Begging Behaviours

Sophie B

Sophie B

Senior Guinea Pig
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Smokey has developed yet another annoying begging behaviour! 😂

(For context I keep the bowl at the top half of the hutch so I can easily get to it as the lid is left open throughout the day)

When he decides he wants fed and the food is not coming fast enough he will push the bowl with his nose, get it to the top of the ramp and then shove it down

I just want to know why he does it? Is it for fun, or is it to get our attention?
He has little chew balls that he could do the same with but doesn’t
 
Now I've had rats for a month or so, and comparing guinea pigs with the intelligence side of things, guinea pigs are just as intelligent to me. I could be wrong
 
Sophie B said:
Smokey has developed yet another annoying begging behaviour! 😂

(For context I keep the bowl at the top half of the hutch so I can easily get to it as the lid is left open throughout the day)

When he decides he wants fed and the food is not coming fast enough he will push the bowl with his nose, get it to the top of the ramp and then shove it down

I just want to know why he does it? Is it for fun, or is it to get our attention?
He has little chew balls that he could do the same with but doesn’t
Click to expand...

It is attention seeking behaviour.

You can find tips on how to deal with it in these two guides:
Who is the boss - your guinea pig or you?
Weight - Monitoring and Management (the last chapter deals with pester power)
 
He is trying to draw your attention. Pigs are smarter than people give them credit for... mine are shockingly good at getting treats out of people. They even know who is likely to pay off (my son) and who is not (my husband) and react accordingly. My guinea pigs actually know my son's footsteps and squeak at him when they hear him in the kitchen, where the food comes from... they don't squeak at the rest of us walking around in the kitchen because we give food on a schedule and my son pretty much feeds them whenever they 'look hungry.' They do this in spite of never seeing the kitchen or really knowing when the food comes from, but they know that the fridge/footsteps from that spot noise is the precursor to treats and they react accordingly.
 
I feed Smokey on the bottom now and Bacon on the top, because he was always stealing poor Bacon’s food
I leave the bowl downstairs and I just close the ramp (which he has now discovered he can nudge up until he squeezes through) so Bacon can have his share. Bacon eats slower than Smokey and Smokey is a little pig 🐷 who will just eat Bacon’s too
 
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