Post by fauyd on Jul 16, 2010 3:52:39 GMT
As the title would imply, but first some context:*
So I have three guinea pigs, one male in a cage of his own, and two females in a single bigger cage. There are two water bottles in the females' cage, one that sits in a sort of steel harness, and another that is held on by a piece of metal near the top of the bottle. The unharnessed bottle would constantly move near the bottom, as the nozzle just rested on a horizontal bar of the cage; I had noticed this before on my male's cage and had used a wire bread tie to secure the nozzle to one of his cage's vertical bars. The male paid no attention to the wire tie, so I had no second thoughts on fixing the females' bottle in the same way. The females seemed not to notice this new set-up either when I first implemented it a few weeks ago, more on this in a moment.
Tonight was at least the third time I have changed their cage since the alteration of their bottle, and as per standard changing ritual I took the male out of his cage and put him in a laundry basket with a towel, and placed the females into his cage so as to change theirs first. After changing both cages, and relocating all of the pigs to their proper homes I went to refill their water.
Upon removing bottles I noticed that both wire ties were missing (from the male and female bottles). The water bottle on the female's cage that is/was wire tied down is almost never in need of being refilled as they tend to prefer the harnessed bottle, which is the bigger of the two. This being the case the wire tie that goes to the smaller bottle may have been missing for some time. The male's wire tie however almost certainly went missing tonight, and was probably, in my opinion, eaten by the same female who ate the former. Of course there are multiple possibilities as to who ate the ties, involving all three guinea pigs, as well as a large time window for at least the female's bread tie's going missing.
I am obviously highly concerned as to what may happen to my pig(s), and would appreciate any advice on what to currently do, as well as what to look for as symptoms of something being wrong. As of right now (about 30 minutes after the incident's occurrence), there is no change in their normal activity/habits that I can tell. I would also like to know what the detrimental possibilities of a guinea pig eating a small, sharp amount of metal are. To reiterate, any help would be greatly appreciated, especially if it is sooner, rather than later. Thank you.
*If you do not have the time to read this any general information that has relation to the title will still be of great help.
So I have three guinea pigs, one male in a cage of his own, and two females in a single bigger cage. There are two water bottles in the females' cage, one that sits in a sort of steel harness, and another that is held on by a piece of metal near the top of the bottle. The unharnessed bottle would constantly move near the bottom, as the nozzle just rested on a horizontal bar of the cage; I had noticed this before on my male's cage and had used a wire bread tie to secure the nozzle to one of his cage's vertical bars. The male paid no attention to the wire tie, so I had no second thoughts on fixing the females' bottle in the same way. The females seemed not to notice this new set-up either when I first implemented it a few weeks ago, more on this in a moment.
Tonight was at least the third time I have changed their cage since the alteration of their bottle, and as per standard changing ritual I took the male out of his cage and put him in a laundry basket with a towel, and placed the females into his cage so as to change theirs first. After changing both cages, and relocating all of the pigs to their proper homes I went to refill their water.
Upon removing bottles I noticed that both wire ties were missing (from the male and female bottles). The water bottle on the female's cage that is/was wire tied down is almost never in need of being refilled as they tend to prefer the harnessed bottle, which is the bigger of the two. This being the case the wire tie that goes to the smaller bottle may have been missing for some time. The male's wire tie however almost certainly went missing tonight, and was probably, in my opinion, eaten by the same female who ate the former. Of course there are multiple possibilities as to who ate the ties, involving all three guinea pigs, as well as a large time window for at least the female's bread tie's going missing.
I am obviously highly concerned as to what may happen to my pig(s), and would appreciate any advice on what to currently do, as well as what to look for as symptoms of something being wrong. As of right now (about 30 minutes after the incident's occurrence), there is no change in their normal activity/habits that I can tell. I would also like to know what the detrimental possibilities of a guinea pig eating a small, sharp amount of metal are. To reiterate, any help would be greatly appreciated, especially if it is sooner, rather than later. Thank you.
*If you do not have the time to read this any general information that has relation to the title will still be of great help.