HELP needed on low calcium diet for bladder sludge.

[Snowflake]

Hi everyone,
I need some help on a low calcium diet for my girl who had bladder sludge. She had a bladder flush last Friday. The vet told me to put out on grass as much as possible as this is there natural diet and excersise . I have read the thread about low calcium foods. So in the week they have on different days grass in the run outside. Then twice daily romaine lettuce, cucumber, pepper, long green beans, coriander, chicory. Cabbage or broccoli only once a week and basil. Somebody told me this is still to high. I’m struggling! Has anyone else got a pig on here that has low calcium food ?and can tell me what they have daily? They don’t really eat much of the veg anyway as they want grass.
Also I have bottled water but could I buy a water filter jug from Tesco? Says they filter out limescale? Is this calcium.
Also I have tried science selective grain free nuggets they won’t eat them. They have science selective normal nuggets 1 tablespoon per day. Cage is covered with meadow hay and Timothy hay. They are indoors at night and out on grass all day with a option to go in outdoor hutch . They are in at night as my boar has sterile IC cystitis and he hates being outdoors overnight. I have tried leaving him out but the stress makes his ic worse. His happy being inside at night.
Thank you everyone.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone,
I need some help on a low calcium diet for my girl who had bladder sludge. She had a bladder flush last Friday. The vet told me to put out on grass as much as possible as this is there natural diet and excersise . I have read the thread about low calcium foods. So in the week they have on different days grass in the run outside. Then twice daily romaine lettuce, cucumber, pepper, long green beans, coriander, chicory. Cabbage or broccoli only once a week and basil. Somebody told me this is still to high. I’m struggling! Has anyone else got a pig on here that has low calcium food ?and can tell me what they have daily? They don’t really eat much of the veg anyway as they want grass.
Also I have bottled water but could I buy a water filter jug from Tesco? Says they filter out limescale? Is this calcium.
Also I have tried science selective grain free nuggets they won’t eat them. They have science selective normal nuggets 1 tablespoon per day. Cage is covered with meadow hay and Timothy hay. They are indoors at night and out on grass all day with a option to go in outdoor hutch . They are in at night as my boar has sterile IC cystitis and he hates being outdoors overnight. I have tried leaving him out but the stress makes his ic worse. His happy being inside at night.
Thank you everyone.

Hi

Please follow our regular diet recommendations in this guide here. Your diet is indeed still far too high in calcium.
Instead of high calcium cabbage and broccoli, feed a slice of greens once a week. Stay off any fattening root veg; carrot is like block chocolate for a guinea pig. There is a sweet spot in the diet between too much calcium and too little calcium; outside either side you can get stones and sludge.
It is much more complex than just reducing the calcium; there are some other factors playing into it. Our members' diet recommendations rely on long term practical experience of what really works in daily life for the long term outside of new contributing factors being found all the time.

However, most of the calcium in the diet comes actually with the water and with your pellets, which is generally completely overlooked by owners focussing just on veg and vitamin C. The UK is mainly a hard water country so this adds massively to the occurrance of stones. Please filter your water; it is going to make a huge difference. I have had only one more stone in over a decade and with over 70 piggies since I started filtering water and that was due to the shortage of fresh food at the start of the pandemic.
Also reduce any pellets to 1 tablespoon per piggy per day or leave them out altogether and replace with a some fresh or a little dried forage. Even no added calcium pellets are higher in it than the same weight of kale, which is the veg highest in calcium. Veg, fresh and dry forage, pellets and any treat are all together replacing the supplementary role that wild forage used to make in the grass/hay based diet that guinea pigs evolved on. Hay and carefully introduced fresh grass should make over three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day; the 'supplements' food group of everything else combined makes up the rest.

By reducing and balancing the calcium intake in all the other areas, which hay you feed - timothy, meadow or orchard - doesn't really matter. Timothy is lowest in calcium and more easily digested while meadow hay contains a variety of grasses and leads to a broader range in the gut microbiome and better long term health; it is also softer and better for romping in. Many of us have taken to feed more than one variety of hay with the odd added treat hay for enrichment. Mine won't accept timothy and have always had meadow hay but I haven't seen any difference in life spans or general health and it hasn't made any difference re. bladder stones.

Please take the time to read our diet guide. It looks at all food groups in their role in the diet and at each food group in detail. A normal diet is generally enough; my diet related ex-bladder stone piggies have done well on it unless the reason was something else, like a change/disturbance in the complex calcium absorption process which is much harder to control - but that is not something you are currently dealing with.
PS: The chapter in IC and bladder stone diet is currently outdated; unfortunately a mistake has re-set it to the old version. In my own experience, a normal diet works just as well; what can (but not necessarily always do) trigger IC flares are food changes or new foods so you have to factor that in when adjusting your diet. Once used to the changes, your IC piggies are back to the usual pattern.
Please be aware that any dietary changes will take several weeks to filter through. It is not a quick fix but necessary for the long term.

Here is our diet guide link with further links to more in-depth information on the various food groups: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets