Guinea pig suddenly skittish

[Piggymamatales]

We have two boars Henry and Iggy...about 14 monthe old now we have had them since 10 weeks. Lovely pigs, complete characters. Henry has let us stroke him in the cage for a while now, enjoys chin rubs. He is a complete handful though, will not sit still for laptime and is just hyper. Iggy in contrast won't let us stroke him in the cage but is more chilled in laptime.

A few weeks ago, we had an incident where Henry ran off the sofa and ended up under the sofa. He took a lot of coaxing out as he was quite traumatised. He wasn't physically hurt luckily, we kept a close eye and he's running about, eating normally etc.

However, since the incident he rarely lets us stroke him in the cage. He still will but not as much as before. He just runs away. It's making me quite sad and I don't know what is up with him, what I can do. He doesn't appear to be hurt and is his normal self otherwise. My other thought is maybe it's unrelated to his escapade and he's just going through a hormone spike or something. Any ideas?

We no longer have laptime on the sofa, we put them on an armchair and just stroke them and we can easily stop them running off.

(Henry is the little aby on the left)

 

[sport_billy]

Awww sorry to hear this

 

[Roselina]

Oh that’s sad - hopefully with your gentle care and perseverance he’ll come round and be as he was.

 

[sport_billy]

I know things like this are distressing, I would suggest trying little bits of veggies to bring him back round slowly.

piggies always need to feel secure, they are prey animals. We have had 9 girls over the years and out of that - under half have never been happy with been petted in or out of the cage, so when you have ones that E. enjoy chin rubs etc... it is nice. Butremember even the ones that don’t love you all the same they just have different terms and boundaries.

Henry will go back to letting you touch him more I am sure, I would advise more interaction if possible in the cage and less out of it with him, as the cage is his domain and where he will feel less vulnerable.

The fact you can still fuss him in there is great and shows trust is still there... baby steps and I am sure he will be back to normal soon

they are gorgeous by the way! : love: