Hello everyone! My name is Katie. When I was researching guinea pigs and searched for information online, uncle Google would almost always point me to this forum. So I figured I would join as I really loved all the great information on here and the helpful community.
I’ve recently gotten my first piggies. They are two sisters, 3 months old now, and I’ve had them for about 7 weeks. I’ve been trying to do my best at getting them to trust me, using various tips from here and youtube, but sometimes I find myself doubting if I’m doing it right or totally wrong, or whether I’m just impatient. I realize some piggies can take a lot of time to tame but I would love to hear your thoughts.
The girls, Merigold and Peregrine, are definitely more confident and calmer compared to their first couple of weeks with me. They wheek at me for food/snacks, they do zoomies, they popcorn, and they are generally fine when I’m cleaning their cage. I’ve been also hand feeding them. Smaller snacks (like pieces of carrots or bell pepper) they’ll take only from behind the bars, so I’ve started hand feeding them grass and longer straws, which they really enjoy. But whenever they chomp too close to my hand or they get the smallest whiff of my hand, they jump back and throw their head up.
What upsets me the most though is that sometimes when I think we’re making progress something out of my control (like a car honks outside, or a piece of furniture cracks etc.) startles the piggies, they run to hide, while making the unhappy purring sound. When I try to use my voice to calm them or reassure that it’s okay, I feel like I only make it worse. It then takes them some time to get back to the comfort level they were right before the scare happened.
This is just the basic rundown of how things are for us right now. And my question is, am I too timid/soft? Or am I right in letting my piggies decide on the progress of the taming process? I’ve read and heard various opinions on the matter, but I don’t wanna be too forceful on my piggies. With that said, one needs to do health checkup and so on, and that can’t be really done without handling the pigs. I’m really uncertain on how to proceed so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I’ve recently gotten my first piggies. They are two sisters, 3 months old now, and I’ve had them for about 7 weeks. I’ve been trying to do my best at getting them to trust me, using various tips from here and youtube, but sometimes I find myself doubting if I’m doing it right or totally wrong, or whether I’m just impatient. I realize some piggies can take a lot of time to tame but I would love to hear your thoughts.
The girls, Merigold and Peregrine, are definitely more confident and calmer compared to their first couple of weeks with me. They wheek at me for food/snacks, they do zoomies, they popcorn, and they are generally fine when I’m cleaning their cage. I’ve been also hand feeding them. Smaller snacks (like pieces of carrots or bell pepper) they’ll take only from behind the bars, so I’ve started hand feeding them grass and longer straws, which they really enjoy. But whenever they chomp too close to my hand or they get the smallest whiff of my hand, they jump back and throw their head up.
What upsets me the most though is that sometimes when I think we’re making progress something out of my control (like a car honks outside, or a piece of furniture cracks etc.) startles the piggies, they run to hide, while making the unhappy purring sound. When I try to use my voice to calm them or reassure that it’s okay, I feel like I only make it worse. It then takes them some time to get back to the comfort level they were right before the scare happened.
This is just the basic rundown of how things are for us right now. And my question is, am I too timid/soft? Or am I right in letting my piggies decide on the progress of the taming process? I’ve read and heard various opinions on the matter, but I don’t wanna be too forceful on my piggies. With that said, one needs to do health checkup and so on, and that can’t be really done without handling the pigs. I’m really uncertain on how to proceed so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
