Feeding the guinea pigs at TEAS

furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I am passionate about allowing animals to demonstrate species specific behaviour and I think you are doing a great job in changing how you feed. As you know, my cat is fed entirely with puzzle feeders, allowing her to use her hunting instinct. I feel this way of feeding is so good for her physical and mental wellbeing and scatter feeding works the same for guinea pigs.
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In trying to vary it up for my girls, I have started putting some of their pellets in one of these with the opening as big as the ball with allow...
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I now put their fresh veggies onto a couple of these on the hutch bars...
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When veggies were in a dish they'd often take a piece to the hutch corner, have a couple of bites and abandon it and choose something different. So there would be half eaten bendy broccoli and parsnip dotted about 🙄.

I bought two of these, took the mouse out 😂😂, and put salad leaves or parsley inside. They carry the ball around and eat it wherever they please...
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Piggies&buns said:
@Piggylove82 - be careful with some of those items. Some of them are on our dangerous toy list
Potentially Dangerous Cage Accessories And Toys
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I agree with @Piggies&buns , @Piggylove82 these arent really safe for piggies they may chew the plastic or metal or get their head or teeth stuck.
The safest enrichment for guinea pigs is often the cheapest- hiding veg in a brown paper bag filled with hay with a couple of holes cut in the side, or in a plain cardboard box full of hay- completely edible and safe :)
 
Piggies&buns said:
@Piggylove82 - be careful with some of those items. Some of them are on our dangerous toy list
Potentially Dangerous Cage Accessories And Toys
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Well. The ball they retail as a guinea pig veg-to-ball is this which costs £4.50! 😳. It measures 21cm x 8cm x 8cm and has a segment cut out. So if you imagine a quartered apple, then a half of that apple quarter removed, then the apple assembled again, that would form this product.
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The red part being the missing part to fill the ball and where the pig got his head stuck.
But what I bought was the smaller 6cm x 6cm x 6cm cat toy that has even spaces like lines of longitude all around it. It cost £2 and you do have to stuff the leaves through a smaller space but there is no risk of a head getting in there. The spaces are around 1cm apart....
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But I do appreciate your comment. Others may have thought I was referring to the larger veg to ball. They are similar but one is smaller and doesn't have that dangerous head size feeding hole

Edit: I did remove the mouse toy first! 😂
 
PigglePuggle said:
I agree with @Piggies&buns , @Piggylove82 these arent really safe for piggies they may chew the plastic or metal or get their head or teeth stuck.
The safest enrichment for guinea pigs is often the cheapest- hiding veg in a brown paper bag filled with hay with a couple of holes cut in the side, or in a plain cardboard box full of hay- completely edible and safe :)
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Pigs chew hay through the metal bars in a hay rack though or from a metal hay cube. This is a similar thing, chewing hay or salad leaves from a sphere which has bars. And the green plastic ball is a hard plastic, not flexible at all. They can't chew it.
 
PigglePuggle said:
I agree with @Piggies&buns , @Piggylove82 these arent really safe for piggies they may chew the plastic or metal or get their head or teeth stuck.
The safest enrichment for guinea pigs is often the cheapest- hiding veg in a brown paper bag filled with hay with a couple of holes cut in the side, or in a plain cardboard box full of hay- completely edible and safe :)
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The items I bought aren't on the list. The ball is not the same item. It does not have a space big enough for a head, not even a hamsters head! Well maybe a roborovski hamster with a squeeze! None of the spaces on either item is smaller than 1cm so teeth can't get stuck!

Attention to detail! 😂 😂.

I can assure you I didn't just buy these items because they were in the pet store, I looked them over properly taking account of what they were made from, how big/small the spaces were, whether there are any sharp or pointed edges. I would not put my pigs at risk, I love them too much.

