A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours

[Wiebke]

Overview
Introduction
Entries in alphabetical order
- Attention seeking and begging
- Back foot swipe
- Barbering (eating hair)
- Bar biting and rattling
- 'Biting' behaviours: Biting, Nibbling, Nipping, Tweaking
- Body language
- Border watch/lie-in
- Bullying
- Bum digging: see Poo stealing
- Bum sniffing
- Bum wiggling: see Rumble-strutting
- Bum wiping: see Scent marking
- Changes in behaviour
- Chasing and pushing a companion out or off
- Chinning (facing off with raised heads)
- Chirping (making bird-like sounds)
- Chuntering/chutting (Piggies on the move)
- Clicking in mouth or chest
- Depression
- 'Dodgems' (bumping into each other at speed): see Zoomies
- Dominance behaviours
- Eating hair: see Barbering
- Fear and Fright (spotting the signs)
- Fear-aggression
- Fights and tussles
- Growling: see Rumbling
- Grunting: see Pain
- Hair on end (pain or hostile encounter)
- Heat in sows: see Season
- Illness (spotting early signs and emergencies)
- 'Killing' - the persistent myth
- Licking or nibbling ears
- Licking eyes
- Licking human skin
- Lost baby wheeking
- Lunging and flying tackles
- Mounting
- Mouth sniffing and food snatching
- Moving sounds: see Chuntering
- Nibbling: see biting
- Nipping: see biting
- Nose touching/sniffing and bumping
- Pain symptoms (spotting the signs)
- Playing behaviours: see popcorning and zoomies
- Peeing (spray and target peeing)
- Pheromones (communication by scent)
- 'Piggy washes'
- Poo eating (coprophagy)
- Poo stealing
- 'Popcorning'
- Prey animal instincts
- Purring: see rumbling
- Rumble-strutting and 'boar hakas'
- Rumbling, growling and purring: distinguishing similar sounds
- Running at top speed and bumping into each other: see Zoomies
- Scent marking
- Season in sows (incl. characteristic behaviours)
- 'Seizures': see Popcorning
- Settling in, picking up, handling and lap time
- Shake while rearing on the hind legs
- Sleeping (eyes open or closed)
- Sounds
- Snorting
- Squealing in babies and youngsters
- Submission squealing (all ages)
- Teeth chattering
- Teeth grinding: see Pain
- Territorial behaviours
- Tussles: see Fights
- Tweaking: see Biting
- Twisting: see Popcorning and Pain
- Vibrating: see Rumbling
- Wheeking
- Wheeking for food
- Whining (sow behaviour)
- Whispering techniques
- Yawning at another guinea pig
- 'Zoomies'


Introduction

Guinea pig communication is much more complex than most people assume. It has three major components, one of which is not accessible to us: pheromones (scent and scent marking), body language and sounds.

Pheromones are used to create a group scent and for territorial scent marking. Personal scent gives information about gender, age and health as well as the change in sow pheromones when they are coming up to a season or are in season. Boars (even neutered ones) respond with testosterone laden pee.
Body language is the main vehicle for interactive social behaviour; how stiff or relaxed the body is tells you a lot about the state of mind. Key interactive behaviours help to express friendliness and love or dominance/submission, which are crucial in a hierarchical society.
Sounds mainly convey the mood (the louder and faster, the more excited or apprehensive a guinea pig is), likes and dislikes as well as whereabouts and status when on the move. You often can only interpret a sound correctly when you know the situational context and see the body language.
It is the combination of all those three components through which guinea pigs can express themselves in a nuanced way. You learn through observation and experience to interpret guinea pig behaviour. They are big communicators so you’ll catch up on them fairly quickly!

If you have questions for specific behaviours or situations, please start your own thread in our Behaviour (or if needed the Health&Illness) section for knowledgeable support. Upload any video on a public setting elsewhere and copy it across into your forum post or upload it via the 'Attach Files' button underneath your post (which we also recommend to use for any picture posting). Please be aware that cannot necessarily tell you what is going on just based on your own speculations without any independent access to your guinea pigs, like a video.
Please also respect that this forum is entirely run by voluntary member donations and staffed by unpaid volunteers recruited from our membership; a full video support facility exceeds our budget since we are not part of social media. However, our independence from social media allows us to give you as much tailored support and for long as needed.

