I don't understand my pigs...

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LilBLemonDrop

Post   » Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:27 pm


Hello,

I'm looking for any help or advise at all! There are a lot of things I just don't understand about my pigs. I have two females, they both live in the same large cage and get floor time together regularly after I get home from work. First, I got the youngest, Lil' B, from my sister since she was unable to take care of her. Lil' B is the most spastic pig I have ever seen. She's young, about 5 months old. Lemon is the older, and I adopted her from the humane society in order to give Lil' B a friend. I do not know how old she is but she is full grown. Probably a couple years old.

Now, I expected Lemon to take on the dominant role as she was doing all the normal stuff when they first met: mounting, pointing her nose up, that sort of thing. But now, Lil' B is constantly nipping at Lemon and pulling her hair. :c She is also constantly marking her scent. What does this mean??

The two of them detest being handled even though I've tried to get them used to it from the beginning. Lil' B bites me every time I pick her up and try to just hold her. I've tried holding her in a blanket but she refuses to stay still AT ALL. They chatter at me and run for their lives. I've bribed them with treats but that hasn't done much either. Whenever I walk by, they squeak incessantly, so loud it hurts my ears. Lil' B especially. She just never stops. If she hears me walking around in another room she squeaks! And I know it's not because she's starving or is happy to see me... I don't know what it is!

So basically, I need help figuring out their behavior. I would really love for them to love me. I want to be able to handle them normally. What do I do??

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jun 19, 2018 11:03 pm


One thing you want to make sure of is that they do not have any medical issues, like mites, which might make them more likely to bite.
www.guinealynx.info/mites.html
www.guinealynx.info/links.html#biting

Each guinea pig is different. Gentleness and patience - going slow - along with tasty veg treats may help you win their trust.

JX4

Post   » Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:13 am


At 5 months old Lil B is entering her "teenage years" as a guinea pig (adolescence lasts roughly between 6 to 18 months old). When my pigs were "teens" some of them were little snots. Especially Squeaky, who was really moody and couldn't be pleased by anyone other than my 10 year old daughter who was her favorite in our family. Squeaky would also bully the other pigs, not really bad, but enough to be an annoying little snot.

Now at 3 years old she is one of our most mellow pigs, go figure.

It is possible that your full grown pig knows Lil B is a snotty teen and is tolerating the behavior unless it gets way out of hand. It is also possible she is allowing Lil B to be dominant. Guinea pigs determine their own pecking order, whether it makes sense to us humans or not. As long as there is no blood and one pig is not keeping the other from eating and drinking you should be OK.

JX4

Post   » Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:22 am


As for the "biting," as Lynx says, treat for mites. One of our pigs had mites when we first had him, and he got uncharacteristically a little nippy when we tried to touch or pick him up. Once we treated for mites, he returned to his old self and he has never acted that way since.

Also, what do you mean by "bite"? If a guinea pig means to bite you, they will bite HARD and it will draw blood. Otherwise I call it nipping. I have one pig that is just now learning at 3 years old not to nip. Sugar would nibble on our fingers or other skin when she was just trying to be sociable. The other pigs learned to lick us early on, but she was a slow learner. Nipping still hurts some, but not nearly like an outright bite. It took us a while of pulling our fingers away and not rewarding her nips until she learned, "OH, they like LICKING better!" and now she licks us. (I would reward her for licking.)

A couple of our pigs will bite our shirt collars or try to grab a piece of our clothing and then yank on it to let us know they are ready to be put back down, and sometimes they accidentally get a tag of skin with it. But as soon as they realize they have skin they let go.

LilBLemonDrop

Post   » Fri Jun 22, 2018 2:31 pm


Thank you guys so much, this helped me a lot!

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