Please Help Me To Help My Daughter Bond With Her New Piggies!

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Rosyautumn girl

Rosyautumn girl

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Hello all!
We got our little girls on Saturday (I know it is still early days but I am a born worrier!) and just a little concerned about how we can bond with our new guinea pigs. Both my daughter and I are already in love with these piggies and we have given them all of the space and patience possible when they are so darn cute! We've talked gently to them and really tried to hold back to let them settle in. But although I can accept the fact I have to leave them be to hide and wait for them to come to me, my 8 year old daughter is beside herself, and constantly nags me to 'try and get them out', apparently having read on youtube that although you have to give them time they will always try to run away from you even after having them for months, and you just have to gently pick them up and create that bond etc etc. Anyway, yesterday, having given it 48 hours since we got them, I agreed to try and get one of them out from her tunnel (they both have a wicker tunnel each which they sometimes share one or they have one each). They have both been very brave in coming outside to see us and get food etc, still very skittery and run back inside their tunnels a lot of the time! But they seemed to already be settling and gaining confidence in us. Anyway, I think I may have made a massive mistake in trying to get hold of one of them, as I failed miserably (she escaped from my grasp in super speedy style!) and ever since then it's like we've gone back to when we first bought them home. It's like we've lost their trust completely. Now I feel awful! And my daughter does too. I'll be totally honest, I myself am a little 'nervy' when handling skittery animals! So I'm not exactly the best person to try and get this 'handling' thing underway and kind of pass it on to my daughter. So I think what I am asking of you more experienced GP owners is... how long should we give it until we try to pick them up again? Will they always try to run away when we try to pick them up? (do we need to be a little bit authoritative, but obviously still gentle, when we try to pick them up/handle them?), we don't hurt them when we pick them up do we?! I do worry. I think I'll leave the questions there for now! But would so appreciate your help/comments. My daughter is an only child and bought these for her for some company, she is desperate to befriend/cuddle them and I don't want to mess things up. THANK YOU if you can help.
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Hello all!
We got our little girls on Saturday (I know it is still early days but I am a born worrier!) and just a little concerned about how we can bond with our new guinea pigs. Both my daughter and I are already in love with these piggies and we have given them all of the space and patience possible when they are so darn cute! We've talked gently to them and really tried to hold back to let them settle in. But although I can accept the fact I have to leave them be to hide and wait for them to come to me, my 8 year old daughter is beside herself, and constantly nags me to 'try and get them out', apparently having read on youtube that although you have to give them time they will always try to run away from you even after having them for months, and you just have to gently pick them up and create that bond etc etc. Anyway, yesterday, having given it 48 hours since we got them, I agreed to try and get one of them out from her tunnel (they both have a wicker tunnel each which they sometimes share one or they have one each). They have both been very brave in coming outside to see us and get food etc, still very skittery and run back inside their tunnels a lot of the time! But they seemed to already be settling and gaining confidence in us. Anyway, I think I may have made a massive mistake in trying to get hold of one of them, as I failed miserably (she escaped from my grasp in super speedy style!) and ever since then it's like we've gone back to when we first bought them home. It's like we've lost their trust completely. Now I feel awful! And my daughter does too. I'll be totally honest, I myself am a little 'nervy' when handling skittery animals! So I'm not exactly the best person to try and get this 'handling' thing underway and kind of pass it on to my daughter. So I think what I am asking of you more experienced GP owners is... how long should we give it until we try to pick them up again? Will they always try to run away when we try to pick them up? (do we need to be a little bit authoritative, but obviously still gentle, when we try to pick them up/handle them?), we don't hurt them when we pick them up do we?! I do worry. I think I'll leave the questions there for now! But would so appreciate your help/comments. My daughter is an only child and bought these for her for some company, she is desperate to befriend/cuddle them and I don't want to mess things up. THANK YOU if you can help.
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Hi and welcome!

