Taming advice please!

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Bubble64

Junior Guinea Pig
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Mot sure if this is the right area sorry if it isn't I couldn't find a taming section so I thought this might link to behaviour. I have had a male baby guinea pig for about 2 months now and was worried about the progress I am making with taming. The guinea pig he is living woth is also relatively new (had for about 4 months) and he is doing pretty well takes food from me now and we are getting used to lap time. But woth my younger one we try hand feeding often however there has only been 1 time where he has nibbled a carrot from my hand. I sit woth my hand in for about 5 minutes but he is still too nervous to come out and don't want to progress onto lap time if he isnt ready. I am also having some trouble picking them both up the youngest runs away and I try to guide him into a hide but he won't go in, I try my bare hands and it ends up me chasing hin around the cage and having to sort of grab him which I feel so guilty about and I only do this when doing a full cage clean about once a week. Any tips? Sorry for the long message.
 
Sometimes it takes a lot longer. One of my boys took a year and a half before he first took food from me. It was just a case of being slow and steady with him but we got there in the end. That is the extent of it though - I don’t do lap time, and instead they are left to interact with me in the way they choose.

Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
How Do I Settle Shy New Guinea Pigs?

You do really need to be weighing them every week so it is important to get them used to some handling even if they don’t like it. None of my four piggies have cuddles as none of them like it but they have to put up with it for the essential weekly checks.
I don’t personally remove any of my piggies from their cages when cleaning.

How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely (videos)
 
Bubble64 said:
Mot sure if this is the right area sorry if it isn't I couldn't find a taming section so I thought this might link to behaviour. I have had a male baby guinea pig for about 2 months now and was worried about the progress I am making with taming. The guinea pig he is living woth is also relatively new (had for about 4 months) and he is doing pretty well takes food from me now and we are getting used to lap time. But woth my younger one we try hand feeding often however there has only been 1 time where he has nibbled a carrot from my hand. I sit woth my hand in for about 5 minutes but he is still too nervous to come out and don't want to progress onto lap time if he isnt ready. I am also having some trouble picking them both up the youngest runs away and I try to guide him into a hide but he won't go in, I try my bare hands and it ends up me chasing hin around the cage and having to sort of grab him which I feel so guilty about and I only do this when doing a full cage clean about once a week. Any tips? Sorry for the long message.
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Hi

We have our owner interaction and species information guides at the top of the New Owners section and there is a chapter on it in our New Owners information collection on how to settle guinea pigs and work around their prey animal instincts.
You can get most guinea pigs to tolerate the necessary health monitoring and grooming care, which is the major compromise that we need to make but try to minimise the risks of injury from blind jumps etc.
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners

'Taming' is however a human centric approach that implies forcing the animals into behaviours that are not in their own social makeup. On this forum we prefer to emphasize the guinea pig perspective, how to respect their own species wiring and tailor our interaction to entice them but still giving them the autonomy. Any trust and love are freely given and not enforced behaviours. It is an approach that is not quick.

By far not every piggy wants to climb up into your lap or likes being touched by you but they will still love you and interact with you in other ways.
You have to very much keep in mind that all the videos on social media give you a very unrealistic picture - they reflect what humans want to see but they do decidedly not reflect the reality. Who wants to watch videos of piggies running away or tweaking your fingers?
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

For that reason we also do not feature how to teach guinea pigs tricks. Rejoice if you have a piggy happy and eager to be challenged and to learn but most piggies won't necessarily enjoy it.

I hope that you can understand that?
 
Wiebke said:
Just give it time and try to follow them into their own fascinating world, which is much more complex than you would ever dream, instead of becoming just your lap pets.
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I agree! Our two don't like being held but their personalities are so funny. They trust us a lot, shoving us out the way with their faces, training us when they want food by rubbing their noses (they know we understand what it means like we do when they wheek), etc. Sometimes they also used to use their paws to push our hands away when we tried to touch them.
 
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