Guinea Pig Wee - What's Normal?

[Drezella]

Hi,

My boys are roughly 12 months old. I read that young guinea pigs wee can sometimes be orange or brownish in colour, particularly when it oxidises/drys in the air. Currently my boys wee tends to dry a brownish colour (possibly because of the puppy pee pads that they pee on) and their poos are normal. I have occasionally noticed the odd calcium deposit in my boys wee which I'm trying to address by slowly changing their diet over to the IC diet. The deposits are not gritty when I rub my finger on them so they don't have bladder sludge.

However, I was a little worried before because there was a pinkish patch on the floor next to a patch of wee in my boys cage. I have given my boys cherries and a piece of red pepper tonight, so it could possibly be juice from those, but I'm not 100% sure, so I'm going to monitor their wees over the next day or so to check for blood. I have checked their noses and bums and there's no sign of blood anywhere. I also checked for cuts/scrapes etc, again I couldn't see any. I'm thinking of taking them to the vets anyway over the next week or so to get their nails clipped, so if I notice anything sinister I'll get them checked straight away.

I'm just wondering what is normal for pigs of their age (12 months) and what are good ways of testing for things?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Wiebke]

Blood has a different specific weight to urine, so if it there is some in the pee, it either dries as small reddish dots in the middle of a pee patch or if there is more, as a reddish ring around a patch of pee in a different shade.

You can get human blood test strip online of you wish to, but if you have got an anxiety problem, I would strongly recommend to stay off them, or it could become a bit obsessive!

 

[Drezella]

That would probably make my pig mum anxiety worse lol. I don't think I've stopped worrying about my boys since I got them. Thanks for the advice about blood in urine, I'll definitely be looking out for those.

Is the urine drying brown normal though for boys of their age?

 

[Wiebke]

That would probably make my pig mum anxiety worse lol. I don't think I've stopped worrying about my boys since I got them. Thanks for the advice about blood in urine, I'll definitely be looking out for those.

Is the urine drying brown normal though for boys of their age?

It is normal for any piggy; the actual colour depends on the diet (as some veg can discolour the urine like beetroot, carrot, peppers or cherries) and how much a piggy drinks, i.e. how dilute the urine is. Drinking varies enormously between piggies and also depends on the climate/warmth etc. so it can vary for each piggy from day to day, too.

 

[Drezella]

Oh right that's good to know. They have a carrot topped edible cottage in their cage at the moment so could be that that is discolouring the urine. They've also had cherries lately too. Thanks for the advice.