guinea reactions to specific words/sounds?

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Like many besotted guinea owners, I used to talk nonsense to my guineas, including "Yes yes yes....yes" which turned into "yus yus yus...yus" and even "sus sus sus". Especially my boars incl. husboars found this irresistible for some reason and reacted with zooms, popcorns and general sexed-out behaviour.

I don't recall feeding them while saying this, and anyway they didn't beg, they got all excited and rushed about, playing I suppose. Not that it's urgent or anything, but just wondered if anybody has noticed this kind of thing?

I could understand getting hyper about 'cucumber' or something, but a nonsense word? I heard but it could equally be wrong that cats react especially well to a name with 'S' in it. So could guineas get excited about an 'S' too, especially if it's on repeat like "Yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus". I'd vary the intonation a bit and add a couple of small pauses.

 

[KatieM]

My piggies respond to “piggy, piggy, piggies”…I think it’s because I say it whenever they wheek on their own…so we kinda talk back and forth. I do think they think they’ll get food from it…since usually they start talking around a meal time but if I say it anytime by two oldest girls will always respond!

 

[Wiebke]

Like many besotted guinea owners, I used to talk nonsense to my guineas, including "Yes yes yes....yes" which turned into "yus yus yus...yus" and even "sus sus sus". Especially my boars incl. husboars found this irresistible for some reason and reacted with zooms, popcorns and general sexed-out behaviour.

I don't recall feeding them while saying this, and anyway they didn't beg, they got all excited and rushed about, playing I suppose. Not that it's urgent or anything, but just wondered if anybody has noticed this kind of thing?

I could understand getting hyper about 'cucumber' or something, but a nonsense word? I heard but it could equally be wrong that cats react especially well to a name with 'S' in it. So could guineas get excited about an 'S' too, especially if it's on repeat like "Yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus, yus". I'd vary the intonation a bit and add a couple of small pauses.

Piggies can react to regular sounds we make; if they are interpreted positively/encouragingly you can share lots of fun. Piggies do not react to the words themselves but to the melody/pitch and to your emotions.

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Piggies can react to regular sounds we make; if they are interpreted positively/encouragingly you can share lots of fun. Piggies do not react to the words themselves but to the melody/pitch and to your emotions.

That explains a lot, a whole lot!

I've been thinking about this on and off since I read your answer. You don't need to respond unless you want to Wiebke, I know you've got a lot on your plate both with your own health and with important explanations on the forum like sexing piggies and piggy health explanations.

I used to think my guinea pigs were bilingual English/German because they seemed to understand both No and Nein + Cucumber and I was told by pig sitters that they seemed to react to Gurke too.

I used to say No on repeat in a fairly similar way to "Yes yes yes...yes" , so w/o any sternness in my voice and only when they were doing things I'd prefer they didn't but were not actually harmful to them like chewing wooden furniture or jumping into a stored box of hay I had for them. Sometimes they'd their head on one side, seemingly listening and then run off a different way. Sometimes they'd stop in their tracks and listen but then continue. I had no expectations that they'd obey the No, piggies are obviously not a dog, but I thought they understood. 'Nein' they'd hear at the vet's sometimes but also not in a cross way, just 'nein, nicht beissen' (no, don't bite) while piggy being held.

Turns out that they were picking up on something in my emotions when I was saying No on repeat, which maybe distracted them enough to go off and do something else.

And I suppose it was the same with Cucumber, that unbeknownst to me, some emotion was showing them something tasty was in the offing. I mean before I'd done anything obvious like headed off to the kitchen.

Thanks to explanations on here, I now even know how to show a 'No' in body language a piggy understand, if I ever have piggies again.

 

[Wiebke]

That explains a lot, a whole lot!

I've been thinking about this on and off since I read your answer. You don't need to respond unless you want to Wiebke, I know you've got a lot on your plate both with your own health and with important explanations on the forum like sexing piggies and piggy health explanations.

I used to think my guinea pigs were bilingual English/German because they seemed to understand both No and Nein + Cucumber and I was told by pig sitters that they seemed to react to Gurke too.

