No Piggy Love?

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PepperPig

PepperPig

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello!
I love my piggies very much, but they show no signs of affection in return. I love them to bits, but they always shriek at me and try to get away from me when I hold them. They don't even like me! I know I can't force them to love me, but any tips? One of my pigs won't even take food from my hand, so that's getting to be a real training and trust issue. Please help! :...

Pig Prints,
PepperPig
 
Have you tried just sitting there with your hand in the cage for a long time. When I first got my girlie's I would sit there with my hand in the cage, wiggling my fingers around, while I played scrabble on my Kindle with the other hand. My hand in the cage got very tired, but I would hold a piece of lettuce or something some of the time, finally, after several tries, and sitting there for like 45 minutes, the first brave soul took a taste.

I've had them since Feb. One girl will eat from my hand but that is all...if you make eye contact with her, she runs and hides, and if you walk by, she runs and hides. We call her 'the monster under the stairs' because when it is veggie time, she will stick her head out about one inch, and grab the food and pull it back into her hidey.

The other girlie, the one in my avatar, I can literally drop hay right on her head and she acts like I'm not there, she isn't afraid of anything, and she comes up to the bars to beg for food and weikk, but try to touch her and she jumps like...what the #%^& do you think you're doing?

I do sneak in a little tummy tickle though when she is at the bars standing on her hind legs trying to reach the veggies I bring her inbreeding
 
No, I haven't tried sitting with my hand in the cage. I will try that out! I know Bubbe isn't afraid of taking food from me, but Pepper won't do it for the life of her! :{
 
How long have you had them and what are their ages? Little ones can take a long time to get used to it as their whole life has just been moving from place to place with no real owner so they are scared.


My advice is similar to the poster above. When I was trying to tame my piggies what I'd do is walk in with a mix of vegetables and I'd sit next to their cage. I'd offer it at the bars and they would want it but be too scared to come over. So I then would place my hand in with the veg. This took a few days but eventually one of them was brave enough to stick his head out just enough to grab a piece and duck in. This was progress.

I kept on with this until they got used to stealing it from a few cm's away. I then moved my hand further away so they had to stick more of their bodies out.

With my first ever two guinea pigs I did a different trick. I was quite scared of them as they were of me at first so we learnt together.
What I did was I'd sit by the cage and watch TV. I'd pretend to sleep by them or I'd just lie beside them and not pay much attention. I was lucky that one of my piggies was quite braver than the other. It took him only a few weeks to be fine with me but his cagemate took months of work. Again, I held the veg by his hidie and held my hand there until he took it.

There's many tricks. Vegetables are your best friend. ^_^
 
*nods* Also try and maybe have them in a room you are often in. :) I slept in the room mine were in so they had to get used to that and the noises of me moving around and my alarm and things.

Also when holding them always offer their favourite vegetable. That helps show them that if they are in your hands they get their favourite treat!
 
Thanks agin for all the posts. My pigs now are both very used to me and it is very good to have love from my pigs!
 
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