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My guinea pig's chewing on his cage and it's causing his mouth to bleed.

jacobegreysenismypiggy

jacobegreysenismypiggy

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Hello my name is Hannah and I have a guinea pig called Jacobe. He is briefly a year old. He hasn't done this before until now. The year we've had him he has never chewed on his cage. He's currently in a plastic cage ready to transition into a CC cage. Before we do that I want to make sure he's comfy. Anyways last night I was getting him ready for bed by giving him fresh food,water and hay when I noticed a piece of bedding had blood on it. The night before he was chewing his cage all night and would not stop no matter how many times I asked him to stop. I pushed it off as he probably was teething. He's my first guinea pig since my previous one passed away. I had others but they were babies and my guinea pig I had that passed we got her from a bad home and we had her a year. She had not done the gnawing on her cage so this is my first experience with this.I got him out of his cage and checked him out but had no signs of bleeding anywhere. My mom suggested he had cut his mouth from chewing his cage. I had no clue how to inspect the inside of his mouth so I gave his veggies for the night and got him settled back in his cage. I kept my eye on him the rest of the night and today. No signs of anymore blood. He has food and plenty of toys to chew so no reason for him to be chewing his cage. He gets food and hay 2 times a day. Please let me know anything you have to tell me. Please and thank you.
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First, he isn’t chewing because he is teething.
Does he live with another guinea pig? If not, he may be chewing for attention or through boredom. They are highly social herd animals and must always be kept in pairs. A single piggy can get lonely.
you say you give him food and hay twice a day - do you always ensure he has fresh hay constantly available? He must never run out of hay.

can you try covering the parts of his cage which he is most chewing on? Perhaps with a fleece blanket for example. Without knowing your set up etc, it is hard to give further advice on how to do this
 
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Thank you so much! He is alone but we had others and they were female so we didn't them near him because none of them are fixed. He did get fresh food and hay and I made sure the hay was always available. There is no way currently to cover it up and if I were to cover it he'd chew through the blanket. We currently cannot get another piggy to accompany him and we give him plenty of attention. Usually the chewing happens during late night/early morning. Anywhere from Midnight to 6 in the morning. I have to get sleep and trying to get him to stop is taking a toll on my sleep and focus for school
 
Unfortunately human attention does not make up for the companionship from another piggy. I appreciate you can’t get him a friend at the moment, but being alone may well be the reason why he is chewing things he shouldnt be - to get attention and interaction
 
He gets plenty of attention,interaction, and companionship. We tried when we had the female piggies to have them around but because none of them were fixed he had ended up getting one of the piggies pregnant. One of the females passed away and the two babies we had that are his kids as well as the new piggy are with someone else. The new piggy wasn't born until AFTER we had gave them away. I do want another piggy but my parents told me to wait for a while for a new one since we had just gave away the ones I had because I was overwhelmed with how much it took to care for 4 piggies (Well 3 when my one piggy passed.) Any suggestions on what to do since we can't get him a friend?
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
He gets plenty of attention,interaction, and companionship. We tried when we had the female piggies to have them around but because none of them were fixed he had ended up getting one of the piggies pregnant. One of the females passed away and the two babies we had that are his kids as well as the new piggy are with someone else. The new piggy wasn't born until AFTER we had gave them away. I do want another piggy but my parents told me to wait for a while for a new one since we had just gave away the ones I had because I was overwhelmed with how much it took to care for 4 piggies (Well 3 when my one piggy passed.) Any suggestions on what to do since we can't get him a friend?
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I appreciate you spend time with him, but he doesn’t get interaction, attention and companionship from an animal that speaks his language though and this could be the issue.
you could try the enrichment ideas thread - Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
try scattering feeding his veg and pellets, hiding it in hay, stuffing boxes with hay, using forage foods within hay piles to encourage natural foraging behaviour
 
Right now he is in transition cage to a CC cage it's all a little of a mess but I've been told he needs a CC cage so I'm in works of getting him one. His cage is a pretty good size and he has so much enrichment. I do have a picture but I need to clean his cage. Anyways I need help on what to do with him during bedtime? He sleeps all day and is up all night because piggies are nocturnal.
 
