Biting bars at dinner time

[patnporridge]

Hello! My sweet guinea pigs do not wheek at dinner time, they instead run over to the bars and chew them. They don’t do this any other time as have a big cage and plenty of enrichment/endless hay/things to chew on/time outside the cage. It feels like they think chewing the bars activates being given food. Our little lady Plum has actually split her front tooth (been to the vets, got it trimmed down, keeping it clean and monitored and hoping it will still be joined at the root) so we are really keen to stop them chewing the bars altogether to save their teeth going forward. But I’m not sure how to stop them! I’ve been gently pushing them back down when they climb up on the bars to chew, and redirect them with my hand to the centre of the cage and wait till they have stopped chewing the bars to give them food. I think Plum kind of gets it, but our stubborn boy Pat is getting quite obviously frustrated at me and doubling down on chewing the bars more vigourously. Any tips?

 

[Popps&Dais]

Hello! My sweet guinea pigs do not wheek at dinner time, they instead run over to the bars and chew them. They don’t do this any other time as have a big cage and plenty of enrichment/endless hay/things to chew on/time outside the cage. It feels like they think chewing the bars activates being given food. Our little lady Plum has actually split her front tooth (been to the vets, got it trimmed down, keeping it clean and monitored and hoping it will still be joined at the root) so we are really keen to stop them chewing the bars altogether to save their teeth going forward. But I’m not sure how to stop them! I’ve been gently pushing them back down when they climb up on the bars to chew, and redirect them with my hand to the centre of the cage and wait till they have stopped chewing the bars to give them food. I think Plum kind of gets it, but our stubborn boy Pat is getting quite obviously frustrated at me and doubling down on chewing the bars more vigourously. Any tips?

Oh I’m curious to hear if others have suggestions as our boy does this too. He always has but our girls never do. As he’s gotten older he does it less but sometimes I have to let him finish his symphony before food. As though he’s caught in the moment of the symphony rather than the reason behind why he began. But yes, I too worry about the teeth.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

It is an attention seeking behaviour. The more successful it is, the more your piggies will do it. If you ignore it persistently, your piggies will stop and try something else to get you moving. As humans we tend to react more promptly to an irritation so many many attention seeking behaviours are 'bad' ones for the simple reason because they are more effective. Piggies are not stupid. They are sophisticated socially interactive species with a complex communication.

The more you reward any 'good' ways of begging, the more your piggies will do those but asking for food is one of the major interspecies acivities from your piggies' perpective.
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

 

[patnporridge]

Hi

It is an attention seeking behaviour. The more successful it is, the more your piggies will do it. If you ignore it persistently, your piggies will stop and try something else to get you moving. As humans we tend to react more promptly to an irritation so many many attention seeking behaviours are 'bad' ones for the simple reason because they are more effective. Piggies are not stupid. They are sophisticated socially interactive species with a complex communication.

The more you reward any 'good' ways of begging, the more your piggies will do those but asking for food is one of the major interspecies acivities from your piggies' perpective.
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

Thank you for this. So I’m doing the right thing by waiting until they’ve stopped chewing the bars to give them food?

 

[fluffysal]

Mischievous Master Boris is a bar chewer too. When he doesn't get anything good he moves on to very loud teeth chattering

 

[Zorro1]

Zorro is also a stubborn bar chewer. We've only recently realized how this behavior is actually harmful to his health. We will need to get his teeth filed soon because of his bar chewing. I recently secured some fish mesh on the inside of the cage, to stop him from causing any further damage.

 

[piggieminder]

Bramble Bar Biting at Herbert...

Lots of bar biting talk in above thread you might find interesting.

They are telling you to hurry up with that food!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for this. So I’m doing the right thing by waiting until they’ve stopped chewing the bars to give them food?

Yes. It they realise that bar biting won't get them their food, then they will hopefully stop and try to come up with something else instead...

 

[RosieLily]

Lily used to try tear down the cage altogether when she decided it was snack time.

It got better after some weeks of ignoring that behaviour and only rewarding her when she truly stopped and gave up. She’s as persistent as I have been, though, and still does it every once in a while, the little beast :’)