Guinea Pig in the night

Isabela

Isabela

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
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Hello,

I have a question for all the guinea pig owners that have their piggies in the room with them.
I want to ask for any kind of help regarding peace and quiet in the night. I have a problem with loud water bottle among other things. And I would love to receive any types of advice for keeping guinea pigs as quiet in the night as possible. Any ideas?
Thank you.
 
My guinea pigs generally don’t bother me, they do chew on their house quite a bit and, as you’ve said their water bottle is kind of noisy but I can usually just ignore it. 🙂
 
Sophie Blane said:
My guinea pigs generally don’t bother me, they do chew on their house quite a bit and, as you’ve said their water bottle is kind of noisy but I can usually just ignore it. 🙂
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That's good, I can't anymore 🙂 And sadly there isn't a place I can put them besides my room 😣
 
Isabela said:
Do you have any recommendations?
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My glass ones from pets at home are pretty good. But it does depend on the pig. My sow is a loud drinker and my boar is quiet. I know whos drinking without looking lol
 
I'm sorry you're having this problem, when I was younger and had pigs on my room I was much lightly sleeper and found the same thing with the water bottle. Now I'm basically always exhausted so crash out quite easily 🤣
Although I've not tried these, these are maybe some things that may help muffle the noise:

Cover the cage with a large blanket at night, my thought behind this is that it may muffle the noises they make.

Find some comfortable in-ear headphones, I actually really like the classic lead iPhone pods, then of a night play music that you find calming, there's plenty of apps that play like calming sounds like waves/water. Or I used to fall asleep to Ed Sheerans album 🤣 Hopefully if you find something that you find really relaxing, you could turn it up enough to hide the noise of the piggies, but still fall asleep.

The only other option I could possibly think of is to change their water bottle to a bowl over night, but I'd be concerned that they wouldn't know how to drink from it if they are used to a bottle and 2, it would make a big mess if they decided to do zoomies 😂
 
dannif_piggies said:
The only other option I could possibly think of is to change their water bottle to a bowl over night, but I'd be concerned that they wouldn't know how to drink from it if they are used to a bottle and 2, it would make a big mess if they decided to do zoomies 😂
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I think it's actually harder to get them to drink from a bottle if they're used to a bowl, than it is the other way around. When I first got Comet and Blitzen, they'd been using a bottle usually but the bottle that came with the Ferplast turned out to be dodgy, so I gave them a bowl instead. They tipped it over at least once, but I suspect that was youthful exuberance rather than anything else. The big problem with bowls is they get dirty ridiculously quick - pellets, food, hay and even poop end up in a water bowl in just a couple of hours.
 
Lorcan said:
I think it's actually harder to get them to drink from a bottle if they're used to a bowl, than it is the other way around. When I first got Comet and Blitzen, they'd been using a bottle usually but the bottle that came with the Ferplast turned out to be dodgy, so I gave them a bowl instead. They tipped it over at least once, but I suspect that was youthful exuberance rather than anything else. The big problem with bowls is they get dirty ridiculously quick - pellets, food, hay and even poop end up in a water bowl in just a couple of hours.
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I've never personally used a bowel for my pigs, for the mess and dirt in water reason. Just didn't know what else to suggest 😂
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
My glass ones from pets at home are pretty good. But it does depend on the pig. My sow is a loud drinker and my boar is quiet. I know whos drinking without looking lol
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I know what you mean, I have three guinea pigs and only one drinks so loudly and long that it's really annoying :D She uses her teeth to move the ball in the bottle and the water just drips over her and that's why she has to drink for 5 minutes -.-
But it's impossible to intruduce them to a bowl. I would love to have a bowl instead of a bottle :)
 
dannif_piggies said:
I'm sorry you're having this problem, when I was younger and had pigs on my room I was much lightly sleeper and found the same thing with the water bottle. Now I'm basically always exhausted so crash out quite easily 🤣
Although I've not tried these, these are maybe some things that may help muffle the noise:

Cover the cage with a large blanket at night, my thought behind this is that it may muffle the noises they make.

Find some comfortable in-ear headphones, I actually really like the classic lead iPhone pods, then of a night play music that you find calming, there's plenty of apps that play like calming sounds like waves/water. Or I used to fall asleep to Ed Sheerans album 🤣 Hopefully if you find something that you find really relaxing, you could turn it up enough to hide the noise of the piggies, but still fall asleep.

The only other option I could possibly think of is to change their water bottle to a bowl over night, but I'd be concerned that they wouldn't know how to drink from it if they are used to a bottle and 2, it would make a big mess if they decided to do zoomies 😂
Click to expand...
Thank you for your suggestion. I've already tried everything. Blanket doesn't do sadly. The earplugs are great, but they fall out of my ears in the night and I also can't use them always. But I would love to make them switch to bowl. That would be amazing but they don't know how to drink from the bowl.. Is there any way to get them used to it? :)
 
Lorcan said:
I think it's actually harder to get them to drink from a bottle if they're used to a bowl, than it is the other way around. When I first got Comet and Blitzen, they'd been using a bottle usually but the bottle that came with the Ferplast turned out to be dodgy, so I gave them a bowl instead. They tipped it over at least once, but I suspect that was youthful exuberance rather than anything else. The big problem with bowls is they get dirty ridiculously quick - pellets, food, hay and even poop end up in a water bowl in just a couple of hours.
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I agree with you. I haven't had that luck to make them switch to water bowl. How did you do it? :)
 
