Cloudy Urine

[ChocolatPocky]

A while ago I had posted about Mr. B's urine leaving a white chalky residue (and it turns out that was not abnormal), but just today when we were playing he pee'd and I noticed it looked yellowish and cloudy.. which I heard can be problematic! The urine didn't smell bad and he hasn't been having trouble peeing, so I don't think it's a UTI. Its hard for me to tell how often his urine is cloudy since it just sinks into his bedding in his cage.



Should I be concerned or try to adjust his diet? Is it caused by too much calcium?

I have not fed him any supplemental calcium. He only eats Oxbow Essentials pellets, timothy hay (2nd and 3rd cut), orchard hay, mtn grass, and a little oat hay. I also give him a pinch of Fuzzie's Kingdom broad spectrum supplement, and a few small pieces of rose hip every day.

 

[Amethyst]

Cloudy pee could be a sign of bladder crystals forming, I would get him checked out at the vet.

 

[ChocolatPocky]

Cloudy pee could be a sign of bladder crystals forming, I would get him checked out at the vet.

Yikes, I was hoping Mr. B was in the clear now after having had molar spurs! Maybe I should get pet health insurance for him.. these visits ain't cheap!

In the mean time is there anything I can do right now about his diet that might help? Would it help to switch to timothy hay based pellets instead of alfalfa pellets? I rarely feed him any extra alfalfa grass, or anything else that might be rich in calcium (that I know of), so I wonder if it's just bc of the Oxbow pellets. :/ Maybe he's predisposed to calcium build up?

 

[Amethyst]

Some chins are predisposed to calcium building up, but I would check with the vet before switching to a timothy pellet. You don't want to end up going the other way and have a calcium deficiency. Could you maybe line the bottom of the cage with something other then shavings for a day so you can monitor his pee better? Like a fleece blanket or something, so you can see if it was just a one off thing or if he really is peeing cloudy pee all the time right now?

Oh, another thing I noticed looking back at your previous post about the chalky dried pee, oat hay is high in protein, as you mentioned too much protein can increase the amount of calcium peed out. I don't know how often you are feeding the oat hay, but it should be a treat hay, like a small handful worth a week, not an everyday hay. Maybe try sticking with just the grass hays for right now, no grains (oat) or legumes (alfalfa) and see if that makes a difference before changing pellets.

 

[ChocolatPocky]

Some chins are predisposed to calcium building up, but I would check with the vet before switching to a timothy pellet. You don't want to end up going the other way and have a calcium deficiency. Could you maybe line the bottom of the cage with something other then shavings for a day so you can monitor his pee better? Like a fleece blanket or something, so you can see if it was just a one off thing or if he really is peeing cloudy pee all the time right now?

Oh, another thing I noticed looking back at your previous post about the chalky dried pee, oat hay is high in protein, as you mentioned too much protein can increase the amount of calcium peed out. I don't know how often you are feeding the oat hay, but it should be a treat hay, like a small handful worth a week, not an everyday hay. Maybe try sticking with just the grass hays for right now, no grains (oat) or legumes (alfalfa) and see if that makes a difference before changing pellets.

I only feed him a little bit of Oat hay but I'll remove it from his daily hay. The mountain grass is pretty high in protein too (12%), maybe I should lessen that as well? He peed yesterday night during playtime and it didn't look milky like it did yesterday, so I guess this isn't something that happens all the time.. I'll remove his bedding tonight to see what it looks like on the granite tiles just to be sure.

I've been thinking of giving Sherwood pellets a try but they actually have a little bit more calcium than Oxbow! I read the blog post about the possible/supposed benefits of removing soy/grain products from the pellets that might help with cloudy pee and am curious about it, but don't know enough about chinchilla nutrition to know if it'll make any kind of difference.. Anyways, I bought a little sample to see what Mr. B will think of it.

 

[Amethyst]

Oh, I didn't realize the mountain grass was so high in protein, it must be a different kind then I've bought in the past which was around the same as timothy and orchard (around 7-10%). If it's the American Pet Diner mountain hay, it looks like it's a mix hay that has alfalfa in it, which would up the protein content.
Also doing some research it looks like I was confusing the high protein in oats thinking oat hay was high too, apparently, at least the oxbow one has a protein content of only 7%. The oat hay protein content depends on when it's harvested though, it can be as high as 16% if earlier harvest and still has oats not just stems. So I guess it depends on the hay brand you buy you'll have to check protein contents of their hay, and keep it under 10%.

I don't know too much about Sherwood foods, they aren't one of the normally promoted/suggested foods. It might not be bad (looks ok), it could just be too new for people to know long term how it is, I also know it use to have fruit in it, but not anymore.

 

[ChocolatPocky]

Oh, I didn't realize the mountain grass was so high in protein, it must be a different kind then I've bought in the past which was around the same as timothy and orchard (around 7-10%). If it's the American Pet Diner mountain hay, it looks like it's a mix hay that has alfalfa in it, which would up the protein content.
Also doing some research it looks like I was confusing the high protein in oats thinking oat hay was high too, apparently, at least the oxbow one has a protein content of only 7%. The oat hay protein content depends on when it's harvested though, it can be as high as 16% if earlier harvest and still has oats not just stems. So I guess it depends on the hay brand you buy you'll have to check protein contents of their hay, and keep it under 10%.

I don't know too much about Sherwood foods, they aren't one of the normally promoted/suggested foods. It might not be bad (looks ok), it could just be too new for people to know long term how it is, I also know it use to have fruit in it, but not anymore.

I buy hay from rabbitholehay.com, Mr B gobbles it all up! Except for the first cut timothy. The mountain hay they sell is just one type of grass, not a mixture. The grass blades are thin and long. I'm gonna remove the mountain hay from his diet for now too so he's just on orchard and 2nd cut timothy.

Well after reading about how hard it is to get chins to Sherwood pellets because it has no molasses, he might not take to it since he is kind of a picky eater.

 

[ChocolatPocky]

I tried feeding Mr. B Sherwood's pellets and he actually really liked them! His poops have been great too. I think I'll try switching him over to that, and also saw they have a urinary tract health supplement that I'm going to try out too. It has lots of good reviews, so maybe it'll make a difference.

His urine has been looking okay lately, it was a little cloudy yesterday. I'm a full time crazy chin lady now haha