My other guinea pig, Mochi, plays around sometimes. But around 40-50% of the time, he's hiding or lying down. Are guinea pigs very active? Or are they all like this? My other guinea pig, before his death, wasn't very active either.
Are guinea pigs usually lazy?
- Thread starter ishita
- Start date
fluffysal
Forum Donator 2024/25
Welcome to the forum. They seem lazy because they sleep in intervals rather than getting all their sleep in one session like we do. If your piggies seem well and happy when they are awake then they are fine.
Hi and welcome
Guinea pigs are crepuscular animals. This means that they are most active at dawn and dusk which are their main feeding times. They will mainly nap and sleep during the day, interspersed with quiet browsing. The very old will sleep a lot.
Once piggies are past teenage, they quieten down a lot, both in terms of vocalising and in terms of energy.
As long as they are alert, coming out for food when you call them and their weight is stable during the weekly body check and weigh-in on your kitchen scales, then you need not worry.
You may find this guide here helpful about guinea pigs as a species:
I have also written this article series which follows a guinea pig life from birth to death, charting their development and social challenges at each age which will hopefully help you see your guinea pigs in a new light and understand them better:
This guide here helps you spot the early signs of illness:
I am very sorry for your loss.
It is very likely that your remaining piggy is currently grieving and withdrawn in this case. How are they?
We have a very helpful guide on things you can do for a bereaved companion immediately after a loss and in the longer term:
Here is what you can do for yourself:
My other guinea pig is eating and roaming about. He is a little quiet. It's only been 1 day. I'm giving him space, and petting him a little. I'm getting a companion for him today, cause they are social animals.
Please give him time to grieve and get him a same sex companion when he comes out of grieving in a few days and becomes more active again, if without his normal sparkle. Guinea pigs don't feel less deeply than humans but they cannot afford to mourn for as long. With bereaved guinea pigs that eat and drink you have ideally between 1-4 weeks' time to find new/set up new companionship; most come out of deep mourning after about 4 days. Only the ones that stop eating/drinking and giving up on life or the ones that really cannot cope on their own need company straight away.
Make sure that you check the gender and if necessary quarantine before you introduce them on neutral ground outside the cage. Guinea pigs are social animals but that doesn't mean that they will accept any new company.
Here is our guide for what to look out for when getting new guinea pigs:
Here is our very step-by-step bonding guide:
Hi
There comes a point when you have to commit to the bonding process because guinea pigs have a strict manual for working out acceptance (or not), establishing a leader and then a hierarchical group which also needs to settle in its territory. The whole process takes about 2 weeks after the official bonding session.
Be aware that guinea pigs don't do playtime; any meeting is for them a full-on bonding session, which you then frustratingly abort.