Is Piggy Chirping Really That Rare?

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biscandmatt

biscandmatt

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my first two, chesney and maisie, both chirped a couple of times each. when they did it, it was kind of eerie and they didn't seem happy. more scared. the other would freeze and have wide eyes. i never knew why but after maisie did it once, not long after a huge spider ran across the cage, so i always wondered if that scared her. the other times with them, i don't know why they did it.

so earlier on, i said night to the piggies, turned the lights out, and then mollie started chirping! again, no idea why but it un-nerves me. she didn't do it for long and benjie wasn't bothered and carried on eating hay. he ran when i walked over and he wouldn't normally so think he was a little on edge. but he didn't do the wide eyed frozen to the spot thing that the others did.

i've only owned five piggies in total and three have chirped :blink: it makes me a bit anxious when i hear it because i don't associate it with anything good or happy. they usually look scared.
 
Piggy chirping is a complete unknown. Some piggys chirp on a regular basis but most never chirp at all. owners can go through a lifetime of owning many pigs and never hear a chirper/singer.
I personally don't think that there is any negative reason for a piggy chirping.
 
We've owned 12 guineas, and I've heard 3 of them chirp that I can remember, although maybe some of the others did it. One only chirped the night that she arrived at our house. Another, who had all sorts of issues, and was very highly strung, used to do it quite a lot, and we currently have Phoebe as our resident chirper. She is quite a happy go lucky guinea, but it always seems to me that the chirping is to do with being a bit scared or uncertain. Like you, I find the noise to be quite eerie and unsettling, and I don't like it when they do it.
 
thank you. she hasn't done it again but it's made me a bit anxious to be honest. maybe just because she is going through this bladder issue at the moment and i'm worried it's something to do with her being unsettled about something she can feel inside. she seems ok this morning so far though. i just instantly worry!
 
My beanie used to chirp. He would do it about 2am, It always made me smile, it was quite beautiful to listen to. I've had 5 piggies and only beanie has done it!
 
We've had a few chirpers, the last one was at some point last week but was the middle of the night and we have no idea who. I get freaked out though as once Maddie chirped and 2 days later we lost Jessica. That's my overactive imagination going into overdrive though.
 
helen105281 said:
We've had a few chirpers, the last one was at some point last week but was the middle of the night and we have no idea who. I get freaked out though as once Maddie chirped and 2 days later we lost Jessica. That's my overactive imagination going into overdrive though.
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i've read others say this aswell which is scary. i always worry it's something they can feel which we can't. either in themselves, another piggy, or just a sense in the air that unsettles them.
 
biscandmatt said:
i've read others say this aswell which is scary. i always worry it's something they can feel which we can't. either in themselves, another piggy, or just a sense in the air that unsettles them.
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Oh gosh, way to get me even more freaked out about it. It's such a shame not a lot is known about chirping. My boy who is 2 & half years has just started doing it this week too. He has done it twice now. And he was most definitely doing it because he was freaking out. To honest to me it looked like a guinea version of a panic attack. I went and watched as much as I could on youtube of other piggies doing it and got the impression that there was different sounding chirps. Some of the pigs looked pretty content and was almost like they were singing but then there were other ones that looked similar to Hubert's fiasco and they looked distressed. Maybe it is possible that there is different variations of the chirp. I hope he doesn't have to go through it again. It wasn't a pleasant moment.
 
kawaii_guineas said:
Oh gosh, way to get me even more freaked out about it. It's such a shame not a lot is known about chirping. My boy who is 2 & half years has just started doing it this week too. He has done it twice now. And he was most definitely doing it because he was freaking out. To honest to me it looked like a guinea version of a panic attack. I went and watched as much as I could on youtube of other piggies doing it and got the impression that there was different sounding chirps. Some of the pigs looked pretty content and was almost like they were singing but then there were other ones that looked similar to Hubert's fiasco and they looked distressed. Maybe it is possible that there is different variations of the chirp. I hope he doesn't have to go through it again. It wasn't a pleasant moment.
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sorry, didn't mean to freak you out. i got myself all panicked when i first read about it years back after chesney did it!

i do think there are different versions. i've also watched on youtube lol, and agree that some sound happy chirpy and the piggy looks fine, almost like they are whistling a happy tune, and then others look scared and the sound is more eerie.

with mollie being ill aswell, it's made me extra anxious.she hasn't done it again though so far x
 
Some guinea pigs seem to be more active chirpers than others. Before Heulwen, I'd heard chirping only a couple of times. She does it fairly regularly, often without any obvious reason. Sometimes, it is more clearly a reaction to some tension in the piggy room.
 
Kerrie74 said:
My son heard our other guinea do it the other night, he's next to the girls and they just sat and listened to him ;)
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He must have been serenading them :love:.

My two girls didn't care about what was going on,they actually jumped over him as he was having his little moment. I think it was the girls jumping over him that actually brought him back to reality and helped calm him.
 
:D Aaaawww, cute little guy! He sort of "comes to" and then he's like "Eh? What's going on?"

I have heard chirping from Inka twice, the first time she was in the pig-room with the other three, and the second time she was out in the garden! None of the others took any notice. :hmm:I wonder if the chirping piggie is trying to communicate with other piggies that are not in the area?
 
I've owned 7 guineas over time, and I have only knowingly had one who chirps. She is one of my current guineas, Denise, and I haven't noticed any particular reason for it. The first time she did it she was in her cage with her friend, in a room on their own, and she just started doing it. She's done it a few more times since then. She doesn't seem upset, I can't see a reason for it.

Regarding the OP's post - I wouldn't expect a guinea pig to be scared of a spider, I don't think they have the irrational fear of spiders that many humans do! Although if it moved fast it might startle them, especially if it was big and caused a sudden movement.
 
One of mine has chirped a couple of times in the middle of the night - thought a bird had got in and started singing - it stops if you put the light on - and they all look guilty
 
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