We do that! I make sure to make sure he has plenty to do while I'm asleep I'm just afraid of feeding him too much. That's him in my profile picture! He's already pretty chunky loll. I love him so much and want what's best for him since he is alone and I learned from my previous loss of a guinea pig that interaction with other piggies is super important!
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
Right now he is in transition cage to a CC cage it's all a little of a mess but I've been told he needs a CC cage so I'm in works of getting him one. His cage is a pretty good size and he has so much enrichment. I do have a picture but I need to clean his cage. Anyways I need help on what to do with him during bedtime? He sleeps all day and is up all night because piggies are nocturnal.
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they aren’t nocturnal. They are crepuscular meaning they are active most during dawn and dusk, but they are also awake during the day and night and only sleep for short bursts at a time.
Unfortunately he is going to chew things it’s what rodents do. There is no magic way to get him to stop chewing on the cage. All we can tell you is that having lots of enrichment and a companion is the best thing for him.
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
We do that! I make sure to make sure he has plenty to do while I'm asleep I'm just afraid of feeding him too much. That's him in my profile picture! He's already pretty chunky loll. I love him so much and want what's best for him since he is alone and I learned from my previous loss of a guinea pig that interaction with other piggies is super important!
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it’s impossible to feed too much hay - they need it constantly. the only foods you need to keep limited are pellets (give just one tablespoon per day) and veg (give 50 grams per day).
 
Dang google! Google told me they were nocturnal! He sleeps for hours at a time. He is currently taking a nap as we speak. He sleeps the majority of the day! I don't know if I mentioned that we do take him outside with a fenced area ( A piggy playpen) and allow him outside but he isn't that much of an active piggy. He runs at night but that's about it as well as when I try to clean his cage and take him out,he runs away from me.
 
He gets about a cup of veggies a day and 2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day. I make sure to not overfeed him with pellets and treats are a special occasion thing. Every other 2 weeks he'll get them after I clean his cage but no more than a few a day. He has these corn cobs for piggies that he LOVES to gnaw and eat in between meals. He also gets hay biscuits and I'm super cautious about the treats I give him because I know piggies are very small stomached animal and a lot of pet store treats aren't good for them.
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
Dang google! Google told me they were nocturnal! He sleeps for hours at a time. He is currently taking a nap as we speak. He sleeps the majority of the day! I don't know if I mentioned that we do take him outside with a fenced area ( A piggy playpen) and allow him outside but he isn't that much of an active piggy. He runs at night but that's about it as well as when I try to clean his cage and take him out,he runs away from me.
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he may be sleeping a lot because he doesn’t have a companion. My two only ever sleep for short bursts, about half an hour at a time, otherwise they are very active. I’m really sorry though but i don’t know what else we can advise you, their main needs are hay and companionship!

jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
He gets about a cup of veggies a day and 2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day. I make sure to not overfeed him with pellets and treats are a special occasion thing. Every other 2 weeks he'll get them after I clean his cage but no more than a few a day. He has these corn cobs for piggies that he LOVES to gnaw and eat in between meals. He also gets hay biscuits and I'm super cautious about the treats I give him because I know piggies are very small stomached animal and a lot of pet store treats aren't good for them.
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a cup of veggies is absolutely fine and is the recommended amount.

What is the ‘2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day’ that you give him? Is that the pellets?
 
My bad I didn't specify about what type of food it was! He gets 2 scoops of a (1/3) cup of pellets and he gets the Wild Harvest guinea pig food.There is sometimes we cannot get that type so we get either Menu or Kaytee. I don't know if that's important information or not! I had my last piggy briefly a year and was still learning all I needed to learn so when i got more and my first piggy passed I had to start over and i'm so lost sometimes!
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
My bad I didn't specify about what type of food it was! He gets 2 scoops of a (1/3) cup of pellets and he gets the Wild Harvest guinea pig food.There is sometimes we cannot get that type so we get either Menu or Kaytee. I don't know if that's important information or not! I had my last piggy briefly a year and was still learning all I needed to learn so when i got more and my first piggy passed I had to start over and i'm so lost sometimes!
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a third of a cup is 4 tablespoons and if he gets two scoops of that a day then he is having 8 tablespoons a day. Guinea pigs should only have one tablespoon per day. Too much of this kind of food can lead to health problems
wild harvest is a muesli (it has lots Of different coloured bits). This isn’t a good type of food to feed. It encourages selective feeding and contains items which aren’t good for piggies. They should have one tablespoon per day of a plain guinea pig pellet Fortified with vitamin c. Their main food intake needs to be hay (80% of the daily food intake). Veg is 15% and pellets is just 5%. The less hay they eat due to overeating unhealthy things, then there is more risk of health issues
Pellets Or Muesli / Dry Mix?
 
