My guinea pig are waking me up every morning please help!

Lotteluvspigs

Lotteluvspigs

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Ugh. As of maybe 2 months ago I've been up every morning at 6am because my guinea pigs will wheek me awake. I think this started when I got new foster guinea pigs that are very vocal so there excited for their food in the morning but thats passed on to my other guinea pigs so literally whenever I move in my bed(the guinea pig cages are in my room) an alarm goes off and I'm started to get very minimal hours of sleep. Does anyone know what to do?
 
I can sympathise! I'll trade you being woken up by your guinea pigs wheeking for being woken up by a couple of gsd's who think 4 a.m. walking should be a thing all year round, dark or not! :zzz:
 
The only thing to do is not reward them for their wheeking. Otherwise it becomes a vicious cycle. They are very smart so if they wheek and you then feed them, they then know that works. I’m afraid all you can do is try to ignore them until you are happy to get up and feed them.
 
Seeee I'm lucky in a way but not so much in another way. I would love my piggies in my room but they are just too messy but we do have them in our laundry room and they do great there. My piggies are always squeaking for food and with them at the back of the house you can still hear them so don't worry they are still noticeable. And way better that they are not in my room or I would probably not get any sleep. But I don't think there is any way to stop them from waking you up.
 
I know it's easier said than done but you have to ignore them completely like @VickiA wrote.
You don't react to them at all (no talking to them, no getting up, no feeding them) and only get up in a moment when everyone is quiet. You should also only feed them when they are all quiet.

It's especially hard since they are in your bedroom and the wheeking has be going for some time. So they already learned that it's pretty easy to get you to react to their wheeking.
So even if you start with the Anti Terror Training tomorrow and do everything right, the wheeking will probably get worse before it gets better.

But guinea pigs learn extremly specific to the situation. So if you could put them in a different room for a little while or sleep in a different room yourself for a short time, this could make things easier.
 
Viennese Furbabies said:
I know it's easier said than done but you have to ignore them completely like @VickiA wrote.
You don't react to them at all (no talking to them, no getting up, no feeding them) and only get up in a moment when everyone is quiet. You should also only feed them when they are all quiet.

It's especially hard since they are in your bedroom and the wheeking has be going for some time. So they already learned that it's pretty easy to get you to react to their wheeking.
So even if you start with the Anti Terror Training tomorrow and do everything right, the wheeking will probably get worse before it gets better.

But guinea pigs learn extremly specific to the situation. So if you could put them in a different room for a little while or sleep in a different room yourself for a short time, this could make things easier.
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Anti Terror Training 😂😂
 
VickiA said:
Anti Terror Training 😂😂
Click to expand...

Love it! I've got a terror that screams every time I turn over in bed upstairs and he's downstairs. I ignore him, he starts the other's off too. Bertie is a little b ...... The neighbours assure me they don't hear the noise in the night, not sure I believe them!
 
Oh, they sure know! LOL.

On weekends when I sleep in a tad, they do wheek at the time I typically wake up for work, or even when they HEAR me getting up! Immediately go nuts and scream lol.

I actually say to them 'NOT YET!' and they calm down. I swear it works. LOL. Been doing it for years. LOL. But really not much you can do, try to fall back to sleep!
 
It sound like they associate you moving with breakfast being served, so you could try to create another cue for breakfast time.

For example I say "Goodmorning!" to my piggies when I am starting my routine of feeding them in the morning. As long as I don't say this, I can move around in the house, walk by their cage, rummage in the fridge and they ignore me no matter what time it is, even if it is two hours past their usual breakfast time. But when I say goodmorning they get excited and the wheeking begins
 
Apples said:
It sound like they associate you moving with breakfast being served, so you could try to create another cue for breakfast time.

For example I say "Goodmorning!" to my piggies when I am starting my routine of feeding them in the morning. As long as I don't say this, I can move around in the house, walk by their cage, rummage in the fridge and they ignore me no matter what time it is, even if it is two hours past their usual breakfast time. But when I say goodmorning they get excited and the wheeking begins
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Wow that's really cool I'll have to try that!
 
PoptartShop said:
Oh, they sure know! LOL.

On weekends when I sleep in a tad, they do wheek at the time I typically wake up for work, or even when they HEAR me getting up! Immediately go nuts and scream lol.

I actually say to them 'NOT YET!' and they calm down. I swear it works. LOL. Been doing it for years. LOL. But really not much you can do, try to fall back to sleep
Click to expand...
My boy is like this too. Oreo’s brother, Milo passed away last year and he became very quiet and maybe depressed. Few months on, i put him in my room so at least he wouldn’t be alone. My mum wouldn’t let me take in another piggie due to the continuous cycle and heartbreak that will occur once a piggie is sick or if it passes. As time passed, Oreo seems to be happier living in my room. He now eats and drinks again and i swear during his fresh veggie AM PM session, he belts out the loudest wheeks so that i wake up in the morning to feed him and so i stop doing whatever it is and feed him in the evenings too.

Just last week he went off wheeking at 4:52am. I told him, NOT YET. It’s too early, go sleep! Later!

He piped down and let me get some sleep.
 
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