We've just adopted 2 female 18m old piggies from a rescue (I've had all sorts of animals before - cats, dogs, sheep, rats, hamsters and chickens, but not Guinea pigs). They're very sweet, but completely impossible to stroke, handle or get near to. They will take food from our hands, but it took 40mins to get one back into a box to put back in their cage when we cleaned them out.
We were led to believe they were a bit shy, but happy to be stroked and held. I'm now a bit worried that we're not the right home if we can't get anywhere near them.
It's really early days (we've only had them a week), but as we can't get anywhere close to stroking or picking them up, I'm a bit worried that they're too nervous and too old to ever be tamed.
Can anyone offer any advice or reassurance?
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Small pets
Timid Guinea Pigs - advice please!
Minimonkeysmum · 06/02/2024 19:09
Pigeonqueen · 06/02/2024 19:17
I’ve had Guinea pigs all my life, currently have 5. They don’t like being picked up. Ever. They’re prey animals so their natural instinct is to hide. You can however get them to be very sweet and friendly and enjoy a stroke - every time you go near the cage bring veggies, red pepper and strawberries are popular. (Obviously they need greens every day etc too). Small bits but enough to get them interested. Get them to take them from your hand. For a while just do that and talk to them. When they start wheeking when you approach the cage (excitement) then you can try and slowly stroke them. Some are just tamer than others though- we’ve had a few really friendly, soppy ones and some psychopaths and most in the middle.
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