Edit: the green ball opening turns to make that space as big again. That is only half open in the pic.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Aww, bless her! Did Kim not cover her ears, before saying anything? I find it so sweet when Kim puts her hands over their ears, before saying something like 'it wouldn't be wrong to send them to heaven'.
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Well, I only saw Kim for the first time recently with the Maurizio & Herbie abscess fiasco but it did make me chuckle when I asked her to check Claudio over. I asked her if he was obese at 1.5kg and she was horrified I called him “my fattest piggy.” She covered his ears and told him not to listen to the horrible comments. 🤣 She then reassured him personally that he’s a very long pig, not overweight and has an incredibly masculine jaw. 😂😂
 
Regarding the frequency of handling...Mine are all rather mollycoddled! I’ve probably made a rod for my own back but I love how friendly they all are from all the attention. The four singles all vie for my attention a lot more. I sometimes find myself multitasking - neighbours Rupert & Algy will both be on their ledges wanting fuss so I end up with a hand in each cage. If I sit down, Rupert wants to climb out onto my lap. I always worry when some require special attention (medicating etc) that others feel left out so I make a special point of having others out for a cuddle the following day.
 
alexr said:
Regarding the frequency of handling...Mine are all rather mollycoddled! I’ve probably made a rod for my own back but I love how friendly they all are from all the attention. The four singles all vie for my attention a lot more. I sometimes find myself multitasking - neighbours Rupert & Algy will both be on their ledges wanting fuss so I end up with a hand in each cage. If I sit down, Rupert wants to climb out onto my lap. I always worry when some require special attention (medicating etc) that others feel left out so I make a special point of having others out for a cuddle the following day.
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As long as they're enjoying handling, that's fine. 🙂 However, as prey animals, many don't particularly enjoy it and some find it very stressful.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
As long as they're enjoying handling, that's fine. 🙂 However, as prey animals, many don't particularly enjoy it and some find it very stressful.
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Most seem to love it although I’ve still got some work to do with hyperactive Erik! Harry wasn’t quite so keen on cuddles but he enjoyed having his head stroked while he was in his cage. When I look after my friends piggies, they’re much more aloof and are not keen on being stroked or handled so I just sit and chat to them and feed them.
Historically, I’ve found sows to be a bit less keen on cuddles. I’ve had some very stroppy ladies. All the current lads are very keen on being stroked and snuggling with me. That said, Fernando makes a very odd noise when he’s out for a hug. I’m used to purring when being stroked but he makes an odd sound like loud chirruping/cooing. At first I thought it was the sound of annoyance but it doesn’t match his body language. He does it when curled up on me. This is normally followed by him licking my ear/neck/face. I’m hoping this is a good sign!
 
alexr said:
Most seem to love it although I’ve still got some work to do with hyperactive Erik! Harry wasn’t quite so keen on cuddles but he enjoyed having his head stroked while he was in his cage. When I look after my friends piggies, they’re much more aloof and are not keen on being stroked or handled so I just sit and chat to them and feed them.
Historically, I’ve found sows to be a bit less keen on cuddles. I’ve had some very stroppy ladies. All the current lads are very keen on being stroked and snuggling with me. That said, Fernando makes a very odd noise when he’s out for a hug. I’m used to purring when being stroked but he makes an odd sound like loud chirruping/cooing. At first I thought it was the sound of annoyance but it doesn’t match his body language. He does it when curled up on me. This is normally followed by him licking my ear/neck/face. I’m hoping this is a good sign!
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I agree that the boars seem to prefer cuddles to the sows! It's the same with children. Girls are generally nowhere near as cuddly as boys! I find it fascinating watching piggies interacting with one another!
 
