Hair biting/eating

[egrorian]

I have two 4 year old boars - China has always been a bit odd and he often has spells of vigorously biting at the carpet and wallpaper when out exercising in my living room.

More recently he has started going to Harvey's back and biting off some hair and eating it! Just in the last couple of days China has started trying to bite at hair on Harvey's sides too. Sometime he keeps doing this, even when Harvey warns him off by clattering his teeth, although I've noticed this mainly happens when they are out for exercise, not so much when they are in their cage.

I can't find any mention of this behaviour in my guinea pig books. Has anyone else experienced this/have any ideas?

 

[Wiebke]

Barbering is quite common and nothing to worry about.

We have seen quite a few piggy "haircuts" on here - the worst and most persistent offender being a completely blind and deaf piggy whose efforts on her group mates are a bit haphazard, shall we say?

Here is what the late guinea pig guru Peter Gurney had to say:
http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/barbering.htm

 

[zombieprincess]

I have a long haired 2 1/2 year old boar, who had barbered since he was 5 weeks old, he chews his own hair, and chewed his brothers hair, i believe he does it when he is stressed though, as they didnt have a great start, and he's barbered near constantly since his brother died, however i've seen new little hairs growing in his worst nibbled spots since he's aquired a new little friend. In all ive left him, as he's still healthy and it looks a lot nicer than how i could cut it! I think theres some spray that people have mentioned, sour apple or somthing like that, which can put them off doing it. But unless he's barbering so far down he is nicking his friends or his own skin, i would just leave it.

 

[Wiebke]

I have a long haired 2 1/2 year old boar, who had barbered since he was 5 weeks old, he chews his own hair, and chewed his brothers hair, i believe he does it when he is stressed though, as they didnt have a great start, and he's barbered near constantly since his brother died, however i've seen new little hairs growing in his worst nibbled spots since he's aquired a new little friend. In all ive left him, as he's still healthy and it looks a lot nicer than how i could cut it! I think theres some spray that people have mentioned, sour apple or somthing like that, which can put them off doing it. But unless he's barbering so far down he is nicking his friends or his own skin, i would just leave it.

Somebody has warned me that sour apple spray is NOT good to use with guinea pigs as it contains harmful substances in case it IS ingested!

 

[zombieprincess]

Good to know Wiebke, i'll admit it's been a long time since i've been on pig forums and am a bit out of the the loop! Maybe it's somthing thats been found out since i was told about it.