To find out more about guinea pigs as a species and about their social development and interaction, these guides here will make an interesting read:
Guinea Pig Facts - An Overview
Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

A

- Attention seeking and begging
Guinea pigs are group animals wired to navigate a much more complex social system than most people imagine. They are great at working out what works in their relationship with a human and how to push the triggers. In fact, they can be very expert at training their human slaves. If you give them the little finger, they will likely take the whole hand with the body attached. Every night can turn into a funfair with bottle banging and bar biting if it gets you out of your bed.
Guinea pigs also come with a very accurate internal clock that will easily move forward but not back. Summer time is fine but winter time gets ignored!
Especially single and bereaved guinea pigs can transfer their need for constant social interaction and stimulation on their owners and will go to great length to capture and hold your attention with whatever works – pleasing or annoying habits. What counts for them is not your mood but the time they can sneak off you.
Un-training annoying behaviours is much more difficult.
These two links here will provide more information to understand and spot attention seeking behaviour and ways how to best deal with it since guinea pigs are deaf to the word ‘no’.
Single Guinea Pigs - Challenges and Responsibilities
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?


B

- Back foot swipe
A swipe with a back foot is about the equivalent of an elbow in your ribs. It is not at all uncommon in group life when there are regular scrums or a tussle.
Problems arise from a mis-judged swipe if it causes a scratch in the face or a rip in the ear. However, an injury from a swipe is seen as an accident and not as an intentional fight and will not lead to a fall-out.

- Barbering (eating hair)
Barbering can have many reasons, it can range from affectionate grooming to much less friendly dominance grooming; nervous habitual self-grooming to barbering because of a pain spot under the skin to indicating an outbreak of skin parasites. Long human hair is also irresistible to some guinea pigs. Thankfully, bezoars (hair balls in the digestive system) are extremely rare in guinea pigs.
Please read our illustrated detailed barbering guide to work out which facet of this complex behaviour applies to your situation: Barbering ( Eating Hair)

- Bar biting and grids rattling
This is either an attention seeking behaviour (especially at meal times), an attempt to get at food out of their reach; a territorial behaviour between neighbouring groups/pairs or recently separated piggies or - with youngsters under 4 months with an overwhelming need for company - either explorative behaviour or the need to be with another piggy.
Boars that come into contact with sows (either safely neutered or as a single boar in need to stimulation and preferably in a traditional cage to prevent accidents), will be extremely keen to get at them; especially when a sow is close to or in season. You may want to cable-tie any grids and remove anything they can use to climb over from the grids.
The situational context rest of the behaviour needs to be taken very much into consideration as it is not always clear whether bar biting between neighbours is actually the wish to invade (territorial) or the wish to join (social) although the first case is generally the much more common, contrary to what most owners interpret it as.
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

- 'Biting' behaviours
- Biting: full-on deep bites are an instinctive split second defensive reaction of guinea pigs that are on edge or startled by a sudden movement – whether that is in a fight or you moving your hand. Severely riled up boars that cannot get away from each other can do real damage to each other. Deaths are however rare and always accidental. The sow equivalent of a fighting bit is a mouthful of hair as they are wired to live in a group.
- Nibbling is exploratory behaviour with which young guinea pigs discover and learn to master their environment or newly introduced things. Guinea pigs have nearly double the amount of taste buds than humans but no vomit reflex.
- Nipping is a mild dominance behaviour in which a dominant guinea pig lets the other just feel the teeth without breaking the skin. It is very commonly seen during the post-intro dominance phase but can happen at other times, too. The appropriate response by the under-piggy is submission squealing (NOT from pain!)
- Tweaking is a very carefully judged dominance behaviour that is not or just breaking the skin similar to nipping but used in the interaction with humans to signal displeasure, the need to have a pee or – in teenagers or very spoiled piggies – pushing the hierarchy or stepping into a power vacuum you have created.
Use our whispering techniques (see the relevant entry) to assert your authority in guinea pig body language and put your piggy in need of the toilet back in the cage asap.

- Body language
While guinea pigs convey their emotional state more with the sounds they make, key social concepts are generally expressed by body language and specific socially interactive behaviours. That is why we can