Lazy guinea pig, anyone?

[Alwaysworthchecking]

Sorry - just discovered this board am eager now to ask all my questions.

I've got two guinea pigs (the stars of the 'My guineas stink!' thread). They live indoors at the moment. I regularly take them out of their cage for a 'runabout'. Only thing is, only one of them takes me up on the offer. The more wiry and canny of the two happily explores the three open-plan room downstairs, but the stodgy one just sits there. He's as happy as Larry and will let you stroke him (which is more than I can say for the wiry one) but he just will not move. He's the same on the lawn - in the end I had to take away their little houselet or he just sat in there, wallowing in his own wee and eating one patch of grass bald.

Funny thing is, when I take off the lid of the cage, the stodgy one climbs into the litter pan (which he views as a sofa) and waits for me to lift him out. He then stays in the pan, watching my every move with what looks very much like a stupid grin on his face.

Has anyone else got such a lazy piggy? I've got the children to try and herd him round a bit, but he's not having any of it.

rooms even.

He is probably scared. I am not an expert but have two with different characters also. One of mine will stay in/under/v still and it is just his character I think. He is the underpig and in some ways chilled but also doesn't want to take risks or start fights! He is sat on my lap now very still and I think probably rather scared but hopefully with time and patience and care they will get uswed to us.
How long have you had them?
Can I recommend the guine pig chat room
www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=6
as a very good place to find out all things guinea pig related.

I have a lazy one, too! You can sit him on the carpet and he will just not move! My DD tried getting him to walk around a little by holding pieces of lettuce/parsley/basil (his favourites) just out of reach and you would be amazed at how much a gp can crane his neck - anything to avoid shifting hind legs!! I don't think that he is scared, he just seems to like it in his cage - or on my lap/shoulder or on anybody's lap!
The flip side is that he is extremely tame - he will actually roll on his side so that I can rub his tummy and he is also very partial to having his chin stroked!

We've got a lazy one too! When the 4 of them go out on the grass, she'll literally stay in the spot you put her in and eat the grass in a little circle around her. The other 3 will be popcorning, running around and munching all the lovely grass and she'll just sit there. She's the bolshiest of the lot so definitely not scared, just can't be bothered to move I don't think.

She's exactly the same in the cage too, tends to hog the hay and shout at the others if they come close, how she's not the size of a small house I do not know!

Please don't think I am being alarmist, but have you had your piggies checked out?

I ask because we had a little pig like this. I bought her in the morning & she barely moved, would lie on her side, was easy to catch etc. Loved being held/stroked.

Dh took one look at her and knew she wasn't right. Took her to the vets & she had a badly damaged back. We don't know why, vets best guess was the rabbit in her enclosure (not here, btw) trampled her . But she would have been in lots of pain & we had to have her PTS. Dd1 was heartbroken, because she was hers. She had had her less than 3 hours. The pig was only 8weeks old.

I have owned heaps of GPs, and it never occurred to me that there was anything wrong, I too thought she was just lazy.

As I say, I don't want to cause alarm, and I know that GPs do squeal when in pain, but she didn't utter a sound! The vet said that is is quite possible that she would have continued to live in that state as she wouldn't have known it wasn't right.

Please be sure they are just lazy...