Inactive pigs

K

kevoayyyy

New Born Pup
Joined
Mar 10, 2025
Messages
4
Reaction score
5
Points
55
Location
NJ, USA
Hello all,

I’m looking for some advice on getting 2 out of our 3 guinea pigs more active and engaged. I’m not going to go into detail on why all 3 are neighbors and none of them live together (not dramatic or anything, just a long story and don’t want a wall of text distracting). Given getting another one isn’t in the cards, I figured being neighbors to see and hear eachother would be better than nothing. I even cut down the chloroplast on the sides of their cages so they can see eachother better when they’re eating or just meandering around.

Grogu(3) and Larkin (4) spend the majority of their time in their huts in their lofts. They have always been this way past being a few months old. I have a lot of different enrichment toys in their cages and playpens pictured here. Their playpens are down at night roughly every other night, never left unsupervised. They may go down there for a minute or two when I first put it down, but that’s it. I’m within eyesight of them most of the time, and interact with them many times throughout the day where I’ll pet or talk to them, or knock one of their balls around or something. I just want to get Grogu and Larkin more active and enjoy themselves.

All of them get regular vet visits and are all perfectly healthy with the exception of Grogu being slightly overweight but not to a concerning level. They have a balanced diet, eat good, drink good, and go to the bathroom perfectly normal. So I am not worried about it being a health issue since this is just how they have always been. Thank you in advance for any advice or tips!
Image

Image
Image
Image
 
Wow what an amazing set up - lucky piggies 🥰
I’m no expert but I’m wondering if they feel too exposed in their playpens ?
Being prey animals they may not like the open playpen on the floor ?
Their food etc is in their cages so I expect they feel happier there ?
Just a thought as they’re obviously healthy piggies otherwise
I’m sure other members will be along later with views and advice 🥰
 
Roselina said:
Wow what an amazing set up - lucky piggies 🥰
I’m no expert but I’m wondering if they feel too exposed in their playpens ?
Being prey animals they may not like the open playpen on the floor ?
Their food etc is in their cages so I expect they feel happier there ?
Just a thought as they’re obviously healthy piggies otherwise
I’m sure other members will be along later with views and advice 🥰
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response! Thank you on the setup, these guys are spoiled lol. They definitely do feel a little more exposed, but the issue isn’t specifically the playpens. It’s the overall lack of activity even within their cage where they have plenty of cover, and just laying in their main hut. If they were active in their cage, and not the playpen fair enough. But the issue is more general, and I just added the playpen part to show they have a lot of toys/space.
 
Piggies are crepuscular so are more active during early morning and evening. They will tend to lounge around more during the day.

Activity for piggies is rather a lot about mental stimulation. Not toys as such (as most commercial toys are ignored) but foraging.
I see you have hay trays which is great so they can get right in amongst hay.
Do you scatter feed their veg and pellets all around the cage? That really helps get them moving - you want to avoid them just sitting and eating in one place as much as possible .
Otherwise, great enrichment is lots of tunnels and cardboard boxes with holes cut in, fill them all with hay so they wander from one to the next foraging

I’ve added a guide below which may also give other ideas

Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
 
I plonk my piggies into a playpen made of Songmics partitions twice a day. It's about 8x3 foot long and I put a pop up tunnel into it and hides. They live separately in 3x2 foot cages and were very inactive since starting to live apart. They are slightly nervous in the playpen, so run around in it, but can also hide if they wish. They have developed a muscle memory for the activity and started doing very fast zoomies in their cages again. They start running around at cleaning time, twice a day, and hop into the taxi tube very readily for their gym session. I think it benefits them greatly and they look fitter and lighter on their feet and generally happier.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Piggies are crepuscular so are more active during early morning and evening. They will tend to lounge around more during the day.

Activity for piggies is rather a lot about mental stimulation. Not toys as such (as most commercial toys are ignored) but foraging.
I see you have hay trays which is great so they can get right in amongst hay.
Do you scatter feed their veg and pellets all around the cage? That really helps get them moving - you want to avoid them just sitting and eating in one place as much as possible .
Otherwise, great enrichment is lots of tunnels and cardboard boxes with holes cut in, fill them all with hay so they wander from one to the next foraging

I’ve added a guide below which may also give other ideas

Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response!
I do have foraging mats for each of them, theyre like those fabric ones which I put ~1/4 of their food into, and the other 3/4 into a bowl.
I lovee the idea of spreading their whole diet out a bit more and making them look for it! I tried it this morning, about 2 hours ago. Bleu (the most active, gray and white) is loving it. Larkin (brown/white) is also making his way around. Grogu (black and white) has not started picking up on whats going on I dont think lol. He ate the small amount I put in his bowl (just wanted to still put some there since that's what they're used to). He usually goes back up and takes a break which is what he's currently doing, but will keep posted!
 
Truffolo said:
I plonk my piggies into a playpen made of Songmics partitions twice a day. It's about 8x3 foot long and I put a pop up tunnel into it and hides. They live separately in 3x2 foot cages and were very inactive since starting to live apart. They are slightly nervous in the playpen, so run around in it, but can also hide if they wish. They have developed a muscle memory for the activity and started doing very fast zoomies in their cages again. They start running around at cleaning time, twice a day, and hop into the taxi tube very readily for their gym session. I think it benefits them greatly and they look fitter and lighter on their feet and generally happier.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response! I've always been hesitant to put them down in the playpen. I figured if they don't want to be down there, I don't want to force them. Do you think putting them down there, while the ramp is down (so they have access to back up as soon as they want) would be a good idea just to get them more used to being down there?

Side note: what's a taxi tube? Is that just the long ones to run through (like the red one in the image of all of their playpens)?
 
kevoayyyy said:
what's a taxi tube
Click to expand...
I imagine @Truffolo is referring to a tube which the guineas go into which Truffolo can pick up with guineas inside to plonk them somewhere, rather than any specific type of tube. I could be wrong of course.

Wow, amazing set-up!

I wonder if your guineas find the ramps a little steep - they can presumably manage them, but it may take a bit of effort they'd rather not do? Good on you for having sides on the ramps, I noticed with my own guineas that a steep ramp without sides was no-go.

To inspire your guineas to move more, you could put food all over the place, not just in among the hay but all over the set up, including play area down on the floor. I used to do that with little bits of cucumber. If the guineas don't cotton on right away, you can draw them along with the bit of cucumber an inch in front of their nose and they'll learn fast to look all over the place.

I see you have a cover on the top floor of your set-ups. Maybe you can drape old sheets or some other big cloth across other parts of your set-ups so the guinea pigs feel safe from birds of prey etc of which they have an instinctual fear? Not that you have any eagles flying around but your guineas don't know that! I used to cover one large cage at night completely and my boys loved that! Sometimes I also had a hay box as enrichment with a towel over it and the guineas loved that too.
 
Yes, it's a plastic concertina tube that gives them a ride to the play pen. The ramp is good. Piggies can be hesitant to go to unfamiliar territory, waiting for a pathfinding guinea pig to take charge and lead the way. Once they have familiarised themselves, the may well head out by themselves.
 
My pigs are very food-motivated, we spread food around so they have to forage for it. They really seems to enjoy getting out of the cage and searching for the food, but you could scatter within the cages too to give them more incentive to wander around and eat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top