My guinea pigs are mostly only awake at night

Wigglefingers

Wigglefingers

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I have had my two guinea pigs since the start of October, they seem to trust me enough to let me pet them they will come up to me for food but they only seem to sleep all day and only come out at night? Am I doing something wrong? They have a 6x2 C&C cage with an extension so it can't be because they have no room and they have plenty of toys, tunnels and hides to keep themselves entertained but they still just seem to sleep. Whenever they do wake up it's mostly just to eat. What am I doing wrong?
 
Hi and welcome

Guinea pigs are crepuscular, i.e. most active in the early morning and late afternoon/evening when they are wired to move as a herd to their feeding areas in order to eat together. They doze and browse throughout the day and the night in their little sub-group territory.
Some youngsters can be rather rambunctious at odd times, especially when it gets them attention and treats, so night time antics can become a bit of a vicious circle.

Try introducing roaming and play time outside the cage (if you are living in rented accommodation please not on any flooring that you cannot wipe or that they can nibble on) when you have time and try to make regular feeding times fun.
Here are lots of tips of how you can turn feeding time and roaming time into fun time with some very easy things: Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
 
Are they sleeping or just chilling out in their hideys? When my pigs were that age they could be patted and hand fed but were also much more nervous of people walking past the cage etc. and night-time was probably relaxing for them to come out more. They still seem to nap a lot.
 
Mine tend to have an active hour then a couple of hours rest throughout the day, you can trigger a burst of action with food and new things to do but after an hour they will probably take a nap, mine are having playpen time right now- they had a mad happy hour exploring and munching their scatterfed veggies and hay but now everypig except Theo is taking a rest, there are 6 piggies here and 5 are chilling out in their hideys!
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They will wake up and finish off the hay after a nap, then the same when they go back in their clean cage- an hour of exploring and hay munching fun then they will nap until their dinner arrives about 6pm, then they'll have another hour of fun then a sleep then wake me up at 3am having a nightime piggy party!
 
Another thing they do is take it in turns to be awake and "on guard" when they are out of their cage, Theo just retired to a winebox bed to take his nap so boss lady Clover has come out to eat hay and check her friends are safe while they are sleeping :)
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