That is what my mom buys him! I cannot really buy him things yet but I'll let her know! Should I cut it down to once a day for feeding and continuing to make sure he has hay all day? Instead of 2 cups a day and hay. They need hay so that will not change how much he gets there. I use bedding for his cage is that ok? Sorry if I'm asking a lot I want what is best for him! Treats? What are ok for him? I've done research but many websites say so may different things about treats.I know what veggies and fruits he can and can't have.
 
Cut it down to one tablespoon per day. A 1/3 cup measure is far too big.
the only thing he needs a lot of is hay.

the only treats my piggies get are a different type of herb. They have coriander /cilantro every day but I give them a small piece of dill, basil or parsley as a treat (parsley is high in calcium so needs to be kept strictly limited to one small amount once per week). I never give fruit due to the high sugar content.
 
Thank you! He gets veggies and he LOVES veggies. The only fruits he has tried are strawberries and watermelon and he wasn't a fan of either! As you can see in my profile picture he is a big boy! We've had him a year and this is how big he has gotten since we got him as a baby. He came with another and we named her Molly but she passed a while back due to complications of getting pregnant back to back. I have seen people give fruit but because there's so much restriction with it we stick to mostly veggies
 
What a lovely chunky boy, and you can tell you really care about your piggy! Mine get veggies as treats and also we have a place where we can pick fresh grass that doesn't have cat or dog pee on. This is very popular, along with dandelion leaves. I have tried 'pet shop treats' in the past but to be honest they were never as welcome as veggies or grass. We don't usually have fruit but sometimes they like a little piece of apple.

It's true pellets are the recommended dry food because of selective eating but we ended up offering both muesli mix and pellets because we got our pigs from different places and just carried on feeding what they were used to - in the end all three pigs ate both types of food anyway so I didn't worry about that.
One of mine was also very active at night and her teeth clattering on the water-bottle spout were loud enough to wake me! She certainly used to wake her old lady friend who would wheek in protest (luckily mine were kept down in the kitchen!)

I saw this pig in the garden one time chewing at the thick wood stem of a plant she had not touched before... it turned out she had a problem where her front teeth were getting too long and I think she was trying to make them shorter with chewing the wood. Perhaps you already have something wooden for your boy to chew... like a piggy tunnel or something? Chewing wood makes a lot less noise than chewing the cage. We can tell them what they are allowed to chew but they won't listen! I bought a 'chew stick' from the pet shop (I actually paid money for a stick!) but of course she never chewed on that! Then I got a sturdy tunnel made from a bunch of thick sticks wired together - they had a chew on this sometimes when they felt like it. I think it was because it didn't move when they chewed.

I have one other thing to suggest which sounds a bit more scary but it is probably not this. It's something to check with your mom, but not to worry about.
I have one bit of my cage where the food bowl is on just newspaper. My pigs never chewed this paper - you know some animals shred paper to make bedding but pigs don't usually and my pigs never did. Then suddenly after a couple of years one started to shred and rip at the paper - I couldn't understand it. Well, it turns out she had a bladder infection because after a few days I saw a little bit of blood in her pee. I didn't put these two things together until the antibiotics cured the bladder infection and guess what - she stopped ripping up the paper. I think it was something she did because she felt uncomfortable down below and chewing took her mind off it and gave her something to do... she didn't eat the paper, she just ripped it up and chewed on it. This is something that happened 2 times in her life and the second time I heard the paper being ripped I checked straight away and... blood in pee! Now this is the strange bit: my chunky male (George) started to do exactly the same thing about 2 weeks ago and he'd never really done it before. He had a little go when my girl was paper-ripping but he mainly just sat and watched her, but 2 weeks back he was chewing and ripping and I thought, "surely it can't be...." but guess what. That's right - he had a bladder infection for the first time in his life at 3 1/2 years old. Antibiotics cured him and he stopped just like she did so either he learned it from my girl (now sadly deceased) or it's just some sort of instinct to chew if they are trying to take their mind off something.
I wonder - you saw a little blood on his bedding... it might be worth just putting him on something white like a towel or newspaper until he pees just to make sure it is not a bladder problem. His pee should be pretty clear but can be yellow-ish or orange-ish and sometimes looks 'milky' with gritty bits in but if it looks pink or red it will tell you to investigate further (probably with a trip to the vet). By the way - beetroot leaves or stems can turn pee pink so don't feed this before you check! The other sign with my boy was a wet tummy - he was leaking pee a lot of the time with the infection and it make his tummy fur really wet underneath (girls wet more around the bum end - you can see it as they walk away from you). If your boy has a wet tummy round his boy-bits it might be another sign. Now, it might not be anything to do with this and it's likely he is just a bit bored and has a new (noisy) hobby but I thought I should just mention this in case and you can show your mom so between you it should be easy to figure it out.

