LunaPig72
Junior Guinea Pig
I have two young sows - sisters coming up for their first birthday in August. Sadly, they lost their older cage mate - our lovely 4.5 year old sow - a few weeks ago following a short illness and both were understandably subdued for a few days following that. They have since adapted well to life with just the two of them, they share their space happily (6x2 C&C with two big hay trays and a 1x2 loft), and seem very settled. They both sleep in the open cage at times, get very excited at veggie/hay time and take food from my hands.
However, they seem to hate being in their run on the lawn. When our older sow (who always LOVED lawn time) was with us, they followed her lead and trotted around quite happily after her, interspersing snooze time in the pigloo shelters with pootling about in the open run. But since her death they just hide in the shelters and literally don't come out. When I go to take them out of the run they will each have nibbled a neat circlet of grass within their respective pigloo and that's it.
The run is secure and has both a strong mesh lid and a waterproof fabric cover so they are completely covered/sheltered. I have tried covering part of the sides with a fleece blanket to give them more security but it makes no difference. I am always in the garden with them to supervise, chat to them etc but still they hide. As soon as they are taken back to their indoor C&C they come back to life and start popcorning around, eagerly demanding food, coming up to the bars requesting treats and seem completely confident again.
I'm not sure whether to keep persevering with lawn time to give them a change of scene, fresh grass etc - or whether I should just leave them be in their cage. I've had pigs for years and never had two behave like this - my other piggies have always loved grass time. But these two just don't seem to like it. I can't help feeling guilty on a nice warm (but not too hot) day when they're inside but could be in their run enjoying the grass! But the problem is they don't seem to enjoy it at all.
Do I persevere, or just give up for the time being? They do have more than enough space in their C&C so maybe I should just leave well alone?
However, they seem to hate being in their run on the lawn. When our older sow (who always LOVED lawn time) was with us, they followed her lead and trotted around quite happily after her, interspersing snooze time in the pigloo shelters with pootling about in the open run. But since her death they just hide in the shelters and literally don't come out. When I go to take them out of the run they will each have nibbled a neat circlet of grass within their respective pigloo and that's it.
The run is secure and has both a strong mesh lid and a waterproof fabric cover so they are completely covered/sheltered. I have tried covering part of the sides with a fleece blanket to give them more security but it makes no difference. I am always in the garden with them to supervise, chat to them etc but still they hide. As soon as they are taken back to their indoor C&C they come back to life and start popcorning around, eagerly demanding food, coming up to the bars requesting treats and seem completely confident again.
I'm not sure whether to keep persevering with lawn time to give them a change of scene, fresh grass etc - or whether I should just leave them be in their cage. I've had pigs for years and never had two behave like this - my other piggies have always loved grass time. But these two just don't seem to like it. I can't help feeling guilty on a nice warm (but not too hot) day when they're inside but could be in their run enjoying the grass! But the problem is they don't seem to enjoy it at all.
Do I persevere, or just give up for the time being? They do have more than enough space in their C&C so maybe I should just leave well alone?