Here's my main herd enjoying their regular saturday morning scatterfeed in the playpen, there are veggies and hay in a big pile on the floor and hidden in the cardboard boxes! Piggle, Puggle and Theo are in the middle, the Blod and Clover are rummaging for coriander in the big amazon box, and Jezzy is hoovering up the beansprouts I've hidden under the wooden sticks hideys :)20200104_092020.webp
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I agree that the boars seem to prefer cuddles to the sows! It's the same with children. Girls are generally nowhere near as cuddly as boys! I find it fascinating watching piggies interacting with one another!
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Our boar loves a cuddle with the wife, but not me, and dot hate cuddling from both of us lol
 
Loving this thread! My pigs are outdoor piggies and I have tried to recreate as natural an environment as possible for them. They have their shed but a runaround connector to a run on the lawn means they can choose to be inside or outside. I close the tube each evening at feeding time as thats the only way I can get all 6 inside at the same time (and nobody spending the night camping out in the tube!). The grass is limited at this time of year which is when my veggie bill has risen but they still graze on what they can and I move the run every few days to the best bit...it will get less and less as winter progresses so I'm also going through a bale of hay a week which is stuffed into every orifice in their shed. They have a decent scoop of pellets in 2 bowls (no measuring done here) and a big collander full of mixed veggies in the evening which they normally finish.
In the current weather if its not too rainy, they will pop out (usually as a herd) a couple of times a day but always at dusk, this is when I love to watch them jumping about, chasing one another and scooting in and out of the connector tube if a bird squalks & freaks them. When one zips off the others follow...safety in numbers I guess.

I'm looking forward to the grass growing again as they have almost trimmed the lot & I need more dandilion leaves which we have tonnes of on our local field but not much at the moment.

I sometimes feel mine are not as tame as pigs kept inside and they can be difficult to catch when I need to do any nail cutting or grooming but once on my lap they love it & I try to do this once a week (in pairs). However, I think having as wild an experience as possible along with daily human interaction is as nice a life as a pig could wish for....like others have said, its about them primarily.

Some piccies from tonights feed...they all come darting in (Roma always first) and i have to use a Pezl as my light broke 😂
 

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Loved this thread it has totally reassured me that I'm not giving them too much leafy salad that they love. I also had guilt that we weren't handling them enough but I find it stressful for them and us trying to catch them to get them out of the cage so I just sit by the cage every night when I give them their veg and talk and watch them and they seem to love being hand fed their veggies through the cage. The only time they get held is every Sunday when they get checked over, groomed and weighed etc and they get a cwtch and some piggie kisses before they go back in their cage.
 
Alisa3114 said:
Loved this thread it has totally reassured me that I'm not giving them too much leafy salad that they love. I also had guilt that we weren't handling them enough but I find it stressful for them and us trying to catch them to get them out of the cage so I just sit by the cage every night when I give them their veg and talk and watch them and they seem to love being hand fed their veggies through the cage. The only time they get held is every Sunday when they get checked over, groomed and weighed etc and they get a cwtch and some piggie kisses before they go back in their cage.
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Guinea pigs are so much more fun to just watch and have a little interaction with and a bit of hand feeding, but whilst they are in their own safe area playing about. I find this with gerbils too, rats are the animal perfectly suited to playing fully with and handling all the time, maybe some other rodents too but not any I know of
 
I don't handle my lot too much. Christian is the tamest as he has to be weighed every day and then has his Metacam. Other than that I generally just leave all four of them alone to do bimbly piggy stuff. Betsy has Dennis to play with and Christian has Meg. They are happy healthy and well adjusted piggies which is all I can ask for. They are not keen on being picked up but once they are I know I have their total trust and can do anything without much trouble from syringe feeding to putting in eye drops.
 
My Jess has always been a really human-loving pig, loves handling and cuddles and seeks them out. Luigi on the other hand hates it with a passion, even after six months with me. Nightmare to cut nails, would happily jump off the sofa/bed if he had the chance to! (But does love my 11yr old niece and happily sits next to her!) He’ll take food from my hand and the odd chin rub but that’s enough for him!
My Rupert wasn’t keen on handling at all but after his bladder stone op and issues over his last few years he had to have more handling for meds etc and actually became quite a cuddly boy, was with me over six years though so definitely took him a while!
 
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