wahh!

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ILoveGilbertTheGuineaPig

ILoveGilbertTheGuineaPig

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everytime gilbert sniffs me, i pull away, afraid he will bite me. well today, i felt pretty confident. i put the towel on my legs and sat in his play area and he sniffed me and i, on impulse, pulled away. but he didn't seem to want to bite me. so i stuck my feet out from the towel, thinking, maybe he'll lick me? but instead, he came up to me and bit my ankle!:0 i said ouch real loud and he ran away...my question is just: do any of your guineas bite you when you're bareskinned? will gilbert ever realize that I'm not food? I'm really not fond of letting him test my skin again...this just adds to my fear of him biting me. why does gilbert always do it? i swear if i let him have my finger, he'll just eat it. he just always seems to be testing out my skin...luckily NO SCAR, no blood, no nothing. just a bite.
 
don't know about your ankle but if your hands smell of food or are sweaty (salty) they can get mistaken for food and get a little nibble. I put my fingers next to george and tigers mouths and stroke their noses and chins with no problems but I have cold hands so no tasty salty sweat for them to eat :)) I guess some piggies are just nibblers though!
 
lol, i actually try the chin thing, but all he does is either attempt to nibble my hand thinking its food? or he uses his hand to nudge it away...:{
 
When I was a kid one of my piggies Fuzz was a biter. He would nip me all the time just to see what I tasted of I think. He didn't like the taste of the gloves I started wearing and he grew out of it after a while. He is still fairly young isn't he? He may very well grow out of it, cover up a bit n keep trying :)
 
Pretty much the same as piggyme said but wearing rubber gloves can put them off nipping as they don't like the feel of the rubber on their teeth, so wearing the gloves until he grows out of the habbit could be a good idea :)
 
I was cleaning out Pola & Nell's cage and I sit inside it and Nell took a nibble of my foot! Rory likes to bite me when I am getting him out or putting him back in his cage. I don't know...I hope someone can help you out, as we all know guinea pigs are not supposed to be biters but that is not always the case.
 
i have done the glove thing too. do you usually wear one layer or two? cause with one layer he can still nibble through:))
 
Ours are sniff monsters, but I find they won't just bite without doing a 'taste test' first, they both lick and then do a very light nibble (you can feel their teeth but it absolutely doesnt hurt or cause any injury) this has never been followed by a proper bite, so i guess i am not very tasty!
 
Nibbling

My boys will often just "test their teeth" on my fingers if I'm holding them. not sure if they object to being held, or if they are looking for a reaction, ie putting them back in their hutch?

It's not usually too painful, they've never broken the skin, but they can sometimes leave a faint mark!
 
First time they encounter bare skin they often mistake it for food!
 
sazmatazz said:
Ours are sniff monsters, but I find they won't just bite without doing a 'taste test' first, they both lick and then do a very light nibble (you can feel their teeth but it absolutely doesnt hurt or cause any injury) this has never been followed by a proper bite, so i guess i am not very tasty!
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My girls are the same as above. Generally, i can tell they are ready to go back to their home when they start nibbling more and get Whiny...lol they've never actually bit, just little tasty nibbles. I dont blame them or think harshly...cuz they Are animals...they dont know any better! :)) Maybe with more handling he'll get better
 
I've only ever had one pig who would bite and I'm afraid she never grew out of it. I just had to be really careful when holding her to keep my fingers away from her mouth. We tried all sorts like rubbing our fingers with chilli or other nasty foods to put her off but she didn't bite because she was hungry but because she really didn't want to be handled no matter how much I tried.
 
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