Extra Dry Poop

[Abs]

Hello everyone again. So today is a very sad day for me, because it's the first day of separating mamma guinea Patch from her baby boy Midnight. To be honest, I think she's had enough and was grateful for the break, but he is really NOT impressed with me, and makes his feelings loudly known whenever he sees me.

They have been having grass time this afternoon, with Midnight in a closed off area of their outside run, so nothing has changed about his diet I have been feeding him, with grass and some fresh vegetables every day, with unlimited hay. Also, I hardly ever saw him drink milk over the past week. I have never seen him have water from the water bottle, so I think he got most his liquid from vegetables and milk.

I was sweeping the grass area, and noticed that his poops were very dry, and a lighter brown in colour than normal. Is this usual, or is there anything I can do to work out what is wrong with him?

 

[helen105281]

They sound dehydrated to me, could you hold the water bottle to him and see if he drinks or give him a little bowl?

 

[BPM7]

again dehydration, can he reach the bottle? maybe put in a bowl?

 

[Abs]

I tried moving his water bottle lower last night, so we shall see if that has encouraged him (even though I am sure that pig can jump so high he can fly). And thank you for the suggestion, I will try him with a bowl of water as well.

 

[TAN]

My boar Bumble hardly ever drank anything and I had him from 3 weeks old - he now suffers from kidney stones - I am sure its because he has never been a big drinker - he does tend to drink slightly more from a bowl than a dropper,but I syringe feed him extra water daily,as he then becomes free from squeaky wees - I would suggest feeding a large chunk of cucumber daily if you cannot get him to drink - he will then get his water intake from there.

 

[ayemee]

I also had a piggie that didn't really drink much. I used the cucumber trick, seemed to do him some good.

 

[Abs]

I still can't get over how supportive everyone is on this forum he was a little minx and hid every time I tried to sneakily watch him, so I'm not sure if the water bowl worked, but he picked all the cucumber out of his vegetable bowl yesterday, which is unusual for him because he normally goes straight for the carrot. So like your piggies, I think he would benefit from some extra cucumber today!

 

[Tbag]

Wyatt was exactly like this when we got him from the rescue and he'd just been separated from mum too. We knew he could reach the bottle but he just didn't seem too interested. We put a water bowl in and also put a other water bottle on the cage that had a longer spout section just to give him more opportunity and it seemed to work. I think it's just a learning curve thing but keep an eye on him!