Pointy poops and are a veggies a must?

Isabellajones

Isabellajones

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 23, 2023
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Location
Wales
Hello everyone,
Just a bit of information about my piggie before I go into detail:

I adopted a boar in December last year, I’m not sure of his age but Pets At Home said he was about 9 months at the time of his adoption.

He is on a table spoon of burgess nuggets. Silky soft hay (a mix of Timothy, rye and fescue) from Little Hay Co. Small potion of veggies a day.

These vary from day to day: cucumber. Carrots. Sweet peas. Parsley. Egg plant. Red and green peppers. Baby corn. Parsley. Coriander. Apple (very occasionally). Cabbage (very occasionally). Romaine lettuce (two small leaves daily one morning and one evening). He has his veggies around 11am every day and it is a small potion or two different veggies.

He has unlimited hay in a pile (no hay rack as I don’t agree with then) which is completely changed out twice daily, morning and evening with a little top up in the afternoon and before bed.

He lives in a 2x4 C&C cage on Kavee liners.

Yes he is by himself as he is very pig aggressive for some reason, I am with him 24/7 as I work from home and I have a studio flat so he is constantly with me.

Ever since I have had him, he has weird poops. They tend to be pointy all the time and a few days ago he randomly developed some constipation where he didn’t poop all night and in the morning passed a small mass of poops all clumped together. For that morning his poops were squishy and light in colour but seemed to get better as the day went on. I withheld veggies that day and the next and limited his pellets and his poops quickly went back to “normal” at least normal for him the points.

I read online that they have pointy poops because they are not getting enough fiver, but he eats TONS of hay! What else could cause pointy poops?

Also, are fresh vegetables a necessity? I would like him to be on a hay and limited pellet diet only as I feel that is what is most beneficial to them. That was what my bunny had and he lived to be 15 years old. He had a mixed hay only diet with very limited pellets and the occasional pea flake.

Could the veggies be causing his digestive issues?

This evening I gave him some Bene Bac as suggested by Scotty from Scott’s Animals. Is this someone I can give him once a week to help his digestion?

Sorry for the long post!

Thanks for reading!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry your piggy is having weird poops. I’d cut out the carrots, cabbage and apple and maybe the sweet peas too. Swap parsley for coriander.

My boys had soft poops for a while and I stopped carrots and gave them a stalkier hay and they do text book poops now.

Is your boy losing weight? Are you weighing him weekly? That’s a really good gauge that he is ok.
 
Veggies are an important part of the diet and you would not want to withhold them without a very good reason.
The same is true for both rabbits and piggies.
Hay is the most important part with grass and wild plants also being considered as important. Veg replaces the wild plant element as most people would not be able to provide enough.
It is pellets which do not need to be in the diet at all.

It is possible the vegetables temporarily upset his digestion. It would be worth sticking to the safe daily four to see if that helps. The safe daily four being coriander, lettuce, pepper and cucumber.
Carrots (including fruits) and baby corn should not be regularly in the diet (or in the diet at all) - they are too high in sugars which can cause digestive issues and a gut imbalance. Parsley is too high in calcium and should only be given in a Small amount no more than once a week.

Piggies do not get constipated. A disruption in poop output is most usually caused by a disruption in food intake. This is where the routine weight checks are essential. They are the only way to gauge a piggy is eating enough hay.

If his pointy poops are normal for him, there is no medical issue as determined by a vet, his weight is stable then there may be no need to stop veg in his diet.

In terms of him being a single piggy. We hear this a lot and It is very rarely the case that a piggy needs to remain a single. If he had been aggressive with boars in the past then it would have been because of incompatibility and hormones. A teenage boar placed in a dysfunctional bond is likely to be aggressive. For a piggy of his age, neutering (awaiting the six week post op period) and then bonding with a sow would be the recommended route to take.
 
Thank you for the really fast reply!

Ok I can definitely cut those out, are those thing’s something that would give him the pointy poops? The soft poops have cleared up now but the pointy poops are constant since I have had him.

I don’t give him just Timothy hay as one of my previous pigs a few years back lost an eye through a hay poke and he had to have his eye removed it was so bad. Sadly he didn’t live very long after that. That’s why all my pigs since have had the silky soft hay from Little Hay Co, according to them is an all round hay and suitable to be fed alone as it is a mix of three different hays.

I haven’t actually weighed him. I am ordering a scales next week and will definitely begin weekly weighs. He doesn’t look like he’s lost weight. He’s a chubby boy.
 
Ok I will definitely cut those things out! I don’t like giving him those things anyway and thought it was a must.

So do it give the daily four daily once a day or two and two mixed days?

According to my vet veggies are a treat and only good quality hay is actually needed. As I said, my bun lived until he was very old and he never had veggies in his life. He lived on good quality hay and burgess pellets (limited). I don’t think my parents ever fed our childhood pigs veg either tbh. Just good quality hay and I can’t recall them ever getting sick.

I will stick to the four veggies you mentioned though! Thanks for that!

He isn’t just boar aggressive he is also sow aggressive. He is fixed already, was when I adopted him. He has been attempted to be bonded with six different pigs (board and sows) and he will not take to them. He will physically fight then and ended up with a ripped ear because of a fight he started. I have not much experience with bonding I admit but my buddy does and even she said he’s unusually antisocial pig wise.
 
The hay you are feeding is fine. It sounds very similar to a meadow hay.

(We have come across a couple of cases on the forum where soft cut Timothy hay has been too rich for some piggies to be fed by itself and was causing digestive upsets. Feeding a stalky Timothy resolved that issue or at the very least ensuring the soft hay was not the only hay being given).