Good luck!
 
How much does he weigh and how old is he? Have you felt his heft? You should be able to feel the ribs but not individually. You also shouldn’t be able to feel absolutely no ribs either. You should be weighing him weekly. He doesn’t look particularly chunky in your profile, but everypig is different.

Please speak to your mum about getting him a friend (preferably from a rescue but understandable if there are none around). Having companionship is one of their welfare needs. And your mum, as the adult, agreed to fulfil his needs when she let you have guinea pig(s)
Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
He is a little older than a year and he weighs about 5-10 pounds. I don't know what heft is but when I pick him up I'm FAR from feeling his ribs. He's a chunky dude! He's laying down in the picture! My family members can vouch for his chunkiness. I have talked to her about another piggy and there may be a possibility for one for Christmas! I had a piggy who passed away and before she did I had 4 piggies. After she passed I had 3. 2 (Which are Jacobe's babies from a previous Sow who passed due to having back to back pregnancies.) When my Gigi passed away mysteriously I became pushed away from my piggies and decided to give away 2/3 of my remaining piggies. I know they need companionship but I need more time still. It broke me when Gigi passed and I chose to give up my 2 female (Learned by one becoming pregnant that one is a boy!) and I'm not ready for 2 piggies! I'd need to get a bigger cage,more water bottles,more food supplies. The cost of it and I'm not ready right now. That's why I said maybe around Christmas
 
Thank you so so much for the advice and we'll try your suggestions! I'll for sure reach out to you if I have questions any more into the future! I appreciate you being understanding that we cannot get another piggy at the moment and instead give us another choice! You rock and again thank you!
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
He is a little older than a year and he weighs about 5-10 pounds. I don't know what heft is but when I pick him up I'm FAR from feeling his ribs. He's a chunky dude! He's laying down in the picture! My family members can vouch for his chunkiness. I have talked to her about another piggy and there may be a possibility for one for Christmas! I had a piggy who passed away and before she did I had 4 piggies. After she passed I had 3. 2 (Which are Jacobe's babies from a previous Sow who passed due to having back to back pregnancies.) When my Gigi passed away mysteriously I became pushed away from my piggies and decided to give away 2/3 of my remaining piggies. I know they need companionship but I need more time still. It broke me when Gigi passed and I chose to give up my 2 female (Learned by one becoming pregnant that one is a boy!) and I'm not ready for 2 piggies! I'd need to get a bigger cage,more water bottles,more food supplies. The cost of it and I'm not ready right now. That's why I said maybe around Christmas
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Estimating his weight is not helpful. You need to weigh guinea pigs every week as part of routine care. Weighing is the only way to know that they get enough hay, any loss in weight can be the first sign of illness. 5-10lbs is 2-4.5kg which is absolutely enormous for a guinea pig when most weigh around 1kg (or few hundred grams either side). If he really is that heavy and you cannot feel his ribs then he needs to see a vet and be given a better diet and more exercise. He doesn’t look that big in the picture
 
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:agr: Please get some scales and weigh him weekly at the same time. He can’t be 5-10lbs...
Touching on the companionship. I know it’s really painful when you lose any pet, but please make it a certainty to get him a companion by Christmas rather than it being a maybe. He’s still young and sounds like he really needs it as well. And having two doesn’t cost that much more either. How big is his cage? Extra bottles and another hide also don’t cost that much more. Even a cardboard box with two exits cut out would be enough for them. Do please think seriously about it.

