caused by calcium in the urine. Sometimes you need to make changes in the diet, sometimes not.

How old are your pigs?

What exactly do they eat? What kind of hay? What pellets, and how many? What veggies, and how many of each?

 

[GinnyandRoxy13]

Roxy (the one who I've seen the powder on) is about 1 year and 10 months. They eat Oxbow hay, usually the orchard grass, sometimes the timothy hay. (They like the orchard grass much better) they also eat Oxbow adult guinea pig pellets. Their veggies are usually green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, carrots, parsley, cilantro... Usually they get one pretty large leaf of lettuce, half a carrot, and a bit of parsley or cilantro, as we grow it. I'd also like to add that we give them an Oxbow Vitamin C tablet everyday.

 

[GinnyandRoxy13]

It's caused by calcium in the urine. Sometimes you need to make changes in the diet, sometimes not.

How old are your pigs?

What exactly do they eat? What kind of hay? What pellets, and how many? What veggies, and how many of each?

Roxy (the one who I've seen the powder on) is about 1 year and 10 months. They eat Oxbow hay, usually the orchard grass, sometimes the timothy hay. (They like the orchard grass much better) they also eat Oxbow adult guinea pig pellets. Twice per day, we feed each of them one tablespoon of pellets. So they each get two tablespoons per day. Their veggies are usually green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, carrots, parsley, cilantro... Usually they get one pretty large leaf of lettuce, half a carrot, and a bit of parsley or cilantro, as we grow it. I'd also like to add that we give them an Oxbow Vitamin C tablet everyday.

 

[bpatters]

I'd take them off the Oxbow pellets -- they use limestone as the calcium source, and that's been implicated in bladder stones. Replace with KMS Hayloft pellets, which have a different calcium source.

Also, cut out the parsley, as it's high in calcium. Cilantro is like romaine lettuce -- some pigs will show a lot of urinary calcium when eating it, others don't. If yours do, them omit that also.

And if you're feeding the newer Oxbow vitamin C, it has a lot of added calcium to it. You can get a plain vitamin C tablet (children's chewables are good) that doesn't have calcium added.

 

[GinnyandRoxy13]

I'd take them off the Oxbow pellets -- they use limestone as the calcium source, and that's been implicated in bladder stones. Replace with KMS Hayloft pellets, which have a different calcium source.

Also, cut out the parsley, as it's high in calcium. Cilantro is like romaine lettuce -- some pigs will show a lot of urinary calcium when eating it, others don't. If yours do, them omit that also.

And if you're feeding the newer Oxbow vitamin C, it has a lot of added calcium to it. You can get a plain vitamin C tablet (children's chewables are good) that doesn't have calcium added.

Do you know any kinds of human Vitamin C that we could get? Because all I could find were tablets that were very high (1000mgs+). I know we would split it , but that much is almost impossible to cut into 25 mgs.

 

[PandaPiggle]

I think the smallest available is 100 mg, which you could quarter okay I think. I just googled "chewable vitamin c 100 mg" and a bunch showed up. You should be able to see if any local pharmacies stock them, or order online. And children's chewables are good because they have a fruit flavor that is supposed to go over well with pigs. Here's one from Amazon, that seems about right: (broken link removed)

 

[GinnyandRoxy13]

I think the smallest available is 100 mg, which you could quarter okay I think. I just googled "chewable vitamin c 100 mg" and a bunch showed up. You should be able to see if any local pharmacies stock them, or order online. And children's chewables are good because they have a fruit flavor that is supposed to go over well with pigs. Here's one from Amazon, that seems about right: (broken link removed)

Thank you for your help. I will definatly try those!!