Calcium advice...

Post Reply
Roanne

Post   » Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:33 pm


Calcium is the absolute bane of my life. My old 6 year old piglet has been on what I thought was a low calcium diet for the last 2 years, since her sister (who sadly passed a few months ago) developed a long term illness and got constant and incessant calcium sludge as a mystery side effect of that.

Now my new little rescue piggy, who arrived with perfectly normal sludgeless pee, has started struggling with sludgey lumps of calcium too, as well as my remaining old piggy still struggling. Where the hell is it coming from?

Pellets: Burgess Excel nuggets with mint for adult guinea pigs (looking for recommendations for pellets for old piggies)

Hay: Not sure what exactly but no alfalfa in it.

Twice daily fresh food (small breakfast, bigger dinner)
Alternated colours of pepper - 1/day (green only once a week at most)
Cucumber - 1/day, older pig twice daily for hydration
Carrot - 1-2/week
Celery 1-2/week, celery leaves less often
Parsnip - daily
Butternut squash - daily
Coriander - a couple of days now and again, not regularly

Lettuce
Leaf of rocket/arugula 2/week
1-2 leaves of what I think is red oak leaf lettuce or similar
1 leaf of either red or green frisée-type lettuce (again unclear in my country what they actually are)

Treat food
Banana
Cherry tomatoes
Grapes
Turnip
Tiny bit of pak choi or Chinese cabbage
Fruit porridge - pear or blueberry baby food, oats and water
Pellet porridge - mix of normal pellets, oats, vit c powder and sometimes a tiny bit of Critical Care


Please don’t direct me to the pages on here re.low calcium diets, I have most of them printed out on my fridge...
My old piggy also struggles with gas since a bad antibiotic reaction years ago. Her poops haven’t been ‘normal’ for years, she’s also regularly dehydrated so tips for that too would be welcome.
Any thoughts, suggestions, tips?? My poor old piggy is losing weight steadily and I’m struggling to get her to eat much as she’s so bored with her diet.

amberkenn2016

Post   » Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:27 pm


I can't claim to be much of an expert here, but I can offer maybe a suggestion or two. I'm not sure if I saw it anywhere in your post, but do you know what quality your water is and, if you don't use tap, what kind of water do you give to your pigs? I have heard that certain types of water (spring water, mineral water, etc.) can negatively effect calcium sludge in guinea pigs. I would suggest maybe investing in a Brita filter and giving that to your pig. Another suggestion I would have is that if you haven't, plain pedialyte is a good way to add extra "umph" to getting your pig more hydrated. The only downside to it though is that it expires pretty quickly after you've opened it; I believe it goes bad in 48 hours? Still though, it's a good resource for electrolytes, which will boost hydration.

These are only a few I can think of. I hope you can figure out what's going on and that your little ones will feel better soon! You sound like you know your stuff very well and they're in good hands :)

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:17 pm


Have you tried to find out what diet your new guinea pig was on?

Roanne

Post   » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:37 am


Thanks for the suggestions, I have used a Brita on and off in the past so I’ll dig that out again. Never heard of pedialyte, I shall go on a google hunt, thanks for the suggestion, an electrolytey thing would be really good for Tohveli.

My poor new piggie was very underweight when we got her, I know she got some carrot at least but her cage was tiny and awful etc so not sure. (Sidenote, 3 months later and she’s now a nearly 1kg chonk free-roaming a 5bed house so she’s pretty happy regardless!!)

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:46 am


This page may help you evaluate how much calcium each food has relative to the calories provided:
https://www.guinealynx.info/chart.html

Post Reply