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Julesie

Julesie

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Today when feeding my guinea pig I noticed in his cage was a strangely coloured puddle.

I am not quite sure if it is blood or what it is. I had noticed the same colour in his other cage a week ago too but I had dismissed it for me not having cleaned out the cage in a few days. But this time the cage was newly cleaned out and had only been messy two days.

I am seriously hoping it is not blood but it doesn't seem quite red so opinions would be grateful. Arthur is currently in his own cage as his cage mate has lice but he doesn't seem to outwardly.

a2rvbl.jpg
 
Mine are on fleece with towels underneath and i have noticed a similar colour stain but a bit browny as it had dried. I would keep an eye on them for squeaking when peeing etc, i did the same but all was fine, i also did home urine infection tests with those strips that are like litmus paper, all negative. So with mine the only thing I can think of is the veg, i notice this stain the more carrot they eat and or course anything darker like cabbage and beetroot.
Hope yours are all ok :)
 
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i have vaguely heard about this before...

I think that its either because if your guinea pig is young it can be literally because of their young age. Or apparently when piggie urine is left to stand it can SOMETIMES go this colour...

Other more serious reasons could be a urinary tract infection or bladder stones....?

Or so I've heard!

Hopefully its nothing and your piggie is brill but always worth a visit to the vet and you could maybe show him this picture? better safe than sorry :) hope everythings is okay!
 
Carrot is the darkest thing he eats and I give him four slices of it once a day. I'm not sure if it'd be that or not?

I also give him curly kale and spinache leaves. So maybe his diet is why?

I dont give them both of course. One day is kale the next leaves.

Also hes on a mat as hes in a guinea pig run at the moment as his cage mate is infested with lice.
 
Sometimes food can discolour urine, however it would be good to do a test. A good way of testing is pop him on a towel (white, or if you dont have a white towel lots of white kitchen roll) and wait or him to do a wee :)
 
He looks and acts completely healthy. No squeaks when peeing or pooeing and he is a young guinea pig. About 6 or so months old.
 
This will give you a good indication of colour. :)
 
Connie said:
Sometimes food can discolour urine, however it would be good to do a test. A good way of testing is pop him on a towel (white, or if you dont have a white towel lots of white kitchen roll) and wait or him to do a wee :)
Click to expand...


So you just wait to see if it comes out the same colour? Or am I looking for something else?
 
My Bruno used to do very brown pees, he just had a lot of protein in his urine, we had a look at the veggies we fed him and also changed to Burgess excel and it calmed down. I would personally get that dip tested by a vet first though, just to rule out any other nasties.
 
Another vet trip. xD I was only there two days ago with him and Romano. And two weeks before with Gilbert. These boys seem to love that place.
 
I'm really thinking it might be his diet now though.

I do tend to feed him a lot of spinach or leaves.

What I give him daily is

Spinach or leaves
carrot
cucumber
maybe a bit of lettuce

I give them a huge handful each of the leaves and lettuce as they love them the most. Maybe I'll cut it down to a smaller handful.

Oh and yesterday as I only had a bit of spinach left, I gave him that with the leaves as well...
 
Julesie said:
I'm really thinking it might be his diet now though.

I do tend to feed him a lot of spinach or leaves.

What I give him daily is

Spinach or leaves
carrot
cucumber
maybe a bit of lettuce

I give them a huge handful each of the leaves and lettuce as they love them the most. Maybe I'll cut it down to a smaller handful.

Oh and yesterday as I only had a bit of spinach left, I gave him that with the leaves as well...
Click to expand...

Every day?! Blimey, my lot get three small pieces of veg each a day!

Spinach is rich in iron and I believe protein too.

This is my 'piggy menu' for a week, my vet has seen it and seemed to think it was nice and varied:

Monday - Greens/cabbage (handful per 2 piggies)
Tuesday - Celery (2 pieces) and green pepper (1 piece)
Wednesday - Carrot (2 pieces) and cucumber (half a slice each)
Thursday - Greens/cabbage (handful per 2 piggies)
Friday - mange tout/green beans (2) and red pepper (1 piece)
Saturday - Celery (2 pieces) and cucumber (half a slice each)
Sunday - Broccoli (1 small floret each) and carrot (1 piece each/small handful of peelings each)
 
Doeylicious said:
Every day?! Blimey, my lot get three small pieces of veg each a day!

Spinach is rich in iron and I believe protein too.

This is my 'piggy menu' for a week, my vet has seen it and seemed to think it was nice and varied:

Monday - Greens/cabbage (handful per 2 piggies)
Tuesday - Celery (2 pieces) and green pepper (1 piece)
Wednesday - Carrot (2 pieces) and cucumber (half a slice each)
Thursday - Greens/cabbage (handful per 2 piggies)
Friday - mange tout/green beans (2) and red pepper (1 piece)
Saturday - Celery (2 pieces) and cucumber (half a slice each)
Sunday - Broccoli (1 small floret each) and carrot (1 piece each/small handful of peelings each)
Click to expand...

Oh dear. I didn't realise I was giving them far too much. I will certainly cut down then.
Could you help me make a routa so I know that I am giving them the right amount of the items I listed above that I feed?

Thank you.
 
Julesie said:
Oh dear. I didn't realise I was giving them far too much. I will certainly cut down then.
Could you help me make a routa so I know that I am giving them the right amount of the items I listed above that I feed?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Well I would chuck another couple of things in for variation, peppers are not that expensive and celery is quite good for their teeth as they have to give it a good crunch.

