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Normal pee color?
- Thread starter Holly&Bean
- Start date
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- Tags
- urine color
Holly&Bean
New Born Pup
Thanks! They’re both eating fine, running around, acting as usual, as far as I can tell.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Guinea pigs absorb all the calcium they eat and the excess is excreted through the kidneys and passes in the pee. This is very different to people - but then our teeth aren't growing all the time! Milky pee is sort of 'normal' but have a look at how it dries. If there's a bit of white powder that's pretty standard. If you regularly have a thick white crust or lumps of grit you'd be better taking some action.
There are veggies which are higher or lower in calcium but the main sources are the food pellets (which are dry, so weight for weight have more calcium than 'wet' veg) and sometimes the water. Many places here in the UK have high calcium in the tap water* so we either filter it or use low Ca bottled water. And we try to reduce our food pellets to 1 tbsp per pig per day - and even less in some cases. So a big heaped bowl of pellets is a no-no for calcium. Try encouraging hay intake (it makes up 80% of the food after all) by adding a fresh handful here and there during the day. Doing this encouraged my pigs to only go for the pellets in the evenings. And I added extra water bottles: near the food bowl and also near the bedroom areas so they don't have to emerge in the dark to drink, they can just stick their heads out of the bedroom! Some pigs naturally drink more than others - there's a proper variety of drinkers. But my vet generally thinks that keeping everything flushing through is the best way to avoid bladder trouble in the future
* If you don't know about the level of Ca in your water the info is probably available online - or you can just look in your kettle. I live in a 'hard' water area and my kettle is a scummy disgrace!
There are veggies which are higher or lower in calcium but the main sources are the food pellets (which are dry, so weight for weight have more calcium than 'wet' veg) and sometimes the water. Many places here in the UK have high calcium in the tap water* so we either filter it or use low Ca bottled water. And we try to reduce our food pellets to 1 tbsp per pig per day - and even less in some cases. So a big heaped bowl of pellets is a no-no for calcium. Try encouraging hay intake (it makes up 80% of the food after all) by adding a fresh handful here and there during the day. Doing this encouraged my pigs to only go for the pellets in the evenings. And I added extra water bottles: near the food bowl and also near the bedroom areas so they don't have to emerge in the dark to drink, they can just stick their heads out of the bedroom! Some pigs naturally drink more than others - there's a proper variety of drinkers. But my vet generally thinks that keeping everything flushing through is the best way to avoid bladder trouble in the future
* If you don't know about the level of Ca in your water the info is probably available online - or you can just look in your kettle. I live in a 'hard' water area and my kettle is a scummy disgrace!