Cage biting?

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Maxellnimons

Maxellnimons

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My piggie ignores all her chew toys or any sort of cardbord tube I got her. What should I do? Is it even ok? What if she scrapes the paint off the bars and eats some? i'm scared she's been doind this constantly for two days :(
 
Biting cages can sometimes be a symptom of boredom - do they get any floor time at all? However, you said she has chew toys and a tube - she may just be chewing for the sake of it - ours do it sometimes for no apparent reason as they have a lot of cuddles and a lot of floor time (at least every other day). Does she have a cagemate? xox
 
One of my pigs is a cage biter too, but only at dinner time. Does she have plenty of hay to keep her occupied?
 
One of my pigs bites bars now and again. I moved them into a different cage where the mesh is too small that they cannot chew :-)
 
She is a lonely pig poor thing :( I don't have space for two right now (I'm hoping to move into a bigger place in a couple of months) and she has a lot ofmhay and a LOT of cuddles. However I cant give her floor time I'm just scared she might get under the furniture and hurt herself :( what should I do? :( it breaks my heart to know she's lonely poor poor thing but I really do anything I can for her :(
 
Maxellnimons said:
She is a lonely pig poor thing :( I don't have space for two right now (I'm hoping to move into a bigger place in a couple of months) and she has a lot ofmhay and a LOT of cuddles. However I cant give her floor time I'm just scared she might get under the furniture and hurt herself :( what should I do? :( it breaks my heart to know she's lonely poor poor thing but I really do anything I can for her :(
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If you can get a duvet, or pillows, or anything that can barricade off spaces she can get under, that would ensure she has some floor time. You can also get indoor runs.

As for what you can do - this floor time would give her some space to run around properly. I know you said you didn't have much room but a cagemate would really improve her loneliness too - pigs really should be in pairs (there are exceptions).

I know you love her very much by the way :)
 
She just sounds lonely and bored :-( One pig takes the same room as two really though so hopefully you can get another soon. Floor time is essential IMHO somewhere like a bathroom or a kitchen is usually pretty "sealed" so they cant get under furniture or a hall way.
 
How old is she also? I know some of my piggie when growing up went through a 'teenage' phase where they constantly were mischevious and wanted attention, which sometimes meant biting bars. But like others have said, toys and floor time will be very beneficial. I have got a childs ball pit which pops up and down to put the pigs in for a quick run around, I got it from the early learning centre.
In terms of another piggy what size cage do you have atm?
 
Yes I DO love her very much :) she's my baby lol
guess I can find a way to "seal" the hallway...I will be tricky but I'll definitely try :)
Her cage is I think even too small for one pig :(
And I think she just might be a teenage...she's about 6 month old now :)
 
Just a thought - have you checked her teeth? When my Peanut Butter started biting the cage bars non-stop I checked his teeth and was shocked to find the bottom two front ones twice the length of his cagemate's. Off to vet and yeah overgrown.
 
Hello :)

It's great you are asking for advice for your baby! You can tell that you love her very much!

If you are worried about your cage you can visit zooplus.co.uk they have cheap cages and sometimes have sales so they are even cheaper again! I myself needed bigger cages and was strapped for cash. Zooplus is a lifesaver and you get discount vouchers sometimes too. 10% when you join and 5% if you join their newsletter! Also if you have a "the range" by you. They also do a 120cm cage (smallest for 2 piggys) for £39.99.

I have bar chewers but they only do it when I dont feed them fast enough! Cheeky beggars!

I would think he is bored and lonely so like the others i would suggest alot of floor time before you are able to get another piggy! Do you have any like cardboard boxes? You could make a makeshift run out of a few of them :) I did this before stuck 2-3 boxes together for a nice big run!

Good luck! x
 
They seem normal to me...but I dont have another pig to compare so I mght be wrong. But what if they are too long? What does the vet do? Scary dentist stuff? @)
 
Oh the cardbord boxes is a fabulous idea! Thank you so much!

Also I checked guinea lynx and it says if her teeth are TOO long she wont be eating? i'm scared, when should I take her to the vet? (She's eating fine right now, she gained 2 grams this past week lol)
 
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Maxellnimons said:
They seem normal to me...but I dont have another pig to compare so I mght be wrong. But what if they are too long? What does the vet do? Scary dentist stuff? @)
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Maxellnimons said:
Oh the cardbord boxes is a fabulous idea! Thank you so much!

