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This Is Gross, But...

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Amba

Amba

Junior Guinea Pig
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Western Australia
My guinea pig is eating her poo off the ground. I know they eat fresh poos, which she does as well. But she also goes around her hutch searching for old ones. The vet doesn't know what's wrong. She seems happy enough and has been doing it a couple weeks.
She eats: hay, pellets, vegetable, grass, fruit and herbs (all guinea approved). She gets plenty of stuff with Vit C, but for some reason her urinary tract (which is sensitive) starts to bother her more when she has the Vitamin C tablets, so I stopped giving her those months ago.
She was sick for awhile (we have gone through thousands of dollars but got nowhere) but she has improved the last few weeks, and put on 100grams, she seems a lot happier and I've seen her popcorn a few times. She likes to roll around like a puppy when she's happy, I know that sounds like a concern, but she's three and has been doing it since she was six weeeks. She's just so happy she likes to roll in her bedding.
 
Your girl may have got a digestive imbalance in the wake of her illness. An antibiotic will kill off a goodly part of the gut fauna. If you have got other piggies, you could offer her poo soup made by soaking fresh poos in water and then syringing the water to re-introduce the appropriate gut flora and fauna. You can often see recovering guinea pigs stealing poos from their healthy mates for the same reason. I assume that as your girl is on her own, she only has got her own poos to tiop herself up?

Please make sure that she got plenty of fibre, including very rough one like brown cardboard or toilet roll inners, unlimited hay and - if you can get it and afford it - I would also recommend to order some fibreplex. Giving a pinch of probiotic twice adaily may also help. Go lightly on the veg to give the guts a chance to rebalance.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...vitamin-c-overview-with-product-links.115404/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
 
She lives with her friend, but only eat her own poos. I've tried syringe feeding her Poppet's but she flicks her head back and screws up her face, loves her own though. I just hope she's not reintroducing sickness into her body that was supposed to be expelled. But I suppose I should trust she knows what she's doing. I will try and buy some new hay, good hay is only available at one single location in Western Australia. So she hasn't been eating quality (I don't drive and it can't be shipped). I didn't know they could eat cardboard and toilet rolls, aren't they mixed with some sort of glue or other nasties?
 
oh okay, that's good. :) I wonder if you know if they can eat wheetbix? I give them one every now and again and they love them. They're also great at helping Beano put on weight. I'm not sure if you have them in the U.K? They don't get sick or anything after eating them, but I only give them once every so often just in case, and it's the only treat I give them: http://www.sanitarium.com.au/products/breakfast/weet-bix/original
 
Amba said:
oh okay, that's good. :) I wonder if you know if they can eat wheetbix? I give them one every now and again and they love them. They're also great at helping Beano put on weight. I'm not sure if you have them in the you.K? They don't get sick or anything after eating them, but I only give them once every so often just in case, and it's the only treat I give them: http://www.sanitarium.com.au/products/breakfast/weet-bix/original
Click to expand...

Please do NOT feed weetabix or any processed food at all! Rather give them a pinch of freeze dried seasoning herbs like coriander or parsley as a special treat.
 
My piggies haven't suffered from demolishing the odd toilet or kitchen paper roll during their lives, nor have I ever heard from others. Stay off any glossy surfaces and heavily ink printed bits, but it won't harm in very small quantities. One of my elderlies delights in digging out the newspaper underneath the hay and eating that... but she is still going strong at 7 years old! :mal:
 
We do not recommend any food that are made from grain, as they are too fatty to be part of a regular diet and must be considered as junk food for guinea pigs. I understand that it is much more difficult for you to get hold of healthier and more appropriate treat alternatives like readigrass (freeze dried grass), dried herbs and leaves etc. that have are widely available in the UK and the US now.
 
Is fattiness the only problem? The only other indigence in the organic ones are barley, salt and a bit of sugar. I watch Beano closely to see which foods make her worse or better,unfortunately critical care is one that makes her worse. The only food I've found to help her put on weight is weet-bix. She eats a lot of veges and other stuff, but I found the weeks I've given her a bit of weet-bix are the weeks she puts on weight. I will have to really think about it, and maybe just give her half a one once a week. They have such delicate system, don't they? Thanks for all your help.
 
Salt is a big worry; unfortunately, sugar and/or salt are present in most processed foods, which the other major reason why we recommend not to feed any processed foods.
 
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