Wee drying white?

[animalmadchloe]

Any reason as to why there is lots of white wee patches about the cage recently ..... :S

[moletteuk]

That is an excess of calcium. It's OK if their wee dries a bit white some of the time, but if it's showing very white quite often, cut back on the high calcium foods a bit. I find that alfalfa makes their wee particularly white.

[animalmadchloe]

Ok thanks ill cut back on what I can what happens it it keeps drying white what should I do ?

[moletteuk]

You should find it reduces really quick. Come back and tell us if it doesn't. Some white is OK, but I would say you don't want to see white like the big white splodge in the middle of the shelf too often.

The calcium is a bit of a balancing act and we don't really have too much information to go on. They need enough that their teeth stay healthy, but not so much that they get kidney stones.

[animalmadchloe]

Oh god that's got me worried now :S

[animalmadchloe]

Must be the new food it's only started in the last couple of days and it's all of them with white wee, will any fresh leaves grass help at all ?

[Karma]

If its on wood I wouldn't worry - all rodent pee normally dries white if done on wood for whatever reason .... noticed it all the time when I worked at the pet store.

[deguconvert]

Hey Karma, good to see you!

Our degus wee turns white on the wood shelves too. Our area tends to have high mineral content in the water as well, so I don't really worry about it.

[Maravilla]

Dec 1, 2013 23:28:12 GMT Karma said:

all rodent pee normally dries white if done on wood for whatever reason

I do not agree at this time. It really depends on what you are feeding. Lots of pee also dry reddish/brown/orange (can be also seen on the foto). In my groups, I have 6, most of their pee actually do dry reddish, no matter on what material.

[moletteuk]

Grass wouldn't particularly help except for its moisture content, it has reasonable calcium content itself.

There's no need to stress about this because it is easy to keep an eye on and you will find the urine whiteness corresponds to whatever they have eaten in the couple of hours or so previously, so it's possible to work out what is causing it. Maybe you could restrict parts of the new food to a particular time of day when you can check their wee a couple of hours later?

As I say, the only thing that gives my degus really white pee is alfalfa, have yours been getting anything with alfalfa in? The next suspect might be the high calcium seeds, how many of these are you feeding?

The whiteness also relates to how much they are drinking - the more they drink the more dilute it is and less white. It also may settle down a bit as they get used to the diet changes.

[Karma]

hmmm i have two houses that are made of the same wood material and the urine is 100% white when it is peed on, but yes i checked me wooden shelf and yes there is different colours there ....

[animalmadchloe]

Got home today and wee hardly white at all which is good

[toothbrush]

Glad it's sorted for you

Dec 1, 2013 23:28:12 GMT Karma said:

If its on wood I wouldn't worry - all rodent pee normally dries white if done on wood for whatever reason .... noticed it all the time when I worked at the pet store.

Definitely not true. Most likely dietary or environmentally linked as suggested already, especially given you witnessed this across species in a single location.

[smithomatic]

Hey!

Just my 2 cents:

Degus are actually very well equipped for processing excess calcium. I wouldn't worry too much about a build up of white patches. Although I do not nesecarily agree that all rodent pee dries white because its on wood; all urine from mammals will leave a white stain should that patch be weed on enough. This is even true for humans, we too pass small amounts of calcium in our urine, if you peed in the same spot often enough you would notice this.

Degus are known to begin habitually soiling a particular area of the enclosure (this habit occurs in many wild animals to cut down the spread of diseases etc), perhaps the white build up is just because they often use this spot. Again I would not concern myself with finding white patches in the cage.

EDIT: If you are cleaning the patch with water or antibacterial spray you will find that it first seems to have been cleaned but the stain will soon return. Use a brillo pad and some malt vinegar to truly remove the stain and clean down with tepid water and a cloth after. This will remove the stain permanently (until next time!).

[moletteuk]

Excess calcium can definitely cause kidney disease. We just don't know how much calcium is too much, and we don't really know how well excess calcium showing in urine correlates with likelihood of excess calcium being deposited in the kidneys.

I think with degus commonly being underfed calcium and now lots of us trying to rectify this, I think it is a good idea for us to keep an eye on calcium deposits in urine. It's potentially interesting to see which foods cause it as although we have calcium contents for lots of foods, the calcium isn't always equally available to the body (due to oxalates).

[vegandegugirl]

My goos have had white wee since they were babies, they have changed food twice since and it has always been white, they get a bara minimum of treats yet no matter what surface (walls or ledges or cardboard or the floor) it always appears white, I thaught tat this was normal but now I am concerned!

[deguconvert]

It is normal . . . not to fear, love!