All the best.
 
My chunky boy is 1.5 kilos (that's 3.3 pounds) and I bet your boy is about the same. I weighed him in a shoebox on the kitchen scales I use for baking and when I said, "1.5 kilos George!" I'm sure he looked a bit embarrassed 😅 Make sure you put the scales on the floor, not a table, as they try to jump out! My last girl died about 2 weeks ago and I was sooooo sad. I am trying to find a new friend for him but it might take a bit of time. George is neutered - we got him from a rescue and they neuter all the boys here so they won't have babies. I thought that it would be easy to introduce a new female and we found a lively young one who really liked him but unfortunately George is also a very nervous piggy and after about 10 minutes together he panicked and tried to fight her! This is pretty unusual for a male - generally they will try to woo any female! Poor Rosie was not injured but she had to go back to her old house (she was probably quite relieved) so now we have a challenge. I thought about another boy but it might mean more fighting... boars can be more difficult to pair up (although they have some good guides on this site about how to try it). I think what we need is a pair of nice old ladies - they move slower and George wouldn't be so alarmed... if he panics and tries to fight them they can just live together in a cage next to him. Or maybe we would try to find a grumpy old boar in a rescue that nobody wants and have the two cages next to each other. The Covid virus has made things a bit more tricky here so it will take a bit of time and in the meantime he gets lots of attention in the day because he lives downstairs in the kitchen with me.
In some countries the females in rescues are spayed so they can't have babies and if you could find a spayed female it might be the easiest option for you. This is quite a big operation for a guinea-pig though so I don't think it's that common. Some are spayed for health reasons anyway, so it does happen.

I forgot to say last time about the two times we had experienced bar-chewing (I get distracted because I write a LOT you might have noticed!) One was when we had an older male who had been neutered and we had to wait quite a few weeks to introduce a female (it takes a while before they lose fertility). Well, we got that young female (Snowflake) and I thought to put them in with a barrier between so they could get to know each other before they went in together... I thought it was only polite! What do you know... Casper had very different ideas and after 12 hours solid of bar-chewing I gave up and let them in together while he still had some teeth left. There was a 5 minute whirl of running around and they were suddenly best friends... a proper Romeo and Julie-pig pair. The other time was when we looked after my friend's hamster (Fluffy) and that thing chewed it's bars ALL NIGHT LONG. Luckily we only had it for 3 days. I have never seen a pet who was so keen to get out of the cage - she actually had a little padlock on the door because she'd broken out before. My friend said they do it all the time (it's not their first hamster) but they don't hear it because they are all in bed with the door shut (Hamsters ARE nocturnal, and they are also solitary animals so she would have fought another one, not played). I thought then I would NEVER have a hamster... this pet just doesn't want to be a pet! Guinea-pigs are much better 🙂 I bet your boy is just thinking about getting out and having a look to see if any other pigs are around while it's quiet.

All the best!
 
I just weighed him and he was 4.6 pounds. I am able to feel his ribs! As for another piggy I hope you all understand that with the loss of a piggy and having to give away my other 2 at the moment I will not be giving him a friend. He is due for a nail appointment soon but if I do see a boar or sow available at the nail appointment I may try to get my way and get him a friend! He is roughly a year old and had a friend but his previous friend passed due to child birth complications! I appreciate all of your advice but I will no longer be replying to your messages. My mom said to not listen to you since you don't understand the circumstances with him
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
I just weighed him and he was 4.6 pounds. I am able to feel his ribs! As for another piggy I hope you all understand that with the loss of a piggy and having to give away my other 2 at the moment I will not be giving him a friend. He is due for a nail appointment soon but if I do see a boar or sow available at the nail appointment I may try to get my way and get him a friend! He is roughly a year old and had a friend but his previous friend passed due to child birth complications! I appreciate all of your advice but I will no longer be replying to your messages. My mom said to not listen to you since you don't understand the circumstances with him
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you came here looking for advice and we gave it to you. sorry it isn’t what you wanted to hear.
 
No I did come here for advice but the advice given has become a little stressful on me and now i am unsure what I am doing is right for him or wrong for him. no need to apologize that was a little rude of me to say when you have all had guinea pigs longer than I have and know what you're talking about
 
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