I used to say No on repeat in a fairly similar way to "Yes yes yes...yes" , so w/o any sternness in my voice and only when they were doing things I'd prefer they didn't but were not actually harmful to them like chewing wooden furniture or jumping into a stored box of hay I had for them. Sometimes they'd their head on one side, seemingly listening and then run off a different way. Sometimes they'd stop in their tracks and listen but then continue. I had no expectations that they'd obey the No, piggies are obviously not a dog, but I thought they understood. 'Nein' they'd hear at the vet's sometimes but also not in a cross way, just 'nein, nicht beissen' (no, don't bite) while piggy being held.

Turns out that they were picking up on something in my emotions when I was saying No on repeat, which maybe distracted them enough to go off and do something else.

And I suppose it was the same with Cucumber, that unbeknownst to me, some emotion was showing them something tasty was in the offing. I mean before I'd done anything obvious like headed off to the kitchen.

Thanks to explanations on here, I now even know how to show a 'No' in body language a piggy understand, if I ever have piggies again.

Piggies react very much to the emotion in your voice/mind, pictures in your mind (me picturing holding them like a precious object and being ever so careful with them, which helps me at the start and when they are ill) and they also have a much keener sense of smell - they don't need the word 'cucumber' to know what it is; they can smell it!

You may find that how you talk with them actually adapts to their own speach patterns. They are much more astute communicators than we would give them. It's rather fascinating and highly interesting once you get into it and start playing around.

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Piggies react very much to the emotion in your voice/mind, pictures in your mind (me picturing holding them like a precious object and being ever so careful with them, which helps me at the start and when they are ill) and they also have a much keener sense of smell - they don't need the word 'cucumber' to know what it is; they can smell it!

You may find that how you talk with them actually adapts to their own speach patterns. They are much more astute communicators than we would give them. It's rather fascinating and highly interesting once you get into it and start playing around.

To the italics: That I do know, but they'd react to 'cucumber' when it was still in the fridge, reacting to the mere mention of it as it were and I never noticed that with other food words I may have mentioned in passing. They all loved cucumber above all!

To the bold: I noticed that over time too and in my human-centric mind I assumed they understood certain words because they themselves are so verbal in their communications, even with each other, as opposed to, say, rabbits with each other.

Otherwise, fascinating to hear piggies react to the images in your mind! Wow!

 

[Wiebke]

To the italics: That I do know, but they'd react to 'cucumber' when it was still in the fridge, reacting to the mere mention of it as it were and I never noticed that with other food words I may have mentioned in passing. They all loved cucumber above all!

To the bold: I noticed that over time too and in my human-centric mind I assumed they understood certain words because they themselves are so verbal in their communications, even with each other, as opposed to, say, rabbits with each other.

Otherwise, fascinating to hear piggies react to the images in your mind! Wow!

Images in your mind also work with dying people. I managed to help calm down my MIL when she was clearly restless for a while by picturing her sitting in her favourite garden seat under her apple tree on a summer's day with all the sensory enrichment of the fresh grass, bees and scents while sitting up with her during nighttime hours.

My Llewelyn once twitched in his sleep in the cage exactly were I gave him a virtual little pet in my head from the sofa. I know that it sounds weird but it did happen like that.

 

[Crystella]

My girls react to my other half, who can't whistle properly. He does this so they know the rustling of the food bag is for them and not the humans. they also know when it cleaning time with them smell of the good hay and will start to crowd around the door back to their home after its in there. The zoomies and popcorns, you'd think it was gold for them. Its priceless for me to watch.

 

[Freela]

My pigs respond to the sing-song 'baby talk' voice that we often use when we talk to them directly. They get excited if we talk in the baby-talk voice. Within that tone of voice, at least one of them knows the word 'treat' and she will respond with noticeably more excitement than anything else. She doesn't respond to 'treat' in a normal conversational tone, though. It has to be said in the baby-talk voice. My theory is that she hears people talk in a normal conversational tone all the time when it's not directed at her- other people in the family talk to each other, the TV is on, etc. This all gets filtered into background noise for them and they don't pay attention. It's neither threatening or interesting to them. But the baby talk voice makes them pay attention, they know that's relevant to them, and once they're cued in to that, the sound 'treat' means food and that's exponentially more exciting. It's Pavlovian conditioning, in the same way that she responds to the bag crinkling or the fridge opening because that comes right before the food, the human mouth-sound 'treat' with a high pitch comes right before the food too. And she knows it!