We have got lots of detailed tips on how to settle in new guinea pigs and interact with them in our new owner's starter kit, which you may find helpful. Please take the time to read the relevant advice; it is too much to pereat all in one post.
" Starter Kit" Of Information Threads For New Owners

As tempting as it it is, please try to wait until your piggies have got the confidence to come out of food and ideally take it off you. Remind your daughter that shop or breeder guinea pigs have had no friendly human interaction. They are prey animals and not animated cuddly toys, so she needs to win their trust first.
If you can turn it into a game of playing "I am not a predator" and celebrating every little progress, that may perhaps help with the impatience.
 
Thank you Wiebke, I will have a good read through the starter kit. I know, I could kick myself now for giving in to my daughter and trying to pick one of them up. I have done loads of research and explained to her so many times, and she does understand to a degree, but like I said we seemed to be coming along so well with them and they were already settling and coming outside I thought maybe they were ready, but obviously not. Will just go back to giving them their space and talking gently to them.
 
I know how difficult it is to be patient, and please don't worry about making mistakes.
We have all made them in the early days, and your piggies will come around eventually.

I also have 2 kids who struggled with being patient, and I tried to get them involved in less 'hands on' ways so they still felt like they had pets.
They filled pellet bowls, chopped up veg, topped up water, etc.

We also had a lot of success in the early days catching the guinea pigs in either a cardboard tube or a snuggle sack.
We would herd them in, and use this to transfer them to a lap for cuddles.
I insisted that the kids only handle their guinea pigs in a cuddle sack at first, just to prevent any escapees! Plus I always had them sit on the floor (so no one could leap off a sofa) and made sure they were in an enclosed room (just in case).

Within 3 months (with lots of patience and food) lap time looked like this.
It will happen, and it will be amazing.

IMG_3926.webp
 
Oh Swissgreys thank you so much for your post! It bought a little lump to my throat seeing that lovely picture. I can only hope my daughter has such a wonderful bond with her guineas pigs one day too (hopefully sooner than later!). I will also show her this post later when I'm home from work to convince her that patience is the absolute virtue where guinea pigs are concerned! I've had a look at the video post on here too and that also showed the cardboard tube or snuggle sack trick so give it a few more days I will try that. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who makes mistakes too! What was I thinking?!
 
We all make mistakes, we are only human! My daughters (12 and 10 years old) spent the first 2 months spending time each day, sitting on the floor inside a large pen with our two g-pigs. They gave the pigs the option to get on their legs, or not, and it really didn't take very long for the piggies to decide that they quite liked cuddles! A year later, the 5 piggies we have now, get daily cuddles from their 3 human slaves. They really do know how to wangle their way into your hearts! :love: The hardest thing is being patient because they are so cute! :nod:
 
Don't beat yourself up - when I first had guinea pigs in the 90's, I was really naive and as there was no Internet resources (like this FAB forum!) me and my mum really were bumbling our way though, we were way less prepared than you, seems like you and your daughter have done loads of research and are keen to be the best owners you can, and that's really the main thing!

I remember one horrendous time when I didn't know how to pick up one of my boys and he squirmed, did a magnificent flip and thonked on the floor! I was beside myself, all sorts of things running through my head like had I damaged him? Would he trust me ever again? Would it psychologically harm him and he'd turn bitey? None of that happened, Cookie got a fright (yeah, not uncommon for piggies!), but soon got over it!

Also, I have a 7yo niece, kids that age can be impatient, even with the best intentions they have a tendency to want to rush toward the fully bonded stage, not realising/having the slooooow patience to built this up. This is a real opportunity for your daughter to show responsibility, and it sounds like she's mature enough for this. Maybe read out some of the handling/settling tips on this forum, she may be less inclined to coerce you into handing your little uns too much/too soon as you can say "here's what the experts say". There's no rush (not easy for an 8yo I know!), and you both are genuinely committed to the happiness of your pigs - I'm envious, wish I was this clued up with my first gps :)
 
Thank you Jude and Tiny, wow it's so nice to have this support network. Yes we are both so keen and committed to creating a happy home for the girls. I have showed Lottie (impatient but loving daughter!) all of your posts, and she has totally taken all that you have said on board. We have talked about it and she has been talking to them lots but has backed off with the 'can I cuddle them now' demands! I am going to invest in a playpen and some snuggle sacks, can anyone recommend where we can get some nice ones from? And thinking of giving it until the weekend until we try to give the girls a cuddle, will that be too soon? Lottie has seen people sitting in the playpen and would like to try that, no touching just give them space and let them run around her, will that be ok? Thanks again everyone. X
 
