Weird looking clump of hay that wasn’t there before?

[cabbageisspicy]

Hey all! I’m new to posting, and wasn’t sure where else to ask about this… but I found it strange and needed to see if anyone knew what could have caused this.

I had checked in on my two male guinea pigs this evening and found this dark, condensed pile of hay in a corner that i usually keep hay away from. It wasn’t that color when i fed it to them, so i’m confused why so much hay was moved over there, and why it’s dark in color. I had a friend over for the day and she had brought her chihuahua, so I had kept them alone in my room for most of the day. This hasn’t happened before, and i can’t find anything about it anywhere.

I’m new to all this and can’t figure out how to upload pictures (Lol…), but it was thickly stacked hay that’s a darker green than usual hay. it was crumpled together so if i moved it, it kept it’s shape. at first i almost thought it was a nest or something? But i don’t think they make nests? I don’t know, it’s very strange!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

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[cabbageisspicy]

Oh, thank you so much! Here’s the picture i took earlier. I’ve since removed it, since now they seem like they aren’t interested in it at all.

 

[piggl]

If you are talking about the dark patch on the ground, then it looks like they’ve probably dragged the hay around either by eating it or dragged across by their big bellies and then lain on it. When they poo and pee in condensed areas, especially ontop of hay, you can find it can/will get quite messy.

You may also find some bright yellow hay from time to time when they have peed and walked away.
Unless you are speaking about the brown ball, but it looks like something you have put in there, such as a toy.

Edit - Viennese Furbabies makes a great point, sometimes you find clumps of hay stuck together, it gets all tangled around, it is unlikely that your boys made this.

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Welcome to the forum!

It's hard to tell from the picture.
Guinea pigs don't build nests and they usually don't stack hay together. But sometimes hay contains unusual bits and pieces. Maybe you just didn't notice it when putting new hay into the cage and your boys made it visible by eating the hay around it and maybe peeing on it. That could explain the darker colour.

Or did you find any traces of softer poops in another part of the cage as well?
Sometimes when a guinea pig has soft poops, you can find traces of stuck-together soft poops and hay in the cage. But I don't really see this in your picture.

If it doesn't happen again, it was probably a once off situation. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just keep a close eye if it happens again.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

This rather looks like it was coming with the hay and not like something your boys made. Occasionally stuff can fetch up in the hay that normally doesn't belong there. Just remove it.