Also I checked guinea lynx and it says if her teeth are TOO long she wont be eating? i'm scared, when should I take her to the vet? (She's eating fine right now, she gained 2 grams this past week lol)
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In my experience piggy may be uncomfortable with overgrown teeth before it gets so bad that they actually stop eating. I had only had PB a month and the cage biting was the only change in him. He was eating fine. I confess though that if I hadn't had Hazelnut I would not have seen the size difference. But I would still have taken him to the vet to just ensure his teeth were all right because of the incessant cage bar biting. It turns out his jaw is malformed and his teeth don't meet so can't wear down. Probably born that way since he was only 2months old when diagnosed. Once a month PB goes in, gets a gas mask put on him, gets all his teeth burred down, wakes up as soon as the mask is lifted and digs right into his cos lettuce while still at the vet's. We have been doing this for a year now and so far he has never stopped eating and I haven't had to resort to force feeding. I am convinced he is doing so well becasue we caught the dental problems before it actually interferred with his eating. Using gas means he is totally unaware that anything has actually happened to his teeth so he carries on like nothing has happened and gas is much less risky than GA.

I'm not saying your baby has dental problems. Just something to check on because of the experience I had.
 
Thank you very much for all the information! Well I'm a freak lol so now I will DEFINITELY take her to the vet some time next week (or else I would go crazy, really) and thanks heavens I can afford a vet...someday I *** be rich enough to open an absolutely FREE pet clinic so all the pet owners can have peace of mind, ah big dreams...lol :) thanks again!
 
Maxellnimons said:
Thank you very much for all the information! Well I'm a freak lol so now I will DEFINITELY take her to the vet some time next week (or else I would go crazy, really) and thanks heavens I can afford a vet...someday I *** be rich enough to open an absolutely FREE pet clinic so all the pet owners can have peace of mind, ah big dreams...lol :) thanks again!
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I do hope piggy is just bored and needs a friend. But better to have vet check her toofies and assure you all is OK that way.
 
Yeah I tried to make an appointment but apparently the vet's office is closed down for about a week because it's in one of the worste zones of the city, they closed everything to control air pollution >.< actually I dont think I can risk taking the poor piggie on a 1:30 hour ride to the office before the air clears up anyway, what do you think? Are they sensitive to polouted air?

(There is no other practicing exotic vet here... mallethead )
 
Oh that's bad :( Are there any vets closer by that would be prepared to look at a guinea pig? Am I right in thinking you are in Asia? I don't know how they go about vet surgeries there, but generally speaking in this country you will have everyday vets that will see all animals, and then others that specialise in exotic pets like piggies. It may be worth just calling a few that are more local to you and just checking if they would be prepared to see your little one. They may not be as specialist as the one you said was 90 minutes away but, and maybe I am wrong in thinking this, seeing someone is better than seeing no one.

As for air pollution - yes - piggies are very sensitive to smell/air pollution and can trigger respiratory problems.
 
Yes Asia, I live in Iran >.< we have every problem with air/weather you could imagine lol
i JUST watched the news, now they say the whole city is apparently shut down till Tuesday... Ugh!
And I have checked 68 vets in the city when I got my piggie (just be sure hahaha) and tried a couple of them in my neighborhood too they seemed cluless about piggies, one of them advised me to give little bits of chicken to her (do you believe that?!) they know a bit about Hamsters but that chicken incident scared me so much I dont think I'll ever trust any of those freaks again >.<
 
I didn't realise you lived in Iran. Sounds like it will be very difficult to find a good vet. Feed them bits of chicken! I don't know if this helps, but see the link below for what my Peanut Butter's incisors looked like when I realised there might be a problem with his teeth. The bottom incisors were twice the length of the top incisors. With Hazelnut, my perfect toofies piggy, both top and bottom incisors are always the same length. The description that came with the image in the link below was " One of the most common indicators of malocclusion is the slanting of the incisors (often suggestive of overgrown molars on one side)." Good luck and as I said earlier it may not be that piggy is cage biting due to teeth problems. It just turned out to be the case with mine and occasionally if I leave it a few days later than a strict 30 day schedule for his vet dental treatment he starts biting the cage bars again.

https://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r295/cavycareforum/TuppysTeethWeek3.jpg
 
Shoot...her teeth look long...not as long as the picture but much longer than the ones on top! I'll take her to the vet soon, thank you so much! I was cluless of teeth problems >.<
 
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