Aggressive biting

[Claire.peebles]

Hello everyone,

I’ve got two 12 week old sows. Everything seems to be going okay, they’re still pretty timid but that’s to be expected as they’re still young.

The only problem I’m having is one of them bites me. It’s not like a playful bite, more aggressive. My 3yo boar mouths my hands when he wants to be put back in his cage or doesn’t want to be handled anymore but he has never ever bitten me out of aggression. She seems to approach me when I have my hands in their cage whether it be cleaning it or feeding them etc and climbs up my arm and starts biting my fingers and hands.

I was handling her earlier and she was biting my hands and T-shirt. It’s really sore and she’s drawn blood a few times as well.

I try and hand feed her which she likes and I’m trying my best to handle them consistently but not too much to put them off.

I think I’m just frustrated as my boars never bit me out of aggression. Is it a girl thing?

Any help or suggestions welcome. Pics of them for cuteness.

Thanks!

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)
I can't advise from experience, but there may be answers in this sticky thread. Hope it helps!

 

[Claire.peebles]

Thanks so much!

Will have a read now

 

[Wiebke]

Hello everyone,

I’ve got two 12 week old sows. Everything seems to be going okay, they’re still pretty timid but that’s to be expected as they’re still young.

The only problem I’m having is one of them bites me. It’s not like a playful bite, more aggressive. My 3yo boar mouths my hands when he wants to be put back in his cage or doesn’t want to be handled anymore but he has never ever bitten me out of aggression. She seems to approach me when I have my hands in their cage whether it be cleaning it or feeding them etc and climbs up my arm and starts biting my fingers and hands.

I was handling her earlier and she was biting my hands and T-shirt. It’s really sore and she’s drawn blood a few times as well.

I try and hand feed her which she likes and I’m trying my best to handle them consistently but not too much to put them off.

I think I’m just frustrated as my boars never bit me out of aggression. Is it a girl thing?

Any help or suggestions welcome. Pics of them for cuteness.

Thanks!

Hi

Some guinea pigs can express their dislike of being handled by tweaking quite badly.

Here are some practical tips on how to best deal with it by using guinea pig social interactive behaviours and a hierarchical social framework, which they will understand instantly. It usually sorts out the problem in any new arrivals of mine within a few days or a couple of weeks in piggies with bigger fear-aggressive issues:
" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

 

[Claire.peebles]

Thanks so much! I didn’t even know about tweaking. I’ll have a read of this