What I feed is less than some other people, I am just a bit tight, as I have 15 I tend to feed a bit less veggies but a LOT of hay as I buy it cheaply by the bale. Even with not too much veg, the bag recommendation of pellets and unlimited hay two of mine still tip the scales at 1.4kg almost!

Of your veg, the item to watch most is the spinach as it is quite rich so I would feed that twice a week if it were me. Cucumber is basically water so can be fed 2 - 3 times a week, its not very high in nutrition so best fed with something like carrot which is quite high in protein and other things.

Lettuce again doesn't do much for them, what type of lettuce is it? I personally don't feed lettuce as I don't see the point in it, to me it is more a nice human garnishy veg lol
 
I go by the 1 cup full rule (thats the cup measurement, not just any cup - causes much confusion). 1 cup per day per piggy. I try to balance the cup out but I'm not always very good at that. :/

Sometimes they geet a little more, sometimes a little less.

I was meaning that if you had him on a white towel, you would know exactly what colour the urine is when it comes out. Sometimes it drys a different colour because of whats in it, but if there was blood in it it would be an odd colour when it came out.

But doelylicious is right, a vets dip test sounds like a good idea! :)
 
Doeylicious said:
Well I would chuck another couple of things in for variation, peppers are not that expensive and celery is quite good for their teeth as they have to give it a good crunch.

What I feed is less than some other people, I am just a bit tight, as I have 15 I tend to feed a bit less veggies but a LOT of hay as I buy it cheaply by the bale. Even with not too much veg, the bag recommendation of pellets and unlimited hay two of mine still tip the scales at 1.4kg almost!

Of your veg, the item to watch most is the spinach as it is quite rich so I would feed that twice a week if it were me. Cucumber is basically water so can be fed 2 - 3 times a week, its not very high in nutrition so best fed with something like carrot which is quite high in protein and other things.

Lettuce again doesn't do much for them, what type of lettuce is it? I personally don't feed lettuce as I don't see the point in it, to me it is more a nice human garnishy veg lol
Click to expand...

I have tried them with other vegetables but they seem quite picky. They refuse peppers completely as well as corn and didn't even touch celery. ^^;
I often tried food to try them out on. My oldest boars don't like Tomato but the younger two seemed to enjoy them so occasionally I'd cut up a piece of that for them.

I only give them spinach rarely as I feed them the leaves more as they enjoy them more. But when I do buy the bag I give it every day.

Its usually round lettuce or curly lettuce I think the names were. Not iceburg.

I have four guinea pigs in total.
 
Connie said:
I go by the 1 cup full rule (thats the cup measurement, not just any cup - causes much confusion). 1 cup per day per piggy. I try to balance the cup out but I'm not always very good at that. :/

Sometimes they geet a little more, sometimes a little less.

I was meaning that if you had him on a white towel, you would know exactly what colour the urine is when it comes out. Sometimes it drys a different colour because of whats in it, but if there was blood in it it would be an odd colour when it came out.

But doelylicious is right, a vets dip test sounds like a good idea! :)
Click to expand...

Ohh I see. I'll try that out then, thank you. The rest of the pee in his cage where the normal chalky colour. It was just that one patch.
 
Other things my boys like incluce,
brocilli,
Melon
Apple
pac choi (this is expensive, but we sometimes get it in a fruit and veg bag)
Kale
Parsley(should be fed sparingly)
Corriander
 
I'm mean, I leave the veggies in there til they get eaten! I tend to find they may turn their noses up when they are offered, but by morning they have usually mysteriously disappeared...then next time they get offered that veg, they nom it no bother!

You can also feed piggies apples but not very often as they are quite acidic. Mine get apple as a treat only, usually when I am eating one and the indoor pigs smell it (or rather Cherry smells it and starts yelling and all the others join in)
 
I'm mean, I leave the veggies in there til they get eaten! I tend to find they may turn their noses up when they are offered, but by morning they have usually mysteriously disappeared...then next time they get offered that veg, they nom it no bother!

You can also feed piggies apples but not very often as they are quite acidic. Mine get apple as a treat only, usually when I am eating one and the indoor pigs smell it (or rather Cherry smells it and starts yelling and all the others join in)
 
Connie said:
Other things my boys like incluce,
brocilli,
Melon
Apple
pac choi (this is expensive, but we sometimes get it in a fruit and veg bag)
Kale
Parsley(should be fed sparingly)
Corriander
Click to expand...

My boys do enjoy brocolli stalks and Kale. I occasionally feed them apple but they aren't too fussed with it.
 
Doeylicious said:
I'm mean, I leave the veggies in there til they get eaten! I tend to find they may turn their noses up when they are offered, but by morning they have usually mysteriously disappeared...then next time they get offered that veg, they nom it no bother!

You can also feed piggies apples but not very often as they are quite acidic. Mine get apple as a treat only, usually when I am eating one and the indoor pigs smell it (or rather Cherry smells it and starts yelling and all the others join in)
Click to expand...

Ohh I do that sometimes as they went off of cucumber and carrot for awhile but they did leave them and they were still there the next day with a few nibbles gone. But later that night they would be completely gone. I guess I'll try and do that then to get them used to other veg. :)

Ah yeah, thats the only time I give them it, or more so my mum or dad is eating an apple and Arthur starts shouting alerting the others who come running. :))
 
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