still skittish

[venice]

can you please give me some hints to help make my guins a bit more friendly

they are rescues
3 males one desexed
they are a little jumpy
will sometimes eat out of my hand but not always
i hand feed them their fav food
i love them
they are hutched together
1 6 months old 2 5 weeks old
are well feed
cleaned daily

any hints will be appreciated
I am not good at typing so have probably missed info please ask for clarifiaction

venice

 

[LePetitCochon]

i am by no means a guinea pig expert, but it just takes time and patience. especially for the little babies.how long have you had them? i currently have 5 gp's. Tallulah Lemon is just naturally friendly and not very jumpy, anything that makes the rest scatter usually doesn't faze her in the least! But Honeybell is still relatively skittish ( have had her and Tallulah since sept)but she fine once i am holding her. and her 2 babies are just over 6 weeks now and still extremely skittish, and i handle them, and hand feed them and am just generally around them ALL the time. they do settle down once they are in my lap, but don't completely relax. my new rescue that has been with me a week however, next to Tallulah is the least skittish, go figure! so i guess it is partly just personality. just have patience, and keep at it! good luck!

 

[teadragon]

You know, if my boys started to let me jump into the cage and pick them up I'd be worrying that something was wrong.

Your boys are still young, it's not really until (in most cases) the pigs get older that they become more tolerant or appreciative of lap time. As babies they're more "LET'S GO GO GO GO!", and in the cage they can be zoomie little squeekers.

Be patient and be persistent and firm. It might help if you develop a way of announcing that something awesome is going to happen; most people make an association by mistake between rustling bags and being fed by rustling the bag the veggies are in or opening a fridge just before pigs are fed. They associate the noise with feeding time which is why many pigs respond to bags and fridges opening. I whistle before I feed my pigs, a whistle which mimics their "ZOMG FOOD!" wheek and they eventually began to associate that whistle (and whistling) with being fed.

It has the benefit of making all pigs come out of hiding and come forward to the front of the cage for feeding time. It also puts them in a great position to be picked up, especially if you move them from responding to the whistle to something like:

When I whistle you must come to the front of the cage and take your first veg from my hand, or I will wait until you come to the front of the cage and take your first veg.

I use this on my two skittish boys, and it's made the non-skittish boys more relaxed when my hand moves around them. It seems to reduce how skittish my skittish two (3 and 4 years) are when I move in and makes hands less panic-inducing.

Expect them to make you work to pick them up.
Expect that it will take time for them to trust you.
Expect that they'll surprise you by one day making an association with something and feeding time.
Be patient; the reason many older members don't complain about their skittish pigs is because we've come to realise it's gonna happen and it's likely to stay that way.

 

[Wiebke]

Like teadgragon says - the key is patience and persistence. I make a tsk tsk for food, so they know when that is coming. It usually takes guinea pigs only about a couple of days on average to make the connection.

Hold out the food and make them come to you for it. Praise them lots like you would with a dog and tell them what good boys they are! Get them used to your hands moving around them.

If they take fright, take one step back and start again from there... Winning their trust takes time, but it's worth it when it's freely given in the end!

With my skittish piggies I think in terms of months, not days or even weeks.

 

[venice]

thanks folk
that makes perfect sense
I am use to working with dogs and cats and was concerned I didnt have the right approach
i have been doing as suggested except for the word association
like you said they here the door or me coming and squeak their heads off
thanks

venice