Can your pigs climb stairs?

Freela

Freela

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We let our pigs roam around freely in a hall off our family room (we are supervising them when they're out and about.) At the end of the hallway we have two steps going up to a landing, and then a flight of stairs going up to the main floor. None of our pigs have been prone to looking upwards and none have paid much attention to the stair beyond waiting at the bottom for us to come down with food. So we've had generations of pigs who have never, ever tried to tackle the staircase.

Not Misa, though. We have had her for two weeks and she can already easily climb the stairs. She repeatedly climbs the two stairs to the landing, I see no reason why she couldn't equally handle the longer staircase if we didn't stop her before she found it. It's making her quite hard to contain, the stairs aren't easy to gate off, so unless there is a person sitting there to redirect her back to the floor whenever she hops up, it's really hard to block the steps. I can shut the door at the top of the big staircase to keep her from getting into the whole main floor, but in the meantime I don't want her falling down the stairs or otherwise hurting herself.

So... anyone else have a stair-loving pig? Is this a safety concern for her? I'm hoping she'll get older and get bored (right now she is a baby with a TON of energy and curiosity) but right now she is very focused on climbing them and will always circle back around to them when we try to distract her.
 
What goes up ……. Comes down

@Claire W did Eliza get down them safely too?

I’d just be worried of them falling down. Clever piggies though and very adventurous.
 
weepweeps said:
What goes up ……. Comes down

@Claire W did Eliza get down them safely too?

I’d just be worried of them falling down. Clever piggies though and very adventurous.
Click to expand...

No, she just went up. It’s when I used to let them free range in the hallway. I used to have to put grids there to stop her going up as like you, I was worried about her falling down
 
I haven't tried this for many years, so I don't know the answer for my current pigs. However, I remember as a child I had my guinea pig out and sitting on a step for cuddle time, and it hopped up to the next step. Then the next. Then the next. Up and up until we were on the top landing!

At about 6-8", a stair riser is a comfortable height for a guinea pig to hop, about the same height as a lot of hideys that they like to perch on. So I bet a lot of piggies could climb stairs if the thought occurred to them! I would not let them do it unsupervised, as a fall could be bad. You could fence off the bottom of the staircase with some grids so she can't get at it.

Edit: or install a baby gate with mesh to prevent her getting between the bars.
 
My rainbow bridge piggy Boris was a stair climber too. He was also prone to jumping on the sofa.
So he was always closely supervised as I was terrified he would injury himself.
He never did and passed away aged 7 and a half.
Would never have let him try to come down the stairs.
I would definitely block access to the stairs.x
 
Quite a few of mine have been stair climbers! Some of them I've trained/guided to figure it out as a neat trick, but others knew what to do with them almost immediately. Several super-smart pigs have even figured out how to run up the stairs, then find and wait by the door to their cage.

Only once have I worried about a pig hurting themselves on the stairs. My Cinny (on the right in my profile pic) was a strong climber in her youth -- she actually was the first pig I trained to stair climb -- but as she got older and her arthritis worsened, she just got too shaky for me to feel good about letting her climb. All of my other stair climbers never seemed to develop that issue, though, so it's just something I evaluate on a case-by-case basis now. If they're young and healthy, they're likely strong enough to climb.

Occasionally they do slip when trying to go up a step, but our steps are short so there's not enough distance for them to really fall. We also have carpeted stairs, so I feel assured that there's at least a little something for them to grip onto and pull themselves up with. If your stairs are steep and/or not carpeted, you might want to be more cautious.

Never in my years of letting my pigs climb up stairs have I had one show interest in trying to go down them, so that shouldn't be an issue. I've observed most pigs are a bit more hesitant about getting down from things than getting up on them, even when they're relatively close to the ground.
 
I guess when your legs are short and your head is massive, you're keenly aware of the danger of landing on your face!
 
Thanks everyone! Right now when she is out in the hall one of us is sitting at the top of the second stair. She mainly just hops up on the first step, runs the length of it, and then goes leaping off (she is a REALLY active little baby, I'm tired just watching her! LOL!) If she goes up to the second stair landing one of us grabs her and puts her back on the floor. We will definitely invest in another gate if she continues to be this crazy, as I can't imagine I am going to want to spend every evening for the foreseeable future redirecting Misa!

She's very cute, but I don't think we've ever had a baby that is quite this high energy, plus she has this combination of curiosity and confidence that leads to her figuring things out. She's smart but tiring! LOL!
 
Titus was a stair climber.
He could get up a quite a speed.
It was a game - he ran up the stairs, I recaptured him just before the top and brought him down, then he was off again.
 
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