Guinea Slave said:
I know its probably not very helpful but I have a husband who snores... I use ear plugs which help massively! Worth a try? I get mine from this place: Snorestore
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It actually helps quite a lot but I can't always have earplugs every night, it's not healthy :( I would love to use a water bowl for them but they don't know what to do with it :/
 
dannif_piggies said:
I've never personally used a bowel for my pigs, for the mess and dirt in water reason. Just didn't know what else to suggest 😂
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Thank you for your answer I appreciate it :) I would love to try it, it would be so much better :)
 
Isabela said:
I agree with you. I haven't had that luck to make them switch to water bowl. How did you do it? :)
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When I first gave them the bowl, I'd literally just got them home. So they had their little hidey place, and I placed the water bowl next to a small bowl of pellets, some hay and some veg, within easy reach from their hidey entry. That way they never had to venture far if they didn't want to and the bowl was right there next to the food - it meant emptying it and refilling it more often, but it got them to associate it with their food.
They always preferred a bottle and I got a couple of glass bottles for them within a couple of weeks which they were happy to use again, but if for any reason I couldn't have the bottles out they always had a bowl instead. And they did drink from it...not much, but I'd see Comet standing on the edge of it (a non-tip bowl in the end, he's probably the daft one that tipped it originally). They're not always going to "get" it overnight, but I imagine they'd get at least a bit curious as to what this random bowl in the middle of their cage or run is. Using a bowl might seem a bit strange to us but it's more natural really for them than using a bottle would be.
 
Small clip on bowl. Shame they can't use a bird water feeder, as they don't have a ball in. Maybe they could if you found one with a wide enough base bit on.x
 
You could try a ferplast sippy bottle that has a lever rather than ball. I tried it once because I thought they would be easier and cleaner for both me and the pigs but none of mine would use it. They would however keep brushing past it and letting the water out
 
One of my pigs is a serial bottle attacker and it disturbs me in the other bedroom, with a shower room in between! I swap their bottle for a bowl overnight now. It’s always a bit emptier in the morning and they have little wet chins!
 
I dont have a picture but i'll do my best to explain it.
I have a midwest cage- I hang a towel over one side and put the water bottle over it. It reduces the banging. I tried using a water bowl once and the piggies decided they wanted to flip and play in it :xd:
1547583246083.webp
 
Lorcan said:
When I first gave them the bowl, I'd literally just got them home. So they had their little hidey place, and I placed the water bowl next to a small bowl of pellets, some hay and some veg, within easy reach from their hidey entry. That way they never had to venture far if they didn't want to and the bowl was right there next to the food - it meant emptying it and refilling it more often, but it got them to associate it with their food.
They always preferred a bottle and I got a couple of glass bottles for them within a couple of weeks which they were happy to use again, but if for any reason I couldn't have the bottles out they always had a bowl instead. And they did drink from it...not much, but I'd see Comet standing on the edge of it (a non-tip bowl in the end, he's probably the daft one that tipped it originally). They're not always going to "get" it overnight, but I imagine they'd get at least a bit curious as to what this random bowl in the middle of their cage or run is. Using a bowl might seem a bit strange to us but it's more natural really for them than using a bottle would be.
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That's great that they used it. I tried to have my bowl places under the bottle but no such luck. I also tried to remove the bottles and see if they would drink from the bowl but they didn't :( I love your story, thanks for sharing :)
 
rhymer said:
Small clip on bowl. Shame they can't use a bird water feeder, as they don't have a ball in. Maybe they could if you found one with a wide enough base bit on.x
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You mean like a bird feeder bowl?
 
Lady Kelly said:
You could try a ferplast sippy bottle that has a lever rather than ball. I tried it once because I thought they would be easier and cleaner for both me and the pigs but none of mine would use it. They would however keep brushing past it and letting the water out
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I bought that also and no such luck. They did the same thing :D It was weird to them :D
 
Guineapigfeet said:
One of my pigs is a serial bottle attacker and it disturbs me in the other bedroom, with a shower room in between! I swap their bottle for a bowl overnight now. It’s always a bit emptier in the morning and they have little wet chins!
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I also have two agressive bottle drinkers. Try to imagine having that in the room with you :/ Did they drink from the bowl right from the start?
 
Sorry the piggies keep you awake but look on the bright side- the waterbottle rattle is the least noisy thing my herd find to do at night! The carrot cottage crunching is the most unnerving, but if they go quiet I wake up in a panic and rush downstairs to see if they are ok :) I always sleep with all the doors open so I can hear my piggies, maybe I'm just weird but I sleep better knowing they are playing happily!
 
lilyandluna said:
I dont have a picture but i'll do my best to explain it.
I have a midwest cage- I hang a towel over one side and put the water bottle over it. It reduces the banging. I tried using a water bowl once and the piggies decided they wanted to flip and play in it :xd:
View attachment 104735
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Thank you for the picture :D How much was the cage? :) I guess I could also try it, since they really love the attack the bottle :D
I've attached a picture of my cage :D
 

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