Chewing The Bars

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Cute_Guineapigs

Cute_Guineapigs

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Hi

I have 4 boars, separated into 2 pairs. One of them, Charlie has taken to chewing the bars of his C&C grid cage almost constantly. He jumps onto the fabric houses in his cage, and chewing the bars that face the wall. Why is he doing this? Is he bored or could he have a medical issue? I'm worried he'll break or chip his teeth.

He has various willow and grass chew toys in his cage, as well as a seagrass tunnel. I bought wooden gnaw sticks, which he chewed for a bit and then left. He gets floor time, and he even starts chewing the bars straight after he's been put back in. What can I do to help stop him? Should I put a chew toy in the chewing areas, so he chews that and not the bars?
 
One of my girls does this at floor time when she wants to go back into her cage but she's never done it once she's in her cage.
Perhaps is something stressing him?
 
Is the space he's in big enough?

Our solo boar kept doing it.. but that was because he was trying to get the sows attention who he was housed next to at the time. He doesn't do it since he's been moved into a 2x5 next to the older boars (unless you put something next to his cage that he like the smell of or he's trying to get the older boars attention, which isn't often), boredom can also cause it.

Is he next to your other two boars? He could be trying to get their attention if so.
 
The cages are stacked so he can't see the other boars. He's in a 5ft x 2ft cage. He has always chewed the bars when food is arriving, but he's only recently changed to chewing almost all the time. I can't think of anything new that could be stressing him.
 
My guinea pigs used to do that when they wanted some hay, even if they had hay in the cage. They wanted more hay :)

So I guess he could be doing it to get your attention?
 
Cute_Guineapigs said:
Hi

I have 4 boars, separated into 2 pairs. One of them, Charlie has taken to chewing the bars of his C&C grid cage almost constantly. He jumps onto the fabric houses in his cage, and chewing the bars that face the wall. Why is he doing this? Is he bored or could he have a medical issue? I'm worried he'll break or chip his teeth.

He has various willow and grass chew toys in his cage, as well as a seagrass tunnel. I bought wooden gnaw sticks, which he chewed for a bit and then left. He gets floor time, and he even starts chewing the bars straight after he's been put back in. What can I do to help stop him? Should I put a chew toy in the chewing areas, so he chews that and not the bars?
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Can you cable tie a sheet of cardboard to the bars to prevent him from bar gnawing? it is his way of protesting against being put back in the cage.

Guinea pigs are very good at working out what annoys you to get your attention. The best way to stop any bad behaviour is to ignore it (they are generally not stupid and will stop after a while what doesn't bring the wished for results) and/or to assert your authority and that way tell your boys that he is misbehaving.
How To Understand Guinea Pig Instincts And Speak Piggy Body Language
 
I do ignore him when he's chewing the bars, even if he wakes me up in the morning. He chews mainly the bars facing the wall, and seems to chew like it's enjoyable, he sort of goes into a trance. I don't tell him off and I don't reward him either.

If I put cardboard up, he would chew that. I had to put binders along the correx edge as he chewed that. I'm thinking I might put up those hanging wooden chew toys in the places where he chews, so hopefully he'll redirect to that.

He did used to live in a 120cm cage a couple of months ago, and I upgraded their cages to 5ft C&C. He chews worse in the new cage than the old one, even though he has more space. The chewing has only really got worse the past week or so, he was ok straight after the cage change.
 
Cute_Guineapigs said:
He's nearly 2 years old. :)
Click to expand...

So no teenage antics...

It is rather rare that cage chewing is connected with relieving the discomfort from dental issues. Could you get a solid sheet of firm plastic or wood to place against the whole back side of the your C&C? I usually find that a solid sheet of correx or plywood does the trick for any compulsive out of dinner time gnawers of mine.
 
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