Help! My Guinea Pig Is Acting Strange?!

[Bambi&Thumper]

Hi all!

First of all I'm new to the Forum. My name is Shaz, I'm from the UKabd have two youngsters called Bambi and Thumper, no older than 6 months old.
Got them both together so they were living together before rehoming.

Recently one of my piggies had been acting REALLY strange. Really scary.
He's NEVER done it before, he lives with his mate and they bicker every now and again (both males) and gets jumped by the other (dominance?).

I cleaned their cage thoroughly yesterday and rearranged some of their little homes and litter tray etc.
Today this little piggy was acting POSESSED. That's the only way I can describe it?!

I woke up in the middle of the night to a crashing sound of the wire cage. I turned my light on to check on them assuming one of the was stood on the little house and slipped down the side in his sleep.
But when I opened the cage this guinea pig LEAPED out of the cage from about half a meter away! When I put him back in he was still scurrying to get out of the cage. After a few cuddles and soothing talk I put him back in and shut the door. Then he proceeded to run around frantically jumping on his houses and on top of his hay holder and THROWING himself against the walls of the cage several times.
Now he's curled up in a corner circling and making soft normal piggy noises.

He is eating normally, eating pellets and pepper. But it is just very worrying!

Has anyone else had this before? Should I all the vet? If I catch him doing it again I will video it and post it.

 

[Julie M]

It sounds to me as if something has scared him.
How is he today?
What size and type is your cage? Also if there are serious bites on either piggie you will need to separate them.

 

[nana piggie]

Maybe he doesn't like how you rearranged their houses and hay tray. My girls are fine when i move their stuff to clean, but it all has to go back in the same places or my rosie gets angry.

 

[Lady Kelly]

Could it have been zoomies/popcorning? He might have been overly happy with the new set up. If you have a look on youtube there are lots of video's of piggies popcorning and zooming around which should show you if thats what he was doing

 

[Lorcan]

it sounds like zoomies, especially if he's otherwise happy, making normal sounds and there were no angry voices coming from either of them.

With regards to throwing himself at the cage walls, one of mine does precisely the same things during zoomies time. I think in his case they kind of just...get in the way. Hopefully that's all it is, but I second the YouTube video advice, especially if you're still worried.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Just a thought, have you checked his eyes? One of my girls if blind in one eye and often runs into things especially if spooked by another piggy or something.

I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about though

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all!

First of all I'm new to the Forum. My name is Shaz, I'm from the UKabd have two youngsters called Bambi and Thumper, no older than 6 months old.
Got them both together so they were living together before rehoming.

Recently one of my piggies had been acting REALLY strange. Really scary.
He's NEVER done it before, he lives with his mate and they bicker every now and again (both males) and gets jumped by the other (dominance?).

I cleaned their cage thoroughly yesterday and rearranged some of their little homes and litter tray etc.
Today this little piggy was acting POSESSED. That's the only way I can describe it?!

I woke up in the middle of the night to a crashing sound of the wire cage. I turned my light on to check on them assuming one of the was stood on the little house and slipped down the side in his sleep.
But when I opened the cage this guinea pig LEAPED out of the cage from about half a meter away! When I put him back in he was still scurrying to get out of the cage. After a few cuddles and soothing talk I put him back in and shut the door. Then he proceeded to run around frantically jumping on his houses and on top of his hay holder and THROWING himself against the walls of the cage several times.
Now he's curled up in a corner circling and making soft normal piggy noises.

He is eating normally, eating pellets and pepper. But it is just very worrying!

Has anyone else had this before? Should I all the vet? If I catch him doing it again I will video it and post it.

It sounds like something has totally spooked him in the cage and that he was trying his best to get away from it, and the cage. Please have a good look at the cage and deep clean it.