Urinary Stones

[BobaTheGuineaPiglet]

Just wondering if anyone knows a few ways to avoid guinea babies from developing stones.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Diet is the only one we can control. Genetics also play a part though and there’s obviously not anything you can do about that.

Ensure you feed a good hay and grass based diet.
Most calcium comes into the diet via pellets and drinking water (particularly is you live in a hard water area), so ensure you feed only one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day. It can also help to feed grain free, low calcium pellets and ideally ones which don’t contain alfalfa.
Filter their drinking water.
Ensure you keep high calcium and Oxalate veg such as kale, spinach and parsley limited, feeding no more than one small amount and only feed once a week.
Avoid giving root veg (carrots) and high sugar items such as fruit.

The diet guide below will help you further

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Nugget Comparison Chart

 

[Wiebke]

Just wondering if anyone knows a few ways to avoid guinea babies from developing stones.

Hi

The correct grass hay based diet (hay and fresh dog pee-free grass fibre should make at least three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day) with preferably green veg, reduced pellets (pellets contain much more calcium weight by weight than any veg; even the no added calcium ones) and filtered water is not only key to minmise the risk of stones as far as we can influence that but it also boosts long term health/strong immune system, minimises dental and other avoidable health problems and helps to push a healthy normal life span to the upper end instead of stopping at the lower end. Please keep in mind that pellets and veg replace only the supplementary role of wild forage in a piggy diet and that a lot of what many people consider as being extra loving (like fruit or carrots) is actually not what piggy guts are laid out for and which can lead to or promote health problems in the long term.

The issue is much more complicated than cutting all calcium out of the diet, which in itself is every bit as health damaging in the longer term as stones and can even lead to the formation of stones if the oxalates balance is out. There is a kind of a soft spot in the overall diet by avoiding not just calcium high ingredients (hard water and pellets being the largest contributors) but also food groups that contribute to the formation of stones (high in oxalates, like spinach or kale); the last food group you want to cut out is foods high in sugar because they are life shortening and not good for the gut microbiome and through that make your piggies more susceptible for other health issues.

The process of calcium absorption is very complex. Unless your diet is really out, it usually takes a combination of contributing factors for them to form, most of which we cannot influence (genetic disposition, disturbance in the absorption process, bad natural drinkers - you can't make piggies drink more than they individually need, etc.).
However, diet can go a long way. I have in the last 9 years only one stone case with well over 50 piggies passing through here; and that was in the wake of the fresh food shortages at the start of the pandemic - not great when you are sheltering with nearly 30 piggies and all you can get is high calcium salad mixes and veg!
Since conditions vary considerably from location to location around the world, there is no firm diet recipe that works perfectly for every place but our diet guide will point you towards the right area.It is based on our own long term experiences and trials when a new insight is coming along, so we know that it works in practice. We keep the diet guide updated regularly.

Rather than treating your piggies (another potential source of trouble since most people do not count them towards their normal diet), concentrate on making dinner time fun time with enriching activities, like sprinkle-feeding veg and pellets aroudn the cage (encourages foraging behaviours and does away with soiled bowls hanging round, as well as minimising food bullying), wrapping veg or soft hay in brown paper or a carboard box etc. Use part of her daily feed instead of treats to make your piggies come to you.
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

Please take the time to read our comprehensive diet guide, which looks at diet as a whole (and not just at veg) and at all food groups, including healthy treats and forage in practical detail: Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

The other area you should pay attention to is life-long weekly health monitoring (daily in case of an illness); both with a weigh-in and a body check-over. You cannot judge the daily hay intake by eye and poo output runs about a 1-2 days behind the event horizon; normal cheap kitchen scales are perfectly adequate for the weight range and weight changes you are looking for. It is important that you save up for vet care right from the start as part of their weekly/monthly maintenance cost.

Our guide collection contains a chapter with all the practical detailed advice on how to best go about weighing without the risk of blind jump injuries, what exactly to look out for and how to spot signs of illness, how soon to see a vet and what to do in case of an emergency. You can find all the little tips and tricks for the most common issues that new owners come up against in this collection into which 15 years of experience on this lively forum has gone into. You may want to bookmark the link, browse, read and re-read at need as you will pick up on different things at different levels of experience in many of our guides: Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection

 

[BobaTheGuineaPiglet]

Thank you all for your responses!

My piggies get hay, small handful of pellets, and one cup veggies (cilantro, romaine, cucumber) every day. Hardly do I give anything with excess calcium. Maybe once every 2-3 months. Fruits are given, not a lot once a month or so. I also buy Guinea pig forage mix for them to keep them from getting bored of the other normal things.


Just wanted to see if there was anything more I could do for them to ensure optimum quality of life.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you all for your responses!

My piggies get hay, small handful of pellets, and one cup veggies (cilantro, romaine, cucumber) every day. Hardly do I give anything with excess calcium. Maybe once every 2-3 months. Fruits are given, not a lot once a month or so. I also buy Guinea pig forage mix for them to keep them from getting bored of the other normal things.


Just wanted to see if there was anything more I could do for them to ensure optimum quality of life.

Hi

Just reduce the pellets a little more and ensure that there is more vitamin C in the veg mix instead. A little fresh pepper every now won't hurt. My piggies have a slice daily; still live to 8 years old in some cases...

Do you have access to unsprayed, dog-pee free green grass or could grow some at home in a seed tray or windowsill box, or some dwarf pot bamboo? It is incidentally high in vitamin C (the reason why guinea pigs were able to turn off their vitamin C producing gene) and provides perfect enrichment. Please be aware that you need to introduce fresh grass slowly; too much too quickly can cause severe bloating or diarrhea even if it is the stuff piggies have evolved on. Other fresh herbs as an occasional treat will also be good for trace elements and vitamin C.