The one thing that *has* helped with soft guinea pig poop 💩
Like 2 Dislike 0 Published on 30 Jan 2020
We've been trying everything to fix our guinea pigs' squishy, sticky poops. One thing has finally helped - Sherwood pellets! We got the 19 pound box (of course) of "Adult Guinea Pig Food - Timothy Pellet" from Sherwood Pet Health. Here's a quick review of the pellets and an update on the soft poop / bad digestion situation!
TRANSCRIPT
A while back we made a video
About giving the pigs Benebac
For soft poops
And low hay consumption
Since then we've tested many ideas
And finally made some progress
So it's time for an update!
We've tried many experiments
As you've seen...
Hundreds of pounds of hay
Benebac
Cutting back on vegetables
Adding vitamin C supplements
Syringe feeding hay juice
We even had their poop tested
For parasites by the vet
But we never saw much change
Until one thing finally worked...
Its Sherwood guinea pig pellets!
We got them a little bowl
And gave them unlimited pellets
Within the first day
They started eating a lot more hay
They still prefer third cut hay
And probably should eat even more
But it's exciting progress!
Their poops are better shapes
And less sticky
But still can be a bit soft
So there is more room to improve
We'll keep using Benebac
And continue experimenting!
Everyone likes the pellets
They treat them less like candy
But still eat them reliably
They've even gained some weight!
Butternut weighs 875 grams
Zucchin 1028
Acorn 1192
Pumpkin 1231
Spaghett 1309
So overall things have improved
We're hoping the increased hay
Will get their digestion on track
In the meantime...
We'll be trying out more ideas!
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WHAT’S PIGS?
We publish daily highlights of the adorable antics of our guinea pig herd. Subscribe to see what they do tomorrow!
In June 2019 we adopted five pigs from Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue. They are cute herbivorous pets with funny social interactions. We film all their behaviors, from cute guinea pig noises to eating sounds, playing with their food to sleeping with their eyes open, and occasional fighting. So far they have been most popular for their loud wheeking and rumblestrutting and their ridiculous guinea pig fights!
MEET THE PIG FAMILY
Spaghett is the boar of the herd. The rest are females, but he’s a neutered male so they won’t be breeding. Sorry, no pregnant or baby guinea pigs! Spaghett has orange-brown fur with a white crest on his head and cute red eyes. He goes on morning romps with popcorning and zoomies. He does hilarious rumblestrutting while purring. When pigs argue he trots over to comfort them. He enjoys petting, especially scratching behind the ears.
Acorn is the youngest. She has white, black, and gold fur with a cute mousy face. She’s inquisitive, always wants food, and talks to herself while exploring hay piles. Little Acorn’s special talent is jumping on houses to go on rooftop adventures.
Butternut appears either confused or deep in thought. She has white and gold fur. Her hobbies include sleeping and yawning while flopped over with her feet sprawled out. She continues wheeking, squeaking, and squealing at us after we have already given her food.
Pumpkin has black fur except for white back toes. She looks like a cow, a non-guinea pig, and a rabbit. She has noisy standoffs with feisty Acorn.
Zucchin is oldest and grumpiest. She has white and gray fur with cute red eyes. At first Zucchin fought with Spaghett. There were teeth chattering, nose raising, and hair puffing battles. Now they get along, but Zucchin is still a grouch. She loves to chase pigs out of their homes, follow them to another home, and chase them out of that one too. But she looks like a cute rat!
THEIR HOME
The pigs live in a custom 4 by 6 foot cage made by merging 3 Midwest Guinea Habitat cages. We cut the seams of the cage bottoms and joined them into one large cage liner. Now we have a MidWest cage of triple the size!
The bedding is soft paper bedding from Small Pet Select. We spot clean wet spots daily and do a full cage clean when the bedding starts to smell funky. They used to live on fleece blankets with towels and newspaper underneath.
The pigs prefer free stuff to actual guinea pig toys. They love to hide under packing paper. A DIY guinea pig house made from a cardboard box is a favorite hidey. They are not interested in most chew toys.
THEIR DIET
Their favorite hay is 3rd cutting timothy hay from Small Pet Select. They nibble hay cubes. But they get most excited about fresh grass. They gobble up guinea pig pellets.
They eat nearly any vegetable. The only thing rejected was zucchini. Their favorites are dandelion leaves, fennel, cilantro, parsley, banana leaves, kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, carrot tops and roots, beets, bell peppers, corn with the husk, cucumbers, and pumpkin. They go wild for homemade wheatgrass sprouts.