Justiny,

Hehe...just put a while only...not more than 2 minutes.

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Added on October 30, 2008, 9:48 amSharil,

Your GP both looks fat and chubby. wow.. or is it pregnant?

This post has been edited by zulkis: Oct 30 2008, 09:48 AM

Take more new picture la.

On 22 Oct 2008, Greyyie, my Sheltie had died of a failure of operation for bladder stone.

They found some crystals and a stone lodged deeply inside the bladder. During the night, he was squeaking, unable to pass out urine. His pasage of urine was obstructed.

High level of certain minerals in food can increase the chance of crystal formation in urine. The minerals magnesium and phosphorous are components of the most common crystal type - struvite.
Therefore it is helpful to keep the levels of these minerals as low as possible.

The pH of the urine influence the chance of formation of crystals and calcium oxalate. Struvite tend to from in more alkaline urine, calcium oxalate in association with more acidic urine.

Therefore feeding a food that results proper urinary pH is essential to reduce crystal formation.

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What must we feed our guinea?

Recommendation

1. Do not overdose on Vitamin C, ascorbic acid!
Because Vit C is acidic, overdosing will result in acidic urine.
Don't think that the more Vit C the better. Sometimes, these little animals already have enough Vit C through their fruits, vege and diet.
Sometimes, we can just skip supplementing once a while and it's important to know what's the right dosage to give. Excess Vit C will only be passed out. Over supplementing is also detrimental.
If the urine is too acidic, it will tend to form calcium oxalate as mentioned above. If too alkaline, crystals like struvite will form.
All these are what we called "stones".

2. Stop 24 hours supply of commercial food
We don't know exactly what is the real content of the commercial food and they probably have very bad MAP-Magnesium Ammonium Phosphorous balance.
Last time, i loved my guinea so much and always bought expensive pellets for them, and the pellet food bowl was all the time filled up, never empty. This allowed them to eat the whole day, without knowing all the bad stuff and minerals had been accumulating in their system.
And one day, my Greyyie urine system failed.

Now, i have realised that the commercial food is one of the main cause.
It doesn't mean that we should stop giving them, but it means giving them at appropriate amount, maybe feed them pellet food once accasionally.

3. Provide continous supply of grass, hay
Beside vege and fruits, I recommend my guinea take these as staple diet because they are natural organic food.
And i recommend timothy hay, it is very good!!
Beside timothy, Every week, i will go to the hills area and cut natural long cow grass for them, and they love the cow grass, these cow grass are very rare in the city area where we live.

Grass , hay is my guinea staple diet now.

This post has been edited by silverwineus: Oct 30 2008, 12:03 PM

How old is your Greyyie? Is it a male? I think male GP have more tendency to develop than female.

Stone can be passed out more easily through urethra for female, than males, and due to difference of the reproductive organs.


This post has been edited by silverwineus: Oct 30 2008, 12:46 PM

Silver, thanks for sharing. I straight away went down and refill my GPs hay supply. Will be careful of pellet food supply.

yaa...lor. Need more hay from now...

Justiny, your GP pups not born yet?

Not yet...most likely early next week.

Yea i did n sorry for late reply heheh ...


diz iz de father guinea pig


diz is de mother


these are de last batch of babies (sold off adi)


the ones born on ermm i 4got when... not yet tak picture

This post has been edited by Dark Twilight: Oct 30 2008, 05:08 PM

hahaha.. just ignore wit those fella told u about dat.. coz he's fag.. kakakaka...

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Added on October 30, 2008, 7:41 pmThe black one is pregnant.. another one is male... big eater...

This post has been edited by sharil_routh: Oct 30 2008, 07:41 PM

Thanks for sharing...

Really TQ 4 sharing tis important info 2 us all

Now I got the idea liao, Hay was staple food & shld b available on anytime.
While pellet was jst act like meal, e.g 2 or 3 times x meal per day... with appropriate amount.

Am I rite?

2day & tml my area got eletricity failure Thinkin abt how 2 help my gp get cooler during tis HOT weather w/ no aircond or fan around I put wet cloth hang on her cage, hopeully it can get more moist & cooler

This post has been edited by ifeel100: Oct 30 2008, 10:14 PM

u can put a glass of ice inside the cage...
if they feel hot...u will go near the glass

I brought a Coleman icecube & put in a refrig now. If tml power outstage start again (8am-8pm), will use it inside cage. I remember tis trick was learn fr here, bt dunno who teach 1 Hope tis will help a bit~

Thanks for the great info. During these hot days, my piggies just lay down the tile i provided but not in their pigloo. Btw, where did you put the icecube? Previously, i tried to put the icebags above the pigloo, but ended up my piggies sleeping in their tunnel.

To Limie: I used wired caging with plastic mat. So, most of the pee and poo will be dropped under it and occasionally, these piggies used their litter box. So, cleaning just involved discarding the old newspaper below the mat and sometimes, just wipe the plastic mat with vinegar.

To silverwineus : Sorry for your loss and thanks for sharing the valuable info, i will modify my piggies diet... . unlimited supply of hay, quarter cup of pellet and a handful of vegetables

Can mix with chopped fruits for source of Vit C too yum yummy

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Added on October 31, 2008, 9:51 amThey love the cow grass..munchy..



This post has been edited by silverwineus: Oct 31 2008, 09:51 AM

long time no upload miko's pic...

here some

walauwehh..how u guys keep the cage so clean and tidy...really admire u guys

how do u toilet train them?

Buy a sharp color litter box put inside the place ur gp usually will pee/poo. Then 'collect' some of it's poo/pee throw inside the litter box. Then wait & c loh...

My gp damn 'smart' when Im around, she will use the toilet. Bt everytime Im bck fr home, her cage was pee & poo everywhere I guess she oso failed in her toilet trainning, haha... Need more time & patient

No eye c liao~ Jst clean the cage frequently loh, coz I put inside my room.