mites

Question
We have 2 cages with 4 piggies in each cage. The piggies in 1 cage have just been treated for a bad case of mites. They donot mix with the piggies in the other cage but im wondering if they should be treated for mites in some way as a precaution! We were also wondering where they could have picked the mites up from as both cages use the same hay but in the cage that has mites we have been using megazorb, we were told it was fine for piggies but now we wonder if it's a good idea! Seems strange how 1 cage has such a bad infestation but not the other,any ideas would be helpful!

Answer
there are plenty of possible causes as to why one and not the other (of course it could still be both. I would not bother treating the second cage just keep an eye out for signs of mites in case.

possible causes could be in the hay, or it could be ecause of where the cage was positioned, or if one of the guineas was a new entry. it could even be that yourself or another animal that comes into close contact with them or their hutch passed them on. people with larger herds such as yourself will usually experience an outbreak of mites at some point.

as for megazorb well i dont know, on the one hand if it is fine for horses then I dont see why it would be harmful to the cavy, unless of course it was dusty or contains chemicals. to be on the safe side I would stick to timothy hay but then if the pigs have been okay for a while with the megazorb then I doubt it will do them any harm.