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Beckit

Beckit

Junior Guinea Pig
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Apr 1, 2014
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Location
Essex, UK
Hi, I used to be Beckit and Jedward but forgot all my log in details and haven't been online in what seems like centuries.

To cut a long story very short;

Jedward is most definitely a solitary pig, I've tried bonding her with other pigs several times but she just hates all other pigs and is much much happier living alone so I'm not worried about her being lonely.

I am however a little worried that I don't really know how to help her settle in to a brand new home. I don't mean cage, I mean home. I just moved out for the first time and I'm struggling to settle in myself, so I can imagine how my poor piglet feels but because I've never done this before I'm not sure what to do for her.

She's been hiding in her little igloo thing a lot and only coming out for food and toilet time. When I put her out for floor time she runs to me and just stays by me instead of waddling about like she used to.

I'm sure this is probably normal for a pig trying to get used to new surroundings but any suggestions on how to assist her in doing so would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading this if you got all the way to the end. :)
 
Hello again! Would you like me to give you a password for your old account? It can take a while for piggies to adjust they are creatures of habit. At floor time I would suggest creating a run environment rather than free ranging this will help her feel secure.
 
To be honest it's probably easier for me to keep track of this account now. lol Thanks for the tip, I'll try and rig up a little run out of odd bits and pieces we used to pack. :)
 
Okay, no worries. I will deactivate your old account.
 
Give Jedward a few days' time to settle in and get her bearings in her new home. Don't give her run time until she is confident in her cage. Once she has a safe base, she will be off to explore. She may profit from a towel over her cage to help feel safe initially. Guinea pigs are very wary of exposed spaces in new territory.

A few piggies don't like others of their own kind. It is important that you give them the opportunity to make it clear that this by their choice and not by necessity - which you have done!
 
Thanks for the tip Wiebke, I didn't have any spare towels big enough but I bought some fleece blankets for her yesterday and I've put one of those over her cage for today to see if that helps.

She did get VERY excited when I was preparing veg last night and that's the first time since we moved in on Saturday so I'm hoping that's a bit promising. :)
 
The fleece "tent" seems to be helping, I came home from work and she was sitting on top of the house, so she got up the fleece ramp by herself while I was out which is the first time she's got up there to eat. So I'm going to leave that over her cage for a while and see how she goes. :)
 
Jedward's still not drinking from her bottle but she's eaten all of her food and I managed to get her to drink about 8.5ml via syringe today, I normally only get a couple of ml into her by syringe which I've been doing since Tuesday to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated, any tips on how to encourage her to drink from the bottle again?
 
Dont know how to get her to drink out of the bottle but if you are washing the veg she will be getting liquid off that. Are you sure she isnt drinking any? My group of four hardly drink but get cucumber and manage fine
 
I measure out her water because since her UTI a couple weeks ago the vet recommended adding vitamins and she has a solution added to 100ml water every other night, she used to drink about 50ml every 2 days but she's not really drinking from the bottle at all, it looks like only a fraction is gone when I check it and that's normally where it comes out when you first tip the bottle upside-down. I've been making sure to give her plenty of cucumber and lettuce as they're quite watery and I gave her a bit of tomato the other night which she seemed to enjoy, so I know I'm getting water into her but it worries me that she's not actually drinking from the bottle.

I hope that all made sense.
 
It could be the vitamins in the water making it taste different.Try her with clean water without the vitamin.You may have to squeeze some into her mouth so she can see it tastes different.You can give them vitamin tablets separately if you feel she needs it.A lot of people advise not to put it in water as it makes the water taste stale
 
She was fine when we were still living with mum but I gave her plain water last night and I think I'm just going to mix solution and feed that to her by syringe, because she doesn't mind it in the syringe. She's being so fussy. :S
 
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