Help please. Guinea pigs hardly drinking...

[Littlefish]

We've had our two female guinea pigs since November. They are now about 6 months old we think.

They have always had access to fresh water, both in a bottle, and latterly, in a small bowl. They have daily dried food, hay, fresh grass, and some pepper, cucumber, broccoli and carrot.

However, they seem to drink almost no fresh water. Is this a problem? They eat all of their fresh vegetables and grass which I presume is where they are getting their moisture.

They wee and poo regularly (lots!) and are happy to be handled now they're used to us.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

You'd need to be concerned if it's a change in their drinking habits Littlefish. Like if they've always been guzzlers and stopped. Or if they've never been drinkers and started drinking excessively/

They might not like the water bowl. They might have got their feet wet in it.
The bowl might 'taste' of something - detergent maybe?

If they are eating plenty of veg and you see the evidence then most likely they are getting all the fluids they need.
A dehydrated guinea will do small , strong smelling wee puddles . Possibly hunched up when they go rather than sticking their bottoms out.
And the eyes can appear 'sunken'

My boars never drink- I've seen GP1 niggling the water bottle to see if he can destroy it. GP3 would sooner walk through the water (maybe he thinks he can absorb it)

They always have fresh water (I don't put Vit C in - that can alter the taste) and they ignore it. But they pee for Britain.

And don't forget some foods can colour their pee. GP1 did marvellous peach coloured wee after red pepper. And pink after beetroot.

Our GP1 was always the Alpha Male between him and GP2. Even if he'd just done a wee , he always had a spare few drops to mark his territory when he went into the cage (especially if it was freshly cleaned). We reckoned he had TWO bladders )like Dr Who has two hearts).
Now we have the younger boy, he's stopped this marking , but still pees loads.

Thank you so much for replying 70.

Their drinking habits haven't changed - they've been like this since we got them.

We bought them a new water bottle in case they didn't like the first one. We then tried them with a little water bowl in case they didn't like either bottle!

Interestingly, we do put vitamin C drops in the water, as we wee advised to do that by the pet shop - do you think we could stop that and see if they start drinking? Do we need to add the vitamin C to their food or anything like that?

It's hard to tell if their eyes are sunken as they are so very fluffy! I've never actually seen them wee because the run for cover every time we come in the room!

Stupidly, I forgot to mention it to the vet last week when we took them. Our fluff-ball GP has a skin infection on her ear (possibly ring-worm) so we are busy treating that!

were advised, not wee advised!

Their pellets will be Vit C enriched Little (I've got my bag of Burgess Excell here but the bag is orange and the writing is tiny so I can't see what the % is )

Vit C in their drinks can react with metal which denatures it and might put some of them off. (With pellets and water, give fresh daily).
I still offer water but it goes untouched apart from the odd rogue dropping in the bowl.
And I've never found a bottle that's easy to fill and place without some leaking (though if it's too much effort, they'll struggle to drink it) Ours has a floating plastic carrot so you can see the water level

If you make sure it's clean, and they can reach it then probably they're just ignoring it. The veg will have Vit C in it too.
Peppers, brocolli, parsley all good Vit C . You can give then occasional orange segements (make sure there's no seeds )

I've seen the piglets in P@H fighting over the water bottle though.

Guinea eyes that are dehydrated go 'dull' (I could tell with my GP2 that he was ill by his eyes mainly and his demeaner. Sort of starey. Hard to explain but if you see it, you know)

Thanks again 70. They have a bottle with a carrot in it too and it never seems to go down.

I think you're right, and they are just ignoring it.

I'll check their food packet and see what it says, although I've got a horrible feeling I've thrown it out!

I'll have a look at their eyes in the morning.

Hi - would echo everything 70 has said, sometimes guineas drink a lot and sometimes they don't- As long as they have access to water, wee alot and eat lots of hydarating stuff - mine devoured cucumber and spinach- and their habits have not drastically changed, all is well.

Some of my girls started drinking ferociously when they were poorly, so it is a good idea to keep and eye on them to make sure they are eating and pooing regularly.

Hope all OK X

all of Mine barely ever drank anything. Was normal for them.

Thank you so much everyone for your reassurance. We will continue to make sure they have access to fresh water and watch them to see if they suddenly start drinking more.

Echo what everyone else has said. My Scruffypig has a large drink every evening (he is not cuddled after this drink because of the warm puddle which follows). Smoothpig hardly ever drinks but he does use the spout of the bottle to scratch himself on.

So long as they are weeing and pooping all is well.

lol fernie at smooth being a proper pig and having a scratch spout!!