Baby pig seems to purposely poop on me

[rossg]

Hi,

I have 2 baby boy pigs. One is a little more outgoing than the other and appears to be the dominant pig. The other is submissive and well behaved but always seems a little more easily scared. They're a little under 4 weeks old.

The submissive pig never poops or pees during play time, but the dominant pig manages to poop A LOT. He pooped on a towel on my lap EIGHTEEN times in around 5 minutes. This is more poop than I would expect from him in the cage over the course of a couple hours!...

I have reason to believe he's stockpiling poop and using it on me... I considered the idea of maybe he only feels comfortable pooping on that towel, so I put it in the cage but he didn't poop on it. I noticed he peed on the poor submissive pig once which I've heard isn't an uncommon way of establishing a hierarchy (or it's possible he leaned against the water bottle a lot).

Is my pig trying to show dominance over me? Will this behavior change? Is there anything I can do to stop him from pooping? I've been trying NOT to put him back in the cage after he poops because I don't want him to think "If I poop on him he puts me back!". Please help! :/

[PinkRufus]

It's not likely that he is saving them up for you. When pigs need to poop, they poop! He may have a faster metabolism, or the situation is making him anxious so he poops more. One of my guys who was having issues with not pooping enough, let out a huge pile at the vet's office, probably because the situation made him nervous. Just because he is dominate over the other pig doesn't mean that he is that confident with you, he may be scared. Also, at four weeks, they don't have a whole lot of control. That is also very early for them to establish dominance, that behavior usually comes along with puberty (around 3 - 6 months).

How big is your cage?

[lisam]

No, he's not saving his poops for you. Guinea pigs are incapable of that thought process and control of their gastrointestinal system.

[Lynx]

In my limited experience, the " the situation is making him anxious so he poops more" was why one of my guinea pigs pooped so much when she first came to my house.

p.s. 18 is nothing.

Think 50.

[bpatters]

You're giving this tiny, tiny brain credit for a LOT of complex thought if you think he's saving up his poop to deliberately poop on you. Pigs poop when they need/want to, and that's about as much thought as I'd give them credit for.

[pigjes]

Well ... however unlikely, it still might be possible that poos are shared with you ... I once had a pig who put parsley in my mouth, to share with me. I would not find it a bit strange that a pig would want to share poos with someone who is sick, as some do with sick cage buddies. Is there any chance that you are ill?

[WICharlie]

Aw, come on! Really? Guinea pigs are rodents and, as thus, they cannot be potty trained. Likewise they do not "control" when they poo or pee. There is no way he is purposely pooping on you.

Female pigs DO sometimes pee in the face of another pig to tell it to "back off" and I had one that peed on me every time I gave her a haircut. Do I think she did it on purpose? Heck no. It took a long time to give her a haircut (she was a Peruvian) and she simply had to go during that length of time that it took.

[couchon]

Personally, I think piggies are smarter than what people give them credit for. So, in my opinion, you never know. In this situation though, I doubt he is doing it on purpose.

I do have a girl who won't pee on me. I never taught her to do that, but she will hold it and alert me by wheeking when she needs to go. Only if I ignore that, will she pee on me.

[ClemmyOddieIndy]

I do think that guinea pigs are more intelligent than we think. However, animals don't view poop or pee in the same way as we do. They run around on top of it and eat it, they can't know you find it gross and don't want it on you. But I do think it's possible s Lynx mentioned that they get nervous and go. I know my dog always poops when we walk up towards the vets office. She knows it, and it makes her nervous.

[mmeadow]

My impression is that they often control their urge to pee--many prefer not to pee during lap time--but that pooping is involuntary.

I had two brothers whose hostility to each other was expressed long before puberty. In fact, they began fighting not long after they were separated from mama at three weeks.

[rossg]

Alright. Thanks guys. I definitely think he could be nervous. The other pig appears to be even more nervous though and doesn't poop on me. Hopefully this behavior improves as they reach adulthood.

And, WICharlie, I found your choice of words a bit condescending. Obviously I don't think a guinea pig has human-like decision making capabilities.

[PinkRufus]

Almost all of my pigs have signaled me to put them back when they needed to pee. They usually do this by tugging on my shirt. I think they can 'hold it' when they want, but not for too long, because of their fast metabolisms. My pigs don't poop on me either.