New guinea pigs “arguing”

[Bricksandtile]

Hi all,

I’m sure it’s been done to death on here but wanted to talk to someone for advice (long term user but NC).

We got two lovely female guinea pigs last week. Not from the same litter but we were assured they had been living together fine for a few weeks (they are about 8 weeks old). Firstly, they are still absolutely terrified. They won’t come out and hide constantly. The place we got them from was recommend, but when we got there it was clear it was just a breeding machine with no human interaction 😓 I know I should have left but felt so sorry for these little girls I had to take them. How can I make them more comfortable, should I “force” handling etc?

Secondly, one is very much the boss. On the rare occasions they venture out, as soon as they hear us they will run for a hidey hole - one will stubbornly go in and block it for the other who is desperate to be with her pal. So the other one kind of just forces her head in with her little bottom poking out! We have also seen this one run out of the “cave” type area we have after a lot of rustling, looking very down in the dumps so suspect the boss has given her some marching orders.

Will they learn to love each other and us?! What can I do to help them? I’m so upset at the thought of animals absolutely terrified. I have two children who are being very patient with them but at the same time create a bit of noise so may not be helping. Eventually they will be outside and only indoors on the coldest days and nights.

Just bumping this for you really, I am far from being an expert as our 3 girls are still relatively new - although saying that I realise we have had them for nearly two months now and they are a very long way from tame
Hopefully someone more experienced will be along to advise. We have very much gone for the softly softly approach and it took a good couple of weeks for us to even be able to be in the room with them and them have the courage to be out of their hideys. We then gradually started to hand feed them, again took a week or two but they now feed happily from our hands.

What we've not managed to progress to is just picking them up confidently, we are very much stuck just letting them go into cuddle bag thingies and picking them up in those. They will then deign to have a little stroke of the head and eat some parsley but, mostly from within the bag

I think if any of us were more confident it would be easier but they were so jumpy and skittish when we got them that it's made all of us jumpy too
We've now been well and truly chucked in the deep end as one of them has ringworm, so they all need bathing in medicated shampoo every three days which is proving to be one of the most harrowing experiences of my life to date ...

As I say, not much help for you, sorry, except to say they do get used to you and will soon come to the front of the cage noses in the air once they associate you with food!
I just hope handling them gets easier!

Forgot to mention the arguing. Ours do the same, one in particular is quite grumpy with the others. I have read and been advised to just let them sort it out between them unless they actually bite and draw blood but like you I find it pretty sad to watch!

We have 2 boys and have had them for nearly 3 years now. They were incredibly skiddish when we first got them as they had been bought by a family who then returned them. We let them settle in and then started to try to handle them a little at a time but we also tried just hand feeding herbs to them by holding the stalks in their direction to build trust. Eventually we moved to letting them run around in our hallway and sitting on our laps and things started to improve. They went through a phase where they were boisterous and climbed over each other but we assumed it was just them growing up and to be fair it didn't remain long. I'd honestly try some feeding with herbs, carrot tops or celery flowers and whilst they're feeding try to stroke them after about 30 seconds so they know you're not going to hurt them. They'll soon ease into it but they're naturally prey animals and they've probably had no attention so it's going to take time. Good luck and hope you all enjoy getting to know each other!

Do you have plenty of hidey holes? If you've got 2 guinea pigs you need at least 2 places to hide. And each hiding place should ideally have 2 entrances/exits. How big is the cage? Do they have space to get away from each other when they want to?
It's normal to argue (it has been for my girls anyway) but you do need to make sure the cage is set up so they can escape from each other when they want to.

It's also very, very normal for them to be scared and not want to come out for handling. Bribe them with food. It's pretty much the only way. Hand feed them herbs/veg. Figure out what their favourite food is and have that ready to distract them when they come out so you can pick them up. If you need to let them run into a container and then pick that up, that's ok, then bring them onto a lap with plenty of food so they get used to a bit of handling. Little but often would be my advice. My current girls are much tamer than the last pair, mostly because we handled them more often as babies, and their cage was in the living room amongst the noise and bustle for the first little while.

Congratulations on your piggies! They are delightful, endearing little pets once they're tame.

Re the arguing, it sounds as though they are establishing a pecking order. Once they both accept this, they should live more harmoniously, although I did find my girls seemed to be a bit hormonal and had a regular spells of strutting around in front of each other and swinging their bottoms from side to side, interspersed with longer periods of more peaceful coexistence. If they ever actually fight (as opposed to "arguing"), they will not forgive and so must be kept apart going forward.

If you are able to house your guineas indoors, I would recommend it. They seem to become much less skittish when they are exposed to the hustle and bustle of family life. Of course, they will need a run on the grass in the summer.

When taming them, parsley is your friend. Take it slow, as Tarti suggests, but make sure you interact with them every day. When you lift them out of the hutch, hold them against your body so they feel safe, and sit on the floor so they won't be injured if they try to jump off your lap. Do this in a small room with no hidey holes if you're worried you won't be able to catch them again. A bathroom is good for this. My nervous young guinea pigs once disappeared beneath the sofa for several hours! Put some fresh parsley in front of them - most guinea pigs can't resist it. With regular, gentle handling and parsley, most piggies become tame quite quickly.

Be patient. We got our Guineas in the spring, at first they wouldn’t appear when we we were around, after a few months they would eat out of our hands. We did a lot of just sitting near them. They moved inside in October and are now extremely tame - they leap onto the dcs laps. They still don’t like being picked up but love it once they are. They love being cuddled now - but it did take time, and as others have said, lots of parsley.