How To Tell When A Piggy Is Completely Asleep During Lap Time?

[Ruby Inferno]

I have 4 piggies, one of them (Doughnut, in avatar) loves cuddles and lap time much more than any of the others. During lap time I pet him while he sits on his cuddle towel on my lap. Within a few minutes he looks all relaxed with his eyes half-shut, usually accompanied by some yawns. He does fidget quite a bit though. Does this mean he is only half asleep? I can only cuddle him in one room of the house (he moults everywhere and his fur makes some people in my house itch), which is basically the pet room because it has my gerbils as well as one of my pairs of piggies, and usually the gerbils make a lot of noise so that probably disturbs his sleep.

If I don't pet him, he sort of looks at me as if to say "Oi human, stop slacking!"

 

[piggyfan]

Aww what a lovely bond you have with Doughnut. I would say he is dozing but not fully asleep. My late Amina is the only piggy ever to sleep on me. She would curl up and not move at all.

 

[Freela]

So sweet! It's hard to tell when they are sleeping, especially since pigs can sleep with eyes open. Linney used to actually close her eyes and apparently sleep on my knee (however, not necessarily for long periods of time. In between periods with her eyes shut, she would sometimes open her eyes, fidget or change position, etc.) She also spent a lot of time being petted with her eyes half-closed and obviously drowsy. Hadley also will do the very relaxed, stretched out, eyes at half-mast doze, but I don't think she's deeply asleep. At any rate, she is easy to rouse once a sound or something catches her attention. I don't think that guinea pigs are very sound sleepers anyhow... the only one I really saw 'asleep' was Linney, who would flop in the cage corner on her side with eyes shut, and it was only when she was quite elderly that I would catch her doing that. Out of my more wired pigs, I don't think I've ever seen them definitively asleep (I don't even think I ever saw Frenzy lay down! That one was high-strung!)

 

[7squeakers.]

Over the years I have caught one or two piggies in really deep sleep (see video Crow Feather is Asleep). You can tell that they are in deep sleep when their ears and whiskers twitch and, if their eyes are open, the eyeballs move rapidly - REM= Rapid Eye Movement. It usually does not take much to wake them up, though. If a piggie falls asleep on your lap, this is a sign of trust. It shows that the pig feels completely safe with you.

 

[Ruby Inferno]

Yeah, Doughnut is on the timid side so I'm not sure it's going to be easy to get him to completely fall asleep on my lap.

I really love him, I've had him for nearly a year now, he is so cuddly and sweet. He loves to hide his head in my arm or hoodie hood and starts gently squeaking (as long as I am petting him) which is just lovely.

Forgot to add, he squeaks the whole time whilst on my lap because I keep petting him. If I don't pet him he doesn't squeak, haha.

His brother does not like being cuddled at all. He fidgets most of the time and tries to jump off.