Sorry, this post is so long...
That's great they are taking food from you, and confidently! It's so gratifying to gain that trust, because you know how precious it is. And climbing into your lap is a great complement as well.
I held mine from the moment I got them home from the store. Like, they had no choice. I know all the advice out there is to give them time, respect their space. I just remember I gave one little 4 month old space and time, and the poor thing ended up sitting in the cage corner and literally didn't eat or drink for 3 days. She only started eating when I finally held her. Now, she was super high-strung and didn't mellow completely until she had her first litter, so it wasn't like we were best buddies right away. But that experience made me take a quite different approach with these two I got recently. And the result is wonderful. As I am typing, one of my little guys is enjoying floor time and literally running laps around me (2.5 weeks after getting him). It's really cute and also very distracting.
I know my little guy is still a baby, so maybe things will change when he gets older. I"m certainly no expert and just sharing my personal experiences. For now, we've got a wonderful relationship.
I think a large part is psychology. What do piggies want? 1) safety, 2) food, 3) comfort. My goal with my two guys was to make myself the primary source of all three of those things. For example, when I first introduced floor time, I made myself the biggest object in the area. In other words, the most attractive place to run to for safety (to give them a sense of confidence in the new environment, I lay their towel flat on floor so they would have their scent and things wouldn't be completely new). So, I don't "force" them to find me safe or comfortable, I just structure the environment such that they just find I'm the best they have available. And I make sure to follow that up by consistently being a safe place: moving VERY slowly around them, if they want to hide under my leg, let them be, if they sleep on me let them sleep. Later, of course, I loosen things up, I'm just talking about the first week or so of getting them.
Also, I put their cage in various places in my room, walking around it, stepping over it, whatever. They could hide under their towel as they please, but they would experience my daily rituals up close and personal. The result of that has been interesting: during floor time my little guy ran away in terror when I crawled on my knees to get something, but came running back to me when I stood up completely. You would think the standing person taller and scarier to a piggy. But i NEVER chase them, I always use a towel (let them walk under the towel, then pick them up). Now, he follows me around my room as I make my bed, clean his cage.....
I held them so much at first (like, the first few days for hours at a time...of course, giving them frequent little breaks), they would invariably get tired in my lap. So, that first little doze in my lap was crucial. I made sure to not disturb them, so that they would learn that it's ok to sleep on me. Now, they happily stretch out and snooze away. During floor time, I try to give them different parts of me to hide under, so they learn I am a safe place. For example, a hand, a leg, an arm...whatever the situation.
You have to learn their routine and try to flow with it. Mornings and evenings are the best times for my guys to have floor time. Afternoons they prefer to sleep on my lap. That's their natural rhythm, it's best to just go with it as much as possible.
Also, I've made sure to teach them that my hands are friends. From their perspective, The Hand is often the first thing they experience of us. Not just by treats, but by touch. For example, when they do floor time, piggies often very softly touch each other with their noses periodically. A swift little brush. My piggies did that with my hand, and I made sure to gently do it back. He runs up and brushes his nose on The Hand....a little later, I gently brush his shoulder with The Hand.....and so on. Something scares him and he runs away, then runs to me and I make sure to cover him gently with The Hand.... When they lay on my lap, i try to make sure The Hand is beside or over them (around their middle, they don't like it when their head is covered). If they curl up on my lap, I try to make it so that they find my cupped Hand the best place to curl into.....you get hte picture. When I touch my guinea pigs, what I want to see often is a kind of "leaning" into my hand..not just tolerance, but the smallest bit of reach for it. I don't expect this every time of course, but here and there. Or also, for that half-closed contented look in their eye when I stroke their ears and cheeks. This is the kind of response to my hand that I am going for, and it just comes from constant attention on my part and learning where their "sweet spot" is. I find there's a period of time when piggies just are not comfortable with The Hand, but with time they start to relax enough to enjoy it. And when I see them start to enjoy it, I have to back up my promise by making The Hand something they can find (1) safety and (2) comfort.
There seemed to be a turning point with both my new piggies. The first guy turned when I gave him a bath. It was traumatic (unfortunately necessary due to his bad case of lice). Afterward, he was just shivering away in his cage, so I put him on my lap until he warmed up. Then back in the cage....he started shivering, I took him back on my lap to warm up.....we repeated this maybe 4 times over the course of several hours before he reached stability. It was after that a few days later that he crawled into my lap on his own initiative, without treats.
The second guy turned after another rather traumatic experience (traumatic for me, this time). At night, I usually put the cage by my bed, so that one side of the cage is about 1 foot from my head. Normally in the mornings, I find them buried into their towels. But I woke up one morning about 12 inches away from my 6-week old just staring back at me intently. To open your eyes to a beady black eye unblinkingly staring back at you is not a calming experience. But it was after that that I noticed he seemed to have a softening to me.
As for food, I'm still trying to figure it out. I agree with the advice that muesli isn't the best...but it was all I found at the store. They pick out the good stuff and leave the pellets. I can supplement with grass while it's summer, but this can't go on indefinitely-winter is coming. For now, we have a regimen of grass/clover in the morning, muesli always available. Depending on how much grass I give, sometimes i give other veggies during the rest of the day (don't want diarrhea). My roommate adores him, so he usually gets a slice or two of tomato, carrot or something regardless. He's still growing and seemed to be a little slender when I got him from the store, so I give him as much as he will eat. He's eating like a horse now and put on 20 grams over the last 3 days!
There are lot of birch trees where I live, so 1-2 times a week I give him fresh branches to gnaw on.
Because my 6-week guy was SOOOO skittish, I tried as much as possible to introduce something new every day. For example, every day he gets to try a new food (of course, I only give a very VERY minute amount the first time). The guy is a trooper and while at first he turned down even trying (his skittish nature) now that he has experienced so much good from The Hand, he never turns down a try. Today, it was apple. It turns out he's not a fan, and that's ok. Dandelion flowers, on the other hand, are THE BEST!
