ecouraging bad behaviour

[gizmo01]

I have heard that guinea pigs can learn and like most animals learn by repetition. However mine seem to have learnt bad manners towards people i.e chattering teeth to get desired result instead of friendliness (they're very friendly after the just seem funny with food) any ways of rectifying this behaviour?

 

[Wiebke]

Ignore the chattering and react to/fuss over only desirable behaviour. Piggies are not stupid. They pick on what is getting them attention they want most effectively. Piggies that are very comfy with slaves can become rather dominant towards them in their behaviour.

That said, I get the odd minor teeth chatter from my piggies if I string them along with promises of food instead of going and getting it!

 

[Hermes]

I'm a bit confused, do they chatter their teeth and you give them food or do they teeth chatter when they know you have food for them? It could be that they are chattering at each other in anticipation of the food and it's a sort of 'get out of my way other pig, I'm having this food' or just generally showing off to everyone in and effort to make themselves look big and threatening so they have a better chance of getting the food, it's a fairly natural behaviour. If you have consistently given them food when they chatter then they have simply learnt the behaviour is rewarding, it's not bad manners, it's training.

If you want them to do something else for food then you need to train them. Decide what it is you want them to do and reward them for doing it. For example, if you want them to wheek at you for food then encourage them to wheek and give them a treat, you can also use a clicker to mark the behaviour if you want. You want to keep the treats small so they eat them quickly and look for more, I use some of their veg ration for training and cut it up into tiny pieces (think smaller than your little fingernail). Don't spend too long trying to train them or they will get fed up, always set them up to do the right thing and reward them for doing it, ignore the wrong behaviour and end sessions on a positive note (e.g. get them to week and give them all their veg).

Also, I wouldn't necessarily train them to wheek that was just an example, mine wheek enough when excited anyway, I'm not sure it's a behaviour that needs encouraging!

 

[gizmo01]

they chatter at humans at meal time or when you take the water bottle to change it. or if you go in the shed for something other than to pay them attention. its always Gizmo that starts it all off