New Hay Causing Soft Poops?

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Jennifer D

Jennifer D

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone!

I recently bought a bag of grass hay (oxbow brand) for my pigs. I usually feed them timothy hay. When I offered them this new grass hay, I mixed it with the timothy hay about half and half. I've noticed that my older pigs that are about 5-6 years old have softer poops than they normally would. It isn't diarrhoea, but like I said the poop is softer- still has the regular shape pretty much. Could this new hay be the cause? Perhaps it's a bit richer than timothy hay? Should I have done a different ratio when offering it? Gigantica (2 years) and Vixen (5 months) are having no problem with it. When I gave them hay today I gave them straight timothy as I wanted to see if I would see a difference in poops.

Thanks!
 
I got some hay with marigold and dandelion that had the same effect on my pigs a while ago. Everything went back to normal when I switched back to their original hay!
 
Davey-cavy said:
I got some hay with marigold and dandelion that had the same effect on my pigs a while ago. Everything went back to normal when I switched back to their original hay!
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I may end up just offering it to my younger pigs as they didn't have any problems with it. I feel guilty because they seemed to be enjoying it so much lol! Awwww well, the other pigs and my rabbit will enjoy it just as much ;) They're sitting and pigging out on their timothy hay anyways so it would appear the only one who cares is me!
 
Hey, were they definitely eating it? I had the same problem with my pig not long ago, She had really mushy soft poop and i ended up giving her fibreplex i got from the vet, but it turned out she just didn't like the hay I'd been giving her and wasn't eating as much of it and so wasnt getting enough fibre. I just assumed she was eating it & liked it because she was sleeping and hiding in it and always looked like she was munching (probably was, but it was probably her own poop she was munching) lol. After I changed it she was fine :)
 
Coco&Luna said:
Hey, were they definitely eating it? I had the same problem with my pig not long ago, She had really mushy soft poop and i ended up giving her fibreplex i got from the vet, but it turned out she just didn't like the hay I'd been giving her and wasn't eating as much of it and so wasnt getting enough fibre. I just assumed she was eating it & liked it because she was sleeping and hiding in it and always looked like she was munching (probably was, but it was probably her own poop she was munching) lol. After I changed it she was fine :)
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Lol! Yeah they were definitely eating it! They'd just plop themselves there and eat and poop continuously like usual :)
 
lol. Awww! Maybe all pigs arn't like mines then. Apparently these two would rather wither away and die than suffer the trauma of eating cheap tesco's hay. haha
 
Had the same problem with Teddy a while back. I just began to give him that hay every now and then (and not too much), mixed with his usual hay.
 
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