When To Worry About Quiet Pigs?

[Disaidra]

I got two rescue piggies two weeks ago, and one of them is still very skittish. She hides in the same place, and although she comes out for food she doesn't seem to be getting any more confident. If i go near the cage she goes completely still, even in her hidey, and I haven't heard her make a single noise. The other one will eat from my hand if I'm patient near the entrance to the hidey, and I've heard her make little babbling noises. She also sometimes wheeks when I bring food. However neither of them seem to want to explore much. I wasn't expecting to be able to hold them yet, or anything like that, and I may just be being paranoid, but I'm worried that they're not happy since all they seem to do is eat, sleep, and hide. They don't even change hidey unless I have to clean the snuggle sack out.

 

[Jesse's pigs]

I think a piggies main objective in their life is to eat,sleep and hide lol. Infact the fact they're eating sleeping and hiding is good! It's great they are eating and sleeping shows they are at least settling in. Hiding is to be expected. It took about a month for me to be able to see my Mo out of his hidey hole without him bolting at the sight of me. Just stay patient. They'll come around- food is a great motivator!

There isn't really a 'normal' amount of wheeking (I presume that's what you mean by noise) that I could give you. It differs on the pig. When they are very comfortable in their surroundings and settled you'll soon learn how much wheeking is normal for each pig. I would worry if their noose changes too much after that. My oldest boar Mo isn't anywhere near as vocal as Steve and yet he decides to chew on the bars as opposed to wheek when he knows veges are coming.

 

[Swissgreys]

You might find some of the tips in this thread helpful:

How Do I Settle Shy New Guinea Pigs?

And I have 4 fairly confident, settled pigs (they have been here a while), and to this day one of them never makes any noise (Eddi), while Oreo wheeks so hard that her little ears flap if there is so much a teeny rustle in the vicinity of their cage.

 

[KaitlinH]

They'll come round eventually. Try and get into a routine of giving them food at certain times and getting them out to run round at a certain time. This really helped my guinea pigs to come out of their shells. Make sure it's only you feeding and handling them at first. I made it so that My piggies had to get used to me before I introduced them to others as they take a while to be comfortable in your presence x