Calcium pee

[Jnusbaum817]

Our 3 girls are 5.5 and almost 4 months old. They eat unlimited Timothy hay and oxbow essentials young guinea pig pellets. They are also up to 3 pieces of lettuce, 3 green pepper slices, 1 cucumber slices (which they often don’t want) and 3 cilantro sprigs ( we are still gradually increasing).

I noticed after the last few days They have started to occasionally leave some white pee marks, which I understand to be an excessive calcium. Are we doing something wrong with their diet to cause this?

 

[Ramia]

Some is normal, it's just the body excreting it. What you don't want is it to feel gritty. Remember, they only need one tablespoon of pellets each or they could get too much.

 

[Jnusbaum817]

Some is normal, it's just the body excreting it. What you don't want is it to feel gritty. Remember, they only need one tablespoon of pellets each or they could get too much.

I thought babies could have unlimited pellets? Even so we typically put in 1/4 cup scoop each day, occasionally refilling with another scoop before bed.

 

[RosieLily]

Are your little ones good drinkers? I would keep trying with the cucumber - my Rosie was picky as a baby, too. Now she'd annihilate my entire pantry and fridge if she could.

If the wee is gritty and causing discomfort, personally I would book a trip to the vet (Rosie has always had issues with calcium, it is a good idea to get to the bottom of it immediately) and I'd up their water intake immediately. Syringe feeding pure water helps some, with my Rosie I soaked veggies in water before offering it with a syringe.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree with the others re calcium pee.
Excess calcium is excreted in the urine which is normal if it happens occasionally. It will feel chalky. If It happens Once or twice is ok but if it happens a lot it means something is wrong in the diet.
If it feels gritty then there is a problem as crystals are forming.

The fact you are feeding unlimited of the young piggy pellets is most likely where the issue is.

Piggies should never have unlimited pellets of any type but particularly not of the young piggy pellets. This is because the young piggy pellets contain alfalfa. Alfalfa is a legume (so not a grass) which guinea pigs should not eat - It contains higher calcium levels.
The young piggy pellets are a marketing gimmick and are entirely unnecessary to ever be given - piggies can eat the normal adult pellets from birth. The amount of additional nutrition youngsters need is actually rather tiny.

Alfalfa can be given supplementary to newborn pups under three weeks of age but after that it isn’t needed.

If anybody is choosing to give the young piggy pellets then it is strictly one tablespoon per day due to the higher nutrient levels (piggies under four months can have two tablespoons of normal adult pellets instead to give them a little extra nutrition) they most definitely cannot be fed unlimited, and you need to stop feeding young piggy pellets entirely by the time they are four months old. Now yours are at that age, please do switch to one tablespoon of normal adult pellets per pig per day.
Pellets and water bring most calcium into the diet so it is there which care needs to be taken first.

Section 6 of this guide explains

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Jnusbaum817]

Thank you. I ordered some science selective grain free guinea pig food that should be here later this week. If I have three guinea pigs do I just put in 3 tablespoons pellets (some in bowl and some hidden through cage)? How do I keep one piggy from getting more pellets than the others? So far, we have been hand, feeding the piggies their veggies as we try to work our way up to one cup each, but at some point, I think I would run into the same issue. If given the chance, our cocoa would eat everyone else’s veggies before they got any.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes three tablespoons but we don’t recommend bowls are used at all. Just scatter it all around the cage and into hay.
Scattering helps to stop one pig getting more than the others (although it will still happen a bit) because one pig cannot be everywhere meaning the others get their fair chance to forage and get some.