Another question. In my experience with my other pigs I have seen this but it wasn't as bad.

My boys - like most pigs, I'm sure - like to take a drink of water and then take a bite of their pellets, which I think is absolutely adorable.

However, recently with a pellet change I have noticed that the pellets in the feed bin are wet. It has made a huge disgusting messy clump that I have to scoop out several times a day. I checked their teeth and their teeth don't appear to be too long or fractured, and they aren't drooling out their water or not eating at all.

One of my girl pigs had a habit of just being a dribbler but she was never this bad.

Is there any other reason that this is happening? I considered the fact they took too much water first but this is really frequent.

It's also a waste of food and if there is something wrong, I don't want them to suffer. As I said, they eat hay and veggies normally. It's just the pellets that are messy.

Wet with water? Or urine? Because it hasn't been uncommon for my guinea pigs(or hamsters, even), to pee in the food bowl of food they hate eating. Perhaps he thinks the pellets are disgusting and is peeing in the food bowl?

My Guinea pig craps in his pellet bowl which is not Kosher!

If you've recently changed pellets, the new pellets are probably formulated a bit differently. Some pellets just seem to collapse at the slightest breeze and some are made to be quite hard.

I end up throwing away 25% of the oxbow pellets that I give my guinea pig because he prefers to eat hay and vegetables.

Good, that's ideal, pigs should eat pellets very minimally and eat lots of hay and veggies instead.

What brand are you using?
My pigs will nibble at their pellets a little, but they would much rather eat hay and veggies too. How much are you offering them? Maybe you could just put a very small scoop in their dish at a time, so if it gets wet/peed on, it isnt a huge waste and its easier to replace.

I'm pretty sure it isn't pee. I have a bin feeder that is off of the floor of the cage so he would have to lift his butt up off the ground and above his head to sit in it. So my only other assumption is that is water. It doesn't smell like urine, either.

I'm not sure what the brand is. At our local feed store they sell guinea pig wholesale by the pound and that is what we buy. They recently changed brands, which is why we did as well. Our pigs have a bin feeder that lets out food only a little bit at a time. We tried having a dish but they just kept sitting in it and turning it over so we decided to go with a bin feeder.

amazon.com/Super-Pet-Animal-Gravity-Bracket/dp/B0002AS9OM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1294788286&sr=8-1 <--- this is what we have (it won't let me post an actual URL because I don't have 20 posts.


They do like a lot of hay though over the pellets. And of course they wheek their little hearts out when they hear the fridge being opened for veggies Perhaps it is the brand of pellets and they are just drooling into them rather than eating them. I will have to look into it. I hope that isn't the case, because my bf bought 10 pounds of it =X

I've found that most feed stores, mine for instance sells Blue Seal by the pound, generally they sell L&M, Mazuri, Blue Seal, and very rarely Oxbow. You can ask them to order you a specific brand if that is what your Pigs prefer. If you shop regularly there, tell them about your pigs not liking the food, they want to keep a customer, so they may work with you on branding.

Good Luck!

My Pigs also eat mostly veggies, and hay. I fill their pellet bowls about twice a week, and generally end up tossing half the bowl before it's refilled.

I love my hay racks!!