Duaghter: thanks so much everyone and I wanted to ask tiny aren't you a you tuber? I thought I saw you on YouTube, please send a link to some Guinea pig vids. Anyway all your replays have helped hugely, I think they like me more even in this short space of time! Also one of them enjoys the shelter, and we gave that back after stupidly taking it away, let them have some space and time, now they are fine! I can not thank you enough! ☺️
 
To mum: I'm currently pig-less but am soon setting up a home for two sows and have therefore been doing a bit of research on cages/accessories/toys/food... just everything really to make sure I'm well-prepared! I've seen Ziggies Piggies is well-recommended here and they do cage liners, fleece tunnels, pigloos, lap pads and just loads of snuggly stuff! Everything's made to order (as you choose from a range of colour/material combinations) and seems really well-priced. I've enquirer about fleece cage liners from there and had a lovely email chat with them on Sunday - they're ever so friendly! I'm sure other members will be able to vouch for the products :)

Daughter: I'm not a YouTuber (it's funny cos I'm not even on Facebook I'm that behind with tech!), there must be another Tiny that likes guinea pigs out there :woot:
 
Hi Tiny
Thanks so much, I will look at that website right now. Sorry about my daughter asking you that, she insisted as she's been watching all these gp videos and was very excited that you might have been the same person! I am a non-facebooker too, don't meet many of them nowadays! Thank you again, no doubt I'll have more questions for you all soon...
 
No probs - it makes me feel old that kids are so advanced these days! My 7 year old niece video called me from my sisters phone recently and that blew my tiny mind :)

Sorry I didn't put any website details - Google it like I did and you'll be fine!
 
Wow! All your advice helped so much as my they took the food from my daughters hand! I cannot thank you enough and if they feel that confident do you think maybe tommorow we could try to cuddle?
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Wow! All your advice helped so much as my they took the food from my daughters hand! I cannot thank you enough and if they feel that confident do you think maybe tommorow we could try to cuddle?
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:) great news. We have all been were you are now. With or first piggies Iset up a video camera to see if they ever came out lol

Welcome to the forum by the way.

It is tiny steps with piggies. The catching of them is the hard part, hence why lots of people use a conveyance to pick them up in like the video below.

The problem at this stage of your bonding with them is any attempts that fail to pick them up will scare them and it stresses them and you out for lap time. The easier you pick the up out the cage the better. I would certainly recommend using a tube or cosy for a while until you yourselves feel confident as they are wriggly.

If you can resist the urge to cuddle them today I would and carry on with the feeding by hand for another day or two, it is a marathon not a sprint as they say and you are laying good foundations. Piggies are prey animals so trust has to be won with them and food is good way of doing it. But if you absolutely feel you must have a cuddle catch them with a cosy etc and have short laptime with some food and then pop them home.

welcome again
Lee
 
Hi Lee, thank you for your reply and words of advice and wisdom. Sorry we didn't reply sooner, we was out for the day yesterday. I am going to order some snuggle sacks today and just going to hold off trying to cuddle the girls until we get them. Can I just ask, once they are in the cosy on our lap do we just leave them in there to settle, let them come out in their own time, just worried (again!), that if they escape from the cosy they could just scarper!
Something encouraging happened yesterday though, they both ventured out quite happily and took food from our hands, of course food was involved! But surely it's still a good sign?!
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Hi Lee, thank you for your reply and words of advice and wisdom. Sorry we didn't reply sooner, we was out for the day yesterday. I am going to order some snuggle sacks today and just going to hold off trying to cuddle the girls until we get them. Can I just ask, once they are in the cosy on our lap do we just leave them in there to settle, let them come out in their own time, just worried (again!), that if they escape from the cosy they could just scarper!
Something encouraging happened yesterday though, they both ventured out quite happily and took food from our hands, of course food was involved! But surely it's still a good sign?!
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Sounds good!