He can be given all those four veg each day.

As per my reply above, those veg have the potential to be ones to cause issues - root veg, fruit grains and high calcium veggies should always be fed very sparingly for a variety of reasons but the potential for some of them to cause a gut imbalance is definitely there.

We would not recommend such a dry diet. The veggies are important for both rabbits and piggies for the micronutrients.
My rabbits have all lived long healthy lives also but I have never given a dry only diet. Keeping it as natural as possible has always been my way for my three decades of rabbit keeping - lots of grass and wild plants.

Definitely start the routine weekly weight checks. They are important to monitor hay intake.

That’s fine. We just see it a lot that somebody gets an aggressive piggy from a pet shop and is told they can never be with another piggy. It is highly unusual for that to actually be the case.
 
He loves it too! It took my ages to find a hat he liked. I am very worried about feeding Timothy hay on its own as I lost a pig to a hay poke. He had to have his eye removed and he died a few weeks later. The hay Shaun has now does have Timothy in it and he does eat it.

Okay that’s great! I will toss all the unneeded veggies away and just stick to those 4. Thank you, you’ve been most helpful. 😊

I don’t have buns anymore, haven’t since 2000. He did get fresh grass all through the year mixed with his hay, I live in south wales and grass is east to come by all year round.

Yes I am definitely going to start a weight chart. I bought him a scales from Kavee so as soon as it comes back I will start weighing him.
 
Any hay can pose a poke risk, mine have managed to do it on meadow hay - what is most important is that he has one he likes!

Grass is the perfect diet for them. I’m glad your rabbit had that. The veg is replacing the grass and wild plants where people cannot get access to it/enough of it.

Ive kept rabbits almost solidly for almost 40 years. There were only a few years after my first daughter was born where I didn’t have any. It didn’t last long as I couldn’t bear not having any around!
I’m currently kept occupied by four guinea pigs (all boys - two 5 year olds in a pair and two 10 month olds who dislike each other and live as neighbours) and two 3 year old female rabbits.
 
He’s a borrower too, he loves burying himself in his hay. It’s cute!

I threw all the other veg away apart from red, yellow and orange peppers (those are ok right?), fresh coriander, cucumber and romaine lettuce. 😊

Buns aren’t my thing really, he was my sisters bun who I adopted when she moved to Australia. That was so many years ago! I’ve not had one since him in 2000.

Thank you for all your help! I appreciate it. I hope to see a difference in his poops now I’m cutting out all the sugar.

Should I give him the bene bac once a week?
 
Yes those veggies are all fine

To be honest I wouldn’t actually give the benebac. I would adjust his diet and see if that helps first.
They should not need to be given a routine probiotic so if adjusting his diet helps then you will have saved yourself the trouble of using the probiotic.
I don’t have experience of benebac, it’s more of a US product
 
Would you consider getting him a friend (or two) he can live alongside? That way he can still have the interaction he needs but keeps his personal space.
 
Ok thanks! I’m hoping this diet change works. Plus it will save me money on his weekly veg shop. 😂
 
Siikibam said:
Would you consider getting him a friend (or two) he can live alongside? That way he can still have the interaction he needs but keeps his personal space.
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I don’t have the space. I live in a one room flat. He’s in a 2x4 C&C cage and I don’t think a single pig should be in anything smaller and I just don’t have the space for a second cage of that size.
 
Isabellajones said:
Could I cut the pellets out altogether. He only gets a small amount but he will literally sit there an eat then ALL in one go.
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It is possible to feed a pellet free diet but you need to ensure he is getting a good mix of nutrients which would have to come from the veg and wild forage proportion of the diet. Personally I would cut the pellets down rather than entirely out.

I only feed pellets three times a week and even then I only feed a tiny amount (nowhere near the one tablespoon per pig). I feed a 100% grass pellet (not a commercial brand, I feed Piggie Parcels pellets).
I also feed more than the one cup of veg per day, lots of grass (they are on the lawn up to 14 hours a day when the weather allows, I pick grass for them when it doesn’t) and I feed safe weeds also. They get some dried forage from Piggie Parcels on the days they don’t have pellets.
 
Piggies&buns said:
It is possible to feed a pellet free diet but you need to ensure he is getting a good mix of nutrients which would have to come from the veg and wild forage proportion of the diet. Personally I would cut the pellets down rather than entirely out.

I only feed pellets three times a week and even then I only feed a tiny amount (nowhere near the one tablespoon per pig). I feed a 100% grass pellet (not a commercial brand, I feed Piggie Parcels pellets).
I also feed more than the one cup of veg per day, lots of grass (they are on the lawn up to 14 hours a day when the weather allows, I pick grass for them when it doesn’t) and I feed safe weeds also. They get some dried forage from Piggie Parcels on the days they don’t have pellets.
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He’s a bit obsessed with them! 😂 He gets about. Table spoon maybe a bit less every 24 hours. Maybe I’ll take it back to every other day instead of every day and add some dry forage to his hay.
 
if you don’t already, hide his pellets and veg in his hay. It will slow him down and also make him use his brain. Important to do that given he is a single piggy, he needs his brain to be kept busy!
 
Yea I do that already. Not his veg but his pellets are scattered in his hay. He has lots of enrichment toys and he gets 12 hours a day (8am until 8pm) free roaming time where I’ll take one grid off his C&C and he can come and do as he pleases throughout the day. I made my entire flat pig safe.

He goes back and forth to his cage for his water and hay through the day.
 
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