I'm sure we've traumatized him forever :-\...Any hope for him?

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blkpunk311

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So we bought a new piggy on Sunday morning...We've left him alone for the most part, but we have an over-excited 4 year old that wants to stare at him all the time.

Well today I decided to see if he'd let us pick him up and take him out for a bit. He let me pet him and he seemed calm enough...he even let me pick him up...I had him on the floor in between my legs so that he couldn't really go anywhere, and we were talking to him softly and he was letting us pet him and he even ate a little of his treat (we hadn't seen him eat since we got him)...well everything was fine and then my daughter wanted to help me keep him in I guess (bad idea I know)..but she put her feet up to mine and everything was fine, but then he touched her leg, and she jumped...and he bolted...under the bed :-/

It literally took us an hour to get him from under the bed, and we had to do it by kind of trapping him so that he could only come out...I blocked off ways to get out with a box and then he got scared and ran...and he happened to run inside of the bag of bedding that had fallen over in the struggle...it looked like a scene from a comedy...but now I'm afraid that he's terrified of us forever...

Is there any hope for him?

Angie
 
Most of my piggies run and try and hide - thats just what some piggies do - its their nature as they are prey animals - many will often squeel blue murder and wriggle like billyo even though you havent hurt them - then once on your lap will settle down for some cuddles xx
 
Does he have a piggy friend? They get lonely on their own and a friend will help to calm him too. It would be best to get a friend from a rescue if he doesn't have one. When I first got my boy Nico, he jumped from the second floor of the hutch when i opened the door. He scared the daylights out of himself but he is ok now. He was very nervous anyway but he is a happy little chap now and comes downstairs for veggies and doesn't run away from me.
 
Thank you guys...I'm glad that there's hope for him and us still...I just went in and put some fresh veggies in his cage and I'm trying to leaving him alone for awhile...

You guys don't think that our trapping techniques scared him too much then? Should we give him a couple of days again to get used to everything again...hopefully he's not going to hate us forever...I would like to get him a little friend, but I don't think that our cage is big enough for 2 of them right now...Perhaps we went in on this decision too fast, I've never even had a small animal before, I've always had big dogs (rottweilers...I love them)...But we can't have them where we live, so we wanted to try something new...

Thanks again guys, I appreciate it.
 
The best thing you could do for him is really to get him a friend as they are herd animals...so require safety in numbers as they say. How big is your cage? Adding another pig doesn't really require much extra work or space. They need a 2x4 cage if I remember correctly. As piggyme243 has mentioned, C&C cages are a good idea as they can fit in any space and you can add levels too :).

I'm sure your little boy will come around again soon and isn't too traumatised. The amount of times mine have escaped and I've had to trap them under cupboards etc hasn't seem to traumatise them too much :))
 
When my kids want to handle the guinea's i always wrap the guinea in a blanket so he/she feels safe and make sure my kids are sat on the sofa (this prevents run away piggies!) - my daughter doesn't like it when they move quickly either so this works well for us.

He may be startled now but he will quickly get over it - i've had many run away piggies that have hidden under sofa's that i've had to trap - they soon forget!

Don't let this prevent you from handling them - i had guinea pigs as a child and didn't get back into them until 10 years later and i found them to be really fast movers. As your confidence grows you will find easier ways for you and your daughter to handle him :)

Like others have said a friend for him will help with his confidence and its soooooo much more fun watching them in pairs.

Good luck - everyone n this forum will always be here to help :)
 
Okay, so this isn't about a guinea pig but about a degu.

When I first brought my adopted degu home, it was a disaster. I put him in to his new cage but he jumped straight out and fell behind the back of the dresser. The gap between the dresser and the wall was too small so Marley didn't fall on to the floor but kind of got stuck between the wall and the dresser.

I gently moved the dresser out so that Marley could get to the floor and he just ran for it. It took me well over an hour to catch him as he kept hiding.

I thought I had traumatised him for life but he soon got over it.

Marley is now really friendly and loves to be handled.

I guess what I am trying to get at is accidents happen but 9 times out of 10, small furries forgive us :)
 
When I first got my girl Sherbert she was just a baby and being kept in a large dog crate while she bonded with my other girl.She was so small she could fit through the gaps in the bars and, despit my best efforts to block the gaps, she got out about 3 times into my room. She was so young and skittish she was very terrified when I went to catch her. Nearly three years on now and she's a very happy friendly girl so she wasnt traumatised by it.
I agree with what everyone else is saying that your boy should be a lot happier and probably a lot less nervous if he has a piggy friend.
 
My 3 are well used to be handled, they whistle and wheek like mad when I bring them food. But try and pick them up and you'd think a big purple guinea pig eater was trying to make a snack out of them and they bolt in 3 different directions! :)
 
My piggies are scared of their own shadow. Yet on me, they never bloody shut up weeking.

Makes all the chasing around catching the little sods worth while.
 
Please dont worry, this sounds like perfectly normal piggie behavior. Even my very tame herd run a mile when i want a cuddle. It wont have traumatised your piggie at all.

x.
 
I have a 4 yo :))

My pigs were awful when I first got them, now one of them will happily trot up to him and take food, and the other doesn't even jump anymore at the stomping :)

they will get used to it in time.
 
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