[Gpdd] HEALTH - frequent urination/drinking more than usual

[Andrew]

When I got my first guinea pig about 20 years ago, we bought a book on the care of guinea pigs.  One thing that has always stuck in my mind from that book is that it said that guinea pigs show their dominance over water, i.e. the dominant pig will always drink first.  This makes me think that the reason that Comet is drinking more could be largely due to the arrival of the new pigs, particularly as the increase in drinking coincided with their arrival.  I know he is not living in the same cage as the new pigs, but he obviously knows they're there and still wants to be boss.  Just the fact of them being there could be triggering him drinking more.  I've certainly noticed with some of my pairs over the years that one will always run to the bottle as soon as you put it back after a refill as if they're showing the other one who's the boss.  Providing he seems otherwise healthy, I wouldn't worry too much at this stage.  Obviously if other symptoms start to show, e.g. weight loss!
 , that's a different story.  Another thing you could try for a few days is to move him away from the others, just to see if he returns to his old patterns of drinking/urination.  If he does, I'd definitely think it's a dominance issue.