White Pee/calcium?

Status
Not open for further replies.
PiggyOinkOink

PiggyOinkOink

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
401
Reaction score
187
Points
340
Location
London, UK
I noticed white stains on the wood stuff I have and the fleece and I read on here that that is an indication they are excreting clacium as there's too much in their diet.

I would feed them celery every day 2 stalks between 6, 1 slice red pepper each, 1 leaf romaine lettuce and about 6g spring greens. I stopped this pretty much for 3wks barely feeding them any fresh stuff and definitely once a week about on greens/kale/parsley, celery twice a week but peppers twice a day with cucumber. I can still notice a few white marks on the fleece so am not sure if this really means too much calcium in the diet?

I feed them Timothy hay and Burgess excel nuggets and wondered if these were high in calcium or have I just been mistaken and occasional white pee is not an issue. I did put one piggy on the floor and his pee left a browny mark on my white floor, so that looks normal?

Can anyone help as I'm a bit fearful to feed them the same amount of fresh stuff again!
 
I wouldn't worry about the white tiddles. It just means excess calcium, it's common. Was it orangey on the floor?
 
I have this too! The little white chalky patches. We had a rabbit when I was little and my mum always said it was lime scale because it used to stain the wood. God knows if this is true lol. How do you stop excess calcium ? Is this bad?
 
Yes, I also get white stains on the wood sometimes. If it's excess calcium, then does that mean that there is too much in their food or is it just normal but I should be careful not to give them too much so they are not able to excrete it?

As I mentioned, I still noticed it even when I just really fed them on pellets, hay and 2 servings of peppers per day. The reason why I got worried was that I read/saw a YT video that said you should only feed them Celery 2-3 times per week due to the calcium content. I used to feed them it twice a day 2 stalks between 6 and sometimes 2 stalks...saying that, I notice that some (reputable) guinea pig online info/forum sites say you can feed it everyday so I am confused!

I am wondering whether the Burgess Excel has too much calcium in it as I know someone on here, perhaps one of the Mods, feeds their piggies a pellet that is reduced calcium but does cost an arm and a leg compared to Burgess Excel. I'm trying to find which one it is, though, as I have 6 piggies, it will be expensive to switch and I'm not sure if it's good to switch if they are happy with their current pellets.
 
I've always fed celery once/twice a day in little chunks? It's on the IC diet which is to prevent excess calcium and bladder sludge :hmm:
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
I've always fed celery once/twice a day in little chunks? It's on the IC diet which is to prevent excess calcium and bladder sludge :hmm:
Click to expand...

Oh great! I will start them again on it as they do love it. Can you please send me a link to this IC diet?

Also, what pellet would you suggest/do you use that has the least calcium?

Thanks!
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
Oh great! I will start them again on it as they do love it. Can you please send me a link to this IC diet?

Also, what pellet would you suggest/do you use that has the least calcium?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
It's this:
I give them the I.c diet twice a day per pig.
1 slice cucumber
1 sprig coriander
1 slice spring greens
2 pieces celery
1 green bean
1 piece green pepper

I remove the green bean though as my girls are haters of it lol
 
In human pee, there's excess salt and sugar and water - none of which is unhealthy in itself! Calcium in pig wee is just the same, nothing to worry about :) it could be possible that their nuggets have added calcium, I know mine do, so it's worth checking that :P x
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
It's this:
I give them the I.c diet twice a day per pig.
1 slice cucumber
1 sprig coriander
1 slice spring greens
2 pieces celery
1 green bean
1 piece green pepper

I remove the green bean though as my girls are haters of it lol
Click to expand...

When you mean '1 slice of xx' do you mean 6g (I think I saw that somewhere ages ago)?
I'm thinking I might be giving mine a little too big a slice of cucumber as their poops are not as hard as they usually are.
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
When you mean '1 slice of xx' do you mean 6g (I think I saw that somewhere ages ago)?
I'm thinking I might be giving mine a little too big a slice of cucumber as their poops are not as hard as they usually are.
Click to expand...
For cucumber it's about 1cm thick, and then I cut that in half, so it's 1cm thick, 2cm across for each pig. And then pepper I cut it in strips, so it's 6cm or 7cm long. And celery is 3cm or 4cm for each pig in length.
I've never weighed my veg one by one before, I'll have to try this morning.
 
Chief Guinea Pig said:
For cucumber it's about 1cm thick, and then I cut that in half, so it's 1cm thick, 2cm across for each pig. And then pepper I cut it in strips, so it's 6cm or 7cm long. And celery is 3cm or 4cm for each pig in length.
I've never weighed my veg one by one before, I'll have to try this morning.
Click to expand...

Oh, then I am giving them a little more than you! My cucumber is about the same but I don't cut it in half instead give them the whole circle but only once a day. The pepper I cut the strip in half so I give less than you twice a day and the celery, I get one stick and divide it into 6 twice a day..it's not far off from you so I'm not really over feeding them I think! :tu:

Oh and the 6g was only meant for any leafs/spring greens not the other stuff.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top