Anyone else dealt with a chronic bar biter?

lauryn1289

lauryn1289

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
446
Reaction score
433
Points
380
Location
Ireland
Hi, so one of my boys Ollie is truly driving me up the wall with the incessant bar biting. Him and his friend Eggs live separately in the same cage just divided, they both have 3x3 to themselves so 6x6 total and because of the (DIY) formation, there’s 3 completely bare cubes they call fully see and interact with eachother through. The initial bonding attempt failed but I have been meaning to try again now that Eggs is a bit older.

He used to live with another 2 piggies, one old boy Kip and the boy Bobby I adopted him with but they all fell out. I think he was a bar biter then too but not as bad as he is now. I’m almost certain it’s not health problems, Ollie is just an absolutely feral guinea pig. We joke that he’s a vicious dog in a guinea pig’s body but he truly is. He is the devil incarnate. He has a ridiculous amount of confidence for a guinea pig, he’s not unfriendly at all but he is a biter and he’s just generally really dominant and quick to anger even with humans. I love him for his VERY unique personality but the bar biting is really affecting my sleep and everything and I can’t imagine Eggs is happy to listen to it all the time either. He bites the bars so hard he literally moves the whole cage. He knocked a tooth out doing it before! My guess is it’s a dominance thing and he just wants to get in at Eggs. One of the last times he was at the vet he tried to bite the vet, peed all over the table and tried to fling Eggs’ carrier off the table. He’s truly not normal, he popcorns a lot too and gets really excited so he is a happy boy just a really annoying one

He has hideys, I get them nibbling sticks, he has a tunnel, he has a bridge, plenty of hay etc but nothing seems to distract him for long enough. Has anyone dealt with this or found a way to help?

Also, I’m not sure how old he is but I’m guessing maybe 3 and a half. Eggs is probably close to 2 years old.
 
Hello!
Sorry to hear the bar biting is affecting your sleep & Ollie has broken a tooth. He does sound like quite a character.

Our bar chewer extraordinaire is Wally. He is approximately 1yr old. I have joked on TGPF in the past about him being a werepig, he went crazy one full moon.

We adopted him in February.
Our boys live in our living room. Hamish & Wally also live as neighbours in a divided home. We have tried various ways of helping Wally to find other amusement instead of bar chewing! Unfortunately it seems to be his hobby.
We had some foster piggies staying with us, who recently went to their forever home, since they left Wally has calmed dramatically. He still chews, but is noticeably relaxing more. Wally hasn’t yet broken a tooth- we are scared he may do so in the future. He can be quite persistent when in the zone.
So far a combination of putting a fleece blanket over the grids, or telling him off piggy style by raising his chin seems to help in the short term. At one point we thought he was only bar chewing when we were around- but one day I caught him on our little camera having a random chew! He doesn’t differentiate between the divide or edge of his home- any grid will do.
In the beginning I had cardboard covering the dividing grids just to give us all a bit of a break. I have left one of the dividing cc panels with cardboard on, which helps give Hamish a little more privacy when he want to hide from his neighbour.
Food is also a pinch point for our Wally to have a chew. I try really hard to wait even for a few seconds after he has stopped chewing before giving him food to try and dissociate chewing and food coming straight away. ( This technique worked in the past for Hamish, Billy🌈 and Hector🌈)

I looked at Perspex grids, after one really bad episode, but for now decided we were managing ok.

Wally had a vet check up in May, the vet looked at his teeth & said it didn’t look like he had ever previously broken a tooth.

I will see if I can link the previous discussion on bar chew prevention, but I am not very good at things like that!

Thinking of you & your ears.

Here’s our little werepig, looking like he’s a sweet angel.
IMG_3215.webp
 
Chesney is biting the bars as well. I'm a little worried about his teeth. I try petting him but he continues.
 
I've got fruit tree branches and sticks weaved though my lower bars, they start chewing those instead and now I don't have to worry about bar chewing, and I can put the branches anywhere in the cage. Maybe they just need to chew something
 
Mischievous Master Boris definitely does it to demand something. His latest thing is to chatter his teeth at us when he wants a treat.
 
My boys had a fight after living together and being well-bonded for 18 months. The under pig (Ziggy) finally got fed up with the constant dominance behaviour of the top pig (Bertie). They now live side by side and interact a lot through the bars, but Bertie is constantly biting the bars to get Ziggy's attention, just like your two boars. Luckily his biting technique doesn't make too much noise, so it isn't too annoying. I wouldn't want to stop Bertie doing it as he needs that interaction (he also spends lots of time rumblestrutting along the divide). I don't think I could stop him. I'm just thankful that it isn't too noisy.

