Hi. I'm new. My daughter and I have had our guineas for 5 years now. One of them, Prince began to not eat and we thought it was his teeth as he won't chew on things. We then had those filed down and he still wasn't eating. We discovered he had a stone and is currently having it removed as I write this post. They said it was calcium build up that did it. We fed them Celery, carrots and hay and fresh water f course. In everything I read I didn't see anything that made Celery that high in calcium. Thoughts? I want to make sure they have a good balance to prevent it from returning as he is a male and can't really pass the stone and I'd hate to keep doing surgery as that would be cruel. I just want the best diet to prevent it from returning.
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Calcium balance
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Claire W
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Hello and welcome. I am very sorry that your boy has a stone and I hope he makes a speedy recovery from his surgery. How many pellets do you feed? They should only have one tablespoon of pellets per pig. Also, do you filter their drinking water as tap water does contain a lot of calcium especially if you are living in a hard water area. Carrots should only be fed once a week as they are high in sugar
You may find our diet thread helpful Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
You may find our diet thread helpful Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Hi and welcome
Most calcium in a diet comes with unfiltered water and pellets (which should only be 1 tablespoon per piggy per day as even no added calcium pellets are still a lot higher in calcium than the veg highest in it weight by weight). Unfortunately, most owners and many vets not specialising on guinea pigs are not aware of this and only look at veg.
Carrots and other root veg (celery is another one) are not recommended as a regular part of the diet; not just because feeding carrots is like feeding a bar of chocolate for a guinea pig but also because of a link to oxalates which also play a role in the formation of stones.
A guinea pig diet should be mostly hay and fresh growing grass (ca. 75%), preferably green and leafy or high water veg (ca. 20%) and ca. 5% (1 tablespoon of pellets); the latter two food groups replace the supplementary role that wild forage would have had in a mostly fresh/dry grass based diet on which guinea pigs have evolved as a species.
A diet too high or too low in calcium can lead to stones in the long term or sooner if there are more contributing factors in play which you have no control over (genetic disposition, not good natural drinkers, changes in the absorption process etc.). There is a kind of 'soft spot' but as local conditions/supply brands and diets vary across the world, it is not quite as easy as saying 'feed so and so much of this' but nothing else.
Please take the time to read our diet information for guinea pigs with urinary tract issues in the special needs diet chapter with more detailed practical information on what to and what not to feed. You should find it very helpful as the recommendations will help you to cut out most of the dietary problem factors.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Keep in mind that the calcium absorption process is rather complex and takes more time to process than you would think so any dietary changes will take several weeks to come through. The first weeks after a stone removal operation are the trickiest ones because of this and depending on whether other factors are also playing into it (stones can sometimes form very quickly).
The same goes with replenishing the natural glucosamine coating of the urinary tract, which prevents highly corrosive urine from coming into very painful contact with raw tissue and which can be badly scratched when the stone is tumbled around the bladder and banged against the exit or even more so if gets into the urethra and - in boars - can fetch up in the awkward inglenook that they have in there. it is however worth discussing supplementing a bladder stone piggy with a glucosamine based cat bladder supplement in capsule form (for ease of application) for longer term comfort and ease of pain. Glucosamine is not classed as a medication but as a food supplement, so it is freely available online.
Here are our post-op care tips. A stone sitting in the bladder is usually a fairly straight forward operation with a good recovery prospect; if a stone fetches up in the urethra, this will make for a more difficult and longer operation that can become problematic if the stone has embedded in the wall or is blocking the flow of urine. However, there is no easy alternative to an operation.
Make sure that you step in with syringe feeding support asap and can keep it up after the op if needed.
Tips For Post-operative Care
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
PS: The problem with 'new guinea pig illnesses' fads is that people doing their own research online can be focussing only on those warnings posted all over (currently this is the advice to also check the teeth when there is loss of appetite - but teeth can also be impacted by something else going on in the body, so the whole body always needs to be thoroughly checked as well with mystery weight loss). We have seen the same happening with other illness fads over the years.
I hope that this helps you? I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for your boy!
You are incredible with your information..thanks. we will definitely take heed to your information. If anyone has a passion for guineas the disposition we discovered is that there needs to be a facility specifically for exotic animals. Pet stores can sell then like candy but when they need care it's like finding a needle in the haystack with our pets paying the price.
Finding a good vet can be tricky because there aren't enough specialising in piggies - they don't feature much on a general vet's curriculum but they are too pedestrian for most exotics buffs...
And sadly rescues all over the world are currently literally drowning with no longer wanted pandemic pets.
If you'd like a browse, we also have a great and very extensive information resource, which you may find both helpful and interesting. Our 15 years experience as a forum together with long term ownership has gone into it.
You may want to bookmark it; especially as we are UK based so our active hours are a bit more different even though we have plenty of members from literally all over the world.
Here is the link but you can find the shortcut to the even larger full resource on the top bar; you may want yo bookmark it: Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
Please keep any further questions, concerns and updates to this your ongoing support thread. Unlike social media, we can keep a thread running for as long as needed and provide personalised support. However, it helps us a lot of we can refer back and have all relevant information in one place. You can always pick it up via the Find Thread/you threads button by the top bar when you come on.
Thank you. Is there any vegetables that my piggies can eat that will not create stones? My other piggy Liam is really pissed now that we aren't giving Celery any more. He's turning over his bowl and chewing on the cage in protest
potatopiggies
New Born Pup
Hi! I give my guinea pigs bell peppers for treats. I believe the red color is the best for them
If you have a look at the diet guide linked in a post above you will see a good example of what can be fed daily.
Thanks. I looked at the guide and boy there's a lot of stuff they can be given. My concern is that because one had just had surgery for stones I am now making sure water is not from tap but have to check to see what can be given that has low calcium to prevent reinvention of stones. That guide is good if the piggy didn't have sto es and those foods were given in moderation. I need to figure out what to give as a substitute for the Celery they have had since we got them.
I’m not sure if I’m reading your reply correctly, but the diet guide does indeed show which veg can be given to piggies who have had stones.
Ensuring pellets are kept limited and water filtered reduces the calcium intake the most,
h.h.lovecraft
Junior Guinea Pig
My piggy has a calcium issue. She gets romaine lettuce, cucumber, and green (sometimes red) bell pepper everyday. Those are her staple veggies, I give her fruit as a treat and other types of vegetables once in a while as well. I like to water down my lettuce as an extra source of water, watery vegetables are great for calcium issues. She gets unlimited hay and a scant tablespoon of the lowest calcium pellets I could find. My pellets are very large, so she is probably getting quite a bit less than one tablespoon in terms of standard pellet size. You may want to avoid giving pellets completely, or at least only give them as a treat since even low calcium pellets contain quite a bit of calcium. This diet works really well for my girl, it just took some time to figure out what veggies/measurements worked best for her. I'm sorry Liam is being a little dramatic about the celery, he will get over it eventually, especially if you offer new tatsy veggies I think.