Do Guinea Pigs Have Colour/Pattern Preferences?

piggieminder

piggieminder

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Brillo is displaying some very odd behaviour over a new fleece tunnel. I wonder if anyone has come across this or has any thoughts on it. As Brillo has become older he likes to sleep in his fleece tunnels. As he pees in the tunnel a lot it needs changing everyday, he has two which I interchange and he has always been happy with this. I can't always keep up with the washing/drying so I bought him a new tunnel, same size and construction just mint green inside and white with various coloured hearts outside (it was all that was available). His old tunnels both have a grey inside with a different shade of blue outside. He will not go into the new tunnel, he will not walk past it either and has taken to sleeping in his hay box and avoiding the section of the cage where the tunnel is. I put one of the old tunnels in the cage this afternoon and he has slept in it for 2 hours. I've washed the new tunnel twice and line dried it so it smells the same as a freshly laundered old one but no way is he going near it.
 
Studies suggest that they do actually have colour preferences and as you have found, green seems not to be one they're drawn to, however they do seem to like blue and yellow 😅 I can't get the study to link but if anyone wants to read it, it's called:

Behavioral Effects on Cavia porcellus in an Environment Manipulated by Color

This is their findings on food bowls and water bottles

Screenshot_20230510-180352_Drive.jpg
 
Oh wow! Thank you, I will look for that later and have a read. I'm sure I've read somewhere that some don't like busy patterns but it's not something I've had a problem with. I prefer their liners to be busy, the poops don't show so much. :))
 
Some piggies are more sensitive to changes to their environment than others.

My Cariad 'Darling', who was not the brightest star in the sky - bless her - would not leave the cage because of a new dark red fleece with a paw print pattern for a whole week even though the rest of the Tribe group would jump over her blocking the cage exit and gambol on the new fleece right in front of her. I had to lift her over to get to the breakfast and dinner area. She would extent her paw but never quite dare to touch the fleece.

PS: It is worth noting that guinea pigs perceive red shade not in quite the same way as humans.
 
It is interesting, they are funny little things. I've never known Brillo react to anything like this before.
 
It is funny what they react to. I remember once thinking it would be fun to put some toys in their free-roaming area for them, so I bought some wicker balls to chew and a tube stuffed with hay. My bolder pig went right up to them... my more cautious pig would NOT leave the safety of the cage until I took all the new things away, even though I tried to coax her out with food and her sister pig kept coming over and looking at her and obviously telling her to come out and play.
 
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