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Jemma1989

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Mar 13, 2022
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Walsall, West Midlands
Hi my name is Jemma and my bf and I have 3 children aged 5, 7 and 9. The children have wanted Guinea pigs for a long long time but we waited until we thought they were old enough to help us with them. Anyway long story short we brought 2 beautiful boys from a pet shop, we have had them for a week now and things have been going very well. The children have been very careful to be calm around them and we have left them to settle for a few days. They have been teeth chattering all day to one another and to us. I did put my hand in the cage at the wrong moment earlier and one of them nearly bit me. I'm quite used to Guinea pigs as I had them as pets all the way through my child hood but it has rattled my confidence. I know that they are just testing the "who's boss" situation but have you any advice on how to settle them
 
Welcome to the forum! Here are our guides on how to settle new piggies.

Settling In And Making Friends With Guinea Pigs - A Guide


Remember that your guinea pigs are prey animals and they don't know that you aren't going to eat them you have to teach them that. They have been taken from the only family they have ever known, to be put in a strange environment (the pet shop) and then just as they were getting used to that they have been taken away from that and put in another strange place (your home) with huge smelly and loud (to them) humans. They are running on their prey instincts and are very frightened.

Is their cage an open cage? If so pop a blanket or something similar over the top of part of it so that they feel a bit safer. Pop hay and food near where the covered area is and have their water bottle near there too.

We would love to see pigtures of your piggies when you feel they are ready to have their pigture taken.
 
Jemma1989 said:
Hi my name is Jemma and my bf and I have 3 children aged 5, 7 and 9. The children have wanted Guinea pigs for a long long time but we waited until we thought they were old enough to help us with them. Anyway long story short we brought 2 beautiful boys from a pet shop, we have had them for a week now and things have been going very well. The children have been very careful to be calm around them and we have left them to settle for a few days. They have been teeth chattering all day to one another and to us. I did put my hand in the cage at the wrong moment earlier and one of them nearly bit me. I'm quite used to Guinea pigs as I had them as pets all the way through my child hood but it has rattled my confidence. I know that they are just testing the "who's boss" situation but have you any advice on how to settle them
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Hi

You may find these guide links, which deal with guinea pig instincts and behaviours helpful. In your case, your boy reacted to the sudden movement with an instinctive defense bite.
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)
A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours

Please be aware that the vast majority of piggies for sale (whether that is pet shops or for sale breeders online or locally) are mass produced/over-produced and have had minimal contact and no friendly interaction with humans before they are thrown into a home environment and expected to function as pets. They take longer than a week to find their bearings.
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Children And Guinea Pigs - A Guide For Parents

A good way to interact and make friends with your piggies without handling is enrichment - this starts with how you feed. Try sprinkle-feeding pellets (1 tablespoon per piggy per day) and vegs (preferably green; diet recommendations have changed quite a lot over the last decade) around the cage or make them work for it. Stuff soft hay (which makes about three quarters of the daily food intake) into toilet roll inners or in a brown paper bag (any handles cut off) etc. This alows your children to do things for the piggies and share their fun without risking defence bites if they freak out from a sudden movement or unexpected noise like a laugh or squeal.
Lots more ideas: Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

We recommend to handle piggies when they trust you enough to take food from your hands. Try our whispering techniques to invite your piggies into your herd (that gives them an identity and an assured place) and reassure them that they are loved and welcome. This means that you can impart vital social concepts before they have learned to figure out humans and reduce the stress of having to deal with potentially deadly smelly predators.

All these links are just one small part of our much wider practical information resource:
Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection
 
:wel:

I agree, slow, steady and taking it at their pace wins the race, but never forcing them to be handled if they don’t want to be. A week is such a short time for them to feel safe - it’s more like weeks to months (or a year and a half in the case of one of my boys).
 
Hello and :wel::wel: to the forum
I and my 3 piggies say hello to you and family
All the help and advise is on here
It helped me when I started
Happy Piggies
 
Jemma1989 said:
Thank you all for your warm welcome. I will be on here everyday looking for the best advice for these beautiful boys. They have been fighting among themselves over the past few day but they are calming down a little now xx
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A little dominance is normal when piggies move to a new cage/environment - they go through a period of reestablishing their relationship (actual fighting is cause for separation).
 
Jemma1989 said:
Thank you all for your warm welcome. I will be on here everyday looking for the best advice for these beautiful boys. They have been fighting among themselves over the past few day but they are calming down a little now xx
Click to expand...

You may also find our New Owners' collection of information and detailed practical how-to guides for a good start helpful and may want to bookmark the link: Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners

You will find that we often parse in links to more in-depth information or step-by-step practical links because repeating everything in every post simply takes too much time. Especially as we do all this for free in our own free time.
But you will find the added information usually very helpful to learn and understand more.
 
beautiful boys! When you clean them out always leave a little bit if dirty hay 8n there so they d9n’t have to go around remarking their territory, it can help with dominance issues too x
 
Welcome to the forum! So glad to have you here. What handsome little gentlemen:wub:
 
Welcome to the forum.
The boys are gorgeous.
You’ve already been given excellent advice and sound like a very sensible, caring owner so I am sure that Pepsi and Cola will soon settle
 
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