Ziggy doesn't bite the bars very often but when he does he's telling me that I'm not fast enough at supplying his veggies! He never does it to Bertie.
 
Posyrose said:
My boys had a fight after living together and being well-bonded for 18 months. The under pig (Ziggy) finally got fed up with the constant dominance behaviour of the top pig (Bertie). They now live side by side and interact a lot through the bars, but Bertie is constantly biting the bars to get Ziggy's attention, just like your two boars. Luckily his biting technique doesn't make too much noise, so it isn't too annoying. I wouldn't want to stop Bertie doing it as he needs that interaction (he also spends lots of time rumblestrutting along the divide). I don't think I could stop him. I'm just thankful that it isn't too noisy.

Ziggy doesn't bite the bars very often but when he does he's telling me that I'm not fast enough at supplying his veggies! He never does it to Bertie.
Click to expand...
Why don't you put something they can chew right there between them instead? Then they still interact but in a healthier form!
 
Gaia only bar-bites for snacks; demanding I hurry up with the fresh grass or when she thinks I have something and she wants it.

Minerva has only just begun to copy her but she just gently mouths the bars and doesn't make a noise as of yet.
 
doosnska said:
Why don't you put something they can chew right there between them instead? Then they still interact but in a healthier form!
Click to expand...

In neither case does the piggy want to chew something, they want to get attention. I also think it's no coincidence that when biting the bars Bertie's nose is on Ziggy's side of the cage and that while bar biting he pulls on the barrier. He only bites the dividing barrier
 
Minnou said:
Gaia only bar-bites for snacks; demanding I hurry up with the fresh grass or when she thinks I have something and she wants it.

Minerva has only just begun to copy her but she just gently mouths the bars and doesn't make a noise as of
Click to expand...

Posyrose said:
In neither case does the piggy want to chew something, they want to get attention. I also think it's no coincidence that when biting the bars Bertie's nose is on Ziggy's side of the cage and that while bar biting he pulls on the barrier. He only bites the dividing barrier
Click to expand...
Good luck, can't hurt to try
 
doosnska said:
Why don't you put something they can chew right there between them instead? Then they still interact but in a healthier form!
Click to expand...
Posyrose said:
In neither case does the piggy want to chew something, they want to get attention. I also think it's no coincidence that when biting the bars Bertie's nose is on Ziggy's side of the cage and that while bar biting he pulls on the barrier. He only bites the dividing barrier
Click to expand...



I agree, our boys current & ex bar chewers are always doing so for attention. They all have or have had plenty of opportunities to chew other items, be it carrot cottages/hay cubes/ cardboard houses/ toilet roll hay balls.
 
AidaB said:
I agree, our boys current & ex bar chewers are always doing so for attention. They all have or have had plenty of opportunities to chew other items, be it carrot cottages/hay cubes/ cardboard houses/ toilet roll hay balls.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, its worked really well for me plenty of times in my years of owning piggies, and my clients. It works even faster if you clicker train them prior. If you have any other tips I'd love to hear them, what works for one piggie might work for another, good to have multiple ideas!
 
Posyrose said:
In neither case does the piggy want to chew something, they want to get attention. I also think it's no coincidence that when biting the bars Bertie's nose is on Ziggy's side of the cage and that while bar biting he pulls on the barrier. He only bites the dividing barrier
Click to expand...

Absolutely the same with my bar biter - he doesn’t want to chew anything (well, except he would quite like to chew his neighbour again), it’s purely for attention!
 
Red's the same, he bites the bars for attention, usually approaching a food time. His tummy clock is often an hour on the early side so it can go on for sometime! He's just started now, it's 20 minutes to Metacam time, he loves Metacam and he gets grass after. Brillo tries to copy but he mostly licks the bars, he's quite gentle with them unless I'm taking too long. The other's do it once I start preparing veg or when the back door opens (possible grass) accompanied by loud shrieks. Red has taught every piggie that has come into this house during his reign to bar bite.
 
Up to three weeks ago I would have said I'd never had a bar biter, but I can't say that now!
Sadly I am now down to one left from a trio who had been together their entire lives, nine years. I'm in a quandary with him as I don't really want to split anyone else up to give him a new cagemate at his age and he has decided he wants one of the pair next to him on one side, and for the first time in his life is biting the bars between them, he took no notice of them when he still had his brothers with him.
It is a worrying habit, not only for the sake of his teeth, but for the sake of the cage bars too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top