First few times maybe leave them in cosy and offer them food until both you and they feel confident. The first few lap times do it sitting on the floor also so if they do run (which I doubt in cosy) they are not going to fall etc.... but keep you hands at ready. Then after you feel a little confident ease them out of cosy. Start lap times off for a few mins at first and gradually build up. Always use food as a bribe - the way to a pigs stomach is food :))

Taking food from hands is really really great! Shows they are really gaining trust of you both. You are doing well
 
We started off using cuddle sacks, and at first they stayed firmly wedged inside and initially refused all offerings of food. We just gently stroked them (inside the cuddle sack) for a few minutes, and then transferred them back into the cage (in the cuddle sack)
Over time they slowly started venturing out to take food.

IMG_3304.webp

Once we got to this point we started using towels to make a more open 'nest' - at first on the floor, and then later (once we felt confident they wouldn't try to run away and the girls were confident handling them) on the sofa.

IMG_3001.webp

It will happen - it just takes time, which can be difficult when you have excited children.
 
Ah lovely pics! Can't wait to get these cuddle sacks now. Our piggies are slaves to kale, I think they'd do anything for it! But we'll see, will definitely give it a try and of course take all of your comments on board, taking it slowly and keeping the initial cuddles short (and sweet hopefully!) and gradually make the cuddle sessions longer when they're used to it. Can't wait for that first cuddle, your girls are so lucky!
 
Rosyautumn girl said:
Ah lovely pics! Can't wait to get these cuddle sacks now. Our piggies are slaves to kale, I think they'd do anything for it! But we'll see, will definitely give it a try and of course take all of your comments on board, taking it slowly and keeping the initial cuddles short (and sweet hopefully!) and gradually make the cuddle sessions longer when they're used to it. Can't wait for that first cuddle, your girls are so lucky!
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Wait til you get your first piggy kisses - you will melt! :love:
 
It's hard work taming piggies but rewarding when they begin to settle. We've had ours since January and still having to work on them, but they had a year of being feral really before they had to contend with handling.

I was like you, quite nervous of them, so I did spend some time without the kids about, just practicing holding them. For my benefit as much as theirs! We stared out in a similar vein to swissgrey above using snuggle sacks etc. Worth bearing in mind is they are likely to sit super still initially, because they are scared. Avoiding sudden movements and noises is sensible during the phase. They might then seem like they suddenly hate you and start trying to get off your knee. This is a good thing, it means they are less scared than they were. They come out the other side and settle down again to more content sitting still.
 
I have 3 children and they were desperate to crack on with cuddling and fussing the piggies!

The piggies were originally for my eldest daughters 10th birthday and so we have made a big thing about her bonding with them first and She is in charge of all cleaning and feeding and so she has jobs to di around the house tonearn the piggies keep!

We have had our piggies a month now and it's going well but the kids had to be patient in the beginning much to their frustration! Now my eldest will sit watching tv with piggies on the sofa! I have attached a pic of bith my daughters but don't have one of my son with them!

One of the things we did was we moved the piggies into a puppy pen so that the kids could sit with them without having to move them!

IMG_8895.webp

IMG_8740.webp

IMG_8741.webp

IMG_8768.webp
 
Thank you tigermoth, omg this is all so helpful, I think trying by myself first is a fab idea, my daughter means so well but as I'm abit nervous that added pressure of her sitting there with the anticipation that it's all going to go perfectly first time makes it all too much! Well I've ordered the snuggle sacks so by the time they arrive the girls will be all the more settled and we'll give it a good go. I'll keep you all posted :luv:
 
And piggies4us! Such gorgeous pics! Thank you! Gives me hope that one day Lottie will be sitting there watching the tele with her little piggies, she said the other day that's what she wants more than anything, to cuddle them whilst watching the tele. My next purchase is a playpen where she can sit in there with them, let them roam around and hopefully come to her. You've all done well to have that bond with them after only a month, I can't imagine that at that moment, but will just keep on being patient... X
 
Ah bless her...she will get there :nod:

The puppy pen was just worth its weight in gold...my Daughter gets in there and just watches tv/reads her book and lets the piggies come to her! Se also hand feeds then their veggies and I'm sure that these things have helped the bond she has with them! Both piggies still squeak when they get picked up but as soon as they are picked up they are absolutely happy to sit on laps and be fussed etc!
 
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