Castaway
Junior Guinea Pig
Although I'm sure in many cases, the reasons guinea pigs will bite are related to illness, pain, distress or previous poor treatment, I don't think it's possible to generalise that these are the reasons that all guineas who bite, bite.
I think the fast that so many folks have mentioned here that they have pigs that bite, and in very different contexts, provides some evidence of this.
In addition to Griff, I had a pig called Warren who also bit, but it was very different. It was more like gnawing for pleasure - chewing on my wrist which sometimes got out of hand. I had both Griff (from a Rescue Range in Newport) and Warren (from Peter Gurney) from when they were a few weeks old and both were in good health, so I can't put the biting of either down to health, distress or past treatment.
I think in both cases, it was a feature of their particular personalities - like some pigs tend to lick and others don't, some like to sing and others don't. The problem is that biting can be more harmful than the other two and isn't something to be encouraged, whatever the circumstances.
I think the fast that so many folks have mentioned here that they have pigs that bite, and in very different contexts, provides some evidence of this.
In addition to Griff, I had a pig called Warren who also bit, but it was very different. It was more like gnawing for pleasure - chewing on my wrist which sometimes got out of hand. I had both Griff (from a Rescue Range in Newport) and Warren (from Peter Gurney) from when they were a few weeks old and both were in good health, so I can't put the biting of either down to health, distress or past treatment.
I think in both cases, it was a feature of their particular personalities - like some pigs tend to lick and others don't, some like to sing and others don't. The problem is that biting can be more harmful than the other two and isn't something to be encouraged, whatever the circumstances.