Why is poop softer?
Piggies can experience softer poops from several different things. Please consider the following:
- If a guinea pig is stressed it may stop eating or over eat to try and over compensate. This will in turn show as an effect in their poop.
- They eat too much of a new food.
- They eat something they have not had in a while. For example a different type of grass, or grass time when they have not had it for a while.
Poop Soup
One suggestion to help your piggie recover healthy gut bacteria is “Poop Soup”. Guinea pigs are copraphagic animals and they eat the ‘night poops’that contain essential bacteria and vitamins they need for health.
To make this soup we can’t always get the right night pellets, however if you have another piggie that is not caged with your unwell piggie, and you can gather several of the healthy samples, you can mix this into the food the sick piggie has access to. If you are making a critical care mix, one or two of these will add to the mix is great. This enable an unwell piggie to obtain much needed healthy gut bacteria in order to get back to a healthy state.
Do not give back the greens and veg until poop has returned to normal. This should be within a day to two. Beyond this they will need balance with vitamin C.
If your guinea pig is moving about with its head in one position, tilted, there could be several causes. Consider the following:
Diarrhoea (Runny Poop) can kill a guinea pig within a short amount of time. They lose such an amount of fluid that dehydration becomes critical. Usually if a guinea pig has diarrhoea then something is very wrong and veterinary assistance is needed to confirm the exact cause.
If you have been weighing your guinea pig regularly this gives you a good base line to now monitor your guinea pigs weight closely. Whenever your piggie is ill, you will need to closely keep an eye on weight.
As guinea pigs with diarrhoea lose a lot of fluid they can become dehydrated very quickly.
Signs of dehydration are:
- The appearance of the ears (tilted down and floppy)
- Eyes appearing sunken and smaller
- Limp and lethargic piggie not wanting to move
