Green spot growing under water bottle on their fleece! Help?

coreyandminkus

coreyandminkus

New Born Pup
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Hi! Posting to see if anyone has any idea what’s going on with our fleece bedding/water situation right now as we are STUMPED.
So basically we’ve had our boys since July, and:
- we’ve always used the same water (filtered tap)
- we’ve always used the same pre washed fleece
- we use towels for our absorbent layer
- their bottle has always been in the same spot
- we always clean the bottles during daily refills

But lately, when their bottle drips, a green algae like spot grows on their bedding! they never interact with it, and it isn’t slimy like algae, just green in colour, but I have no clue why it’s growing!
We experimented with using bought water, different bottles, different fleeces beneath the water bottle, and still the spot comes! Even when we went back to our usual water and old bedding thinking the new fleece we bought triggered the growth, it grows in those circumstances too!
The only new change has been that it’s winter now and we use more electric heat in our home, but their bottle isn’t near a heater and their room isn’t any warmer than it usually has been, and if anything it should be less humid in winter ? (We had a humid summer this year with no issues)

If anyone has had experience with this please let us know! it’s lasted three weeks or so now and we really want to get it fixed. :(
 
How often are you cleaning out the cage? What substrate are they living on? Do you poop pick and remove wet areas daily?
 
Slightly bizarre suggestion…. Its not from pellets is it? Our boys sometimes leave pellet gunk under the waterbottle, as they like too drink while eating a pellet, and leave a bit of pellet gunk under the waterbottle!
I find using a small pee pad underneath the waterbottle helps, so I can change it out more frequently, when its damp, or gunky.
 
@AidaB may well have the right idea. One of our 'Little Treasures' used to flush her mouth out while at (on?) the bottle and another used to spit back up the bottle and make the water dirty. @coreyandminkus Is there algae in your bottles too?, usually due to direct sunlight. Your photos are sharp enough to zoom in on and it does suspiciously like a pellet that's got waterlogged under the bottle. You may have a pellet hogger.
 
:agr:
Our piggy Oreo was an absolute horror for drinking and dribbling her special 'pellet mush' underneath he water bottle.
She would literally tilt her head slightly on the side and push the ball bearing up so water would stream out of the bottle, through her mouth and onto the fleece below.
I ended up putting a small metal bowl under the bottle to catch the mess so I didn't have to constantly replace the fleece.
 
Swissgreys said:
:agr:
Our piggy Oreo was an absolute horror for drinking and dribbling her special 'pellet mush' underneath he water bottle.
She would literally tilt her head slightly on the side and push the ball bearing up so water would stream out of the bottle, through her mouth and onto the fleece below.
I ended up putting a small metal bowl under the bottle to catch the mess so I didn't have to constantly replace the fleece.
Click to expand...
Oh my goodness….. it isn’t the consistency of algae and our quirky pig drinks JUST like that the little weirdo lol! That might be just what it is and maybe it slowly takes on the green colour just due to being wet pellet mush ? The bowl is a good idea although he loves to move those around lol! It’s weird since he always drinks that way and it hasn’t been an issue since this month but maybe it was just a matter of time lol!
 
Guinea Pig Magazine said:
@AidaB may well have the right idea. One of our 'Little Treasures' used to flush her mouth out while at (on?) the bottle and another used to spit back up the bottle and make the water dirty. @coreyandminkus Is there algae in your bottles too?, usually due to direct sunlight. Your photos are sharp enough to zoom in on and it does suspiciously like a pellet that's got waterlogged under the bottle. You may have a pellet hogger.
Click to expand...
I thought there was too, so I switched our usual one out with brand new ones and cleaned with each water change, so I don’t think that’s the culprit! I’m thinking it IS a pellet spit up issue because they’re very intense with their water lol! It’s never happened till this month but maybe they’ve gotten lazy with swallowing their food before going for the water lol !
 
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