Guinea Pig eating Caecotropes
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 7 Sep 2015
Guinea Pig Caecotropes
Our piggies need 2 types of fibre in their diet to make their gut work properly. These are digestive fibre and indigestible fibre. When guinea pigs can get the required amount of fibre from their diet when it passes through their gut for the first time.. it does another round.
Indigestible fibre moves through a guinea pigs gut and is excreted as separate bullet shaped droppings. This fibre encourages gut motility and stimulates their appetite.. as if they need help eating.
Digestible fibre moves into the organ called the caecum, where good bacteria ferment the fibre making it into a digestible material. These emerge from the rectum as sticky clumps of droppings called caecotropes which the guinea pig eats directly from their rear end. See the video of the guinea pig doing this. The digestive tract can then extract more fibre on the second pass.
Illness, antibiotics and poor ( low fibre high sugar ) diet can affect the production of caecotropes, which even though they sound gross are essential to good digestive health in guinea pigs.
Contact us for more information: 93176615 or guineapigmedicinewa@gmail.com
www.guineapigmedicinewa.com
Dr E Vickridge