Gingerspider
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi all. Some of you may have read that we recently lost one of our beloved boars to a relatively unknown illness and fairly quickly. Probably understandably I've been spending much more time with our surviving lad Martin, to give him some company whilst we look for a new pal. Whilst I've been spending more time with him (and probably worsened anxiety due to my fear of losing him too) I've been picking up on a few things he is doing that I may or may not have noticed before...especially when there were two of them there! Just wondering if anyone can shed light on whether they are normal or not:
1. Eating his poops! I know they are meant to do this but I've never seen them do it before and reading up on it, it sounds as though they eat a different type to the normal chocolate bananas! Martin seems to be eating a lot and just picking them up from the cage, not from his butt, as I've read. When I went to clean the cage after a few days, as normal there were hardly any there! I know i should be 50% down but it was massively less than normal (and it isn't that he isn't doing them, 2 minutes into the clean cage and 6 poops already there
). I also noticed something to do with point two and that was a lack of wet patches...
2. Water hasnt gone down- i filled the water up on Thursday and its only gone down this much(see pic of 600ml bottle) I've seen him go to it a few times but sort of only have the tiniest bit. My other piggie would glug from it often so maybe he just needed more? Either way, a lack of pee on the bedding has had me worried
Martin is eating plenty of veggies, hay and nuggets and apart from the odd time where he looks forlorn, is enjoying floortime and seems to be bonding with us like never before (slowly!) so no other red flags.
With us losing Kurt (and me blaming it on the stress from the trip to the groomers) I want to make him as settled as possible, so avoid the vets if not necessary...although, ill of course go straight away if its something to worry about.
Many thanks in advance for your thoughts
1. Eating his poops! I know they are meant to do this but I've never seen them do it before and reading up on it, it sounds as though they eat a different type to the normal chocolate bananas! Martin seems to be eating a lot and just picking them up from the cage, not from his butt, as I've read. When I went to clean the cage after a few days, as normal there were hardly any there! I know i should be 50% down but it was massively less than normal (and it isn't that he isn't doing them, 2 minutes into the clean cage and 6 poops already there
). I also noticed something to do with point two and that was a lack of wet patches...2. Water hasnt gone down- i filled the water up on Thursday and its only gone down this much(see pic of 600ml bottle) I've seen him go to it a few times but sort of only have the tiniest bit. My other piggie would glug from it often so maybe he just needed more? Either way, a lack of pee on the bedding has had me worried
Martin is eating plenty of veggies, hay and nuggets and apart from the odd time where he looks forlorn, is enjoying floortime and seems to be bonding with us like never before (slowly!
) so no other red flags. With us losing Kurt (and me blaming it on the stress from the trip to the groomers) I want to make him as settled as possible, so avoid the vets if not necessary...although, ill of course go straight away if its something to worry about.
Many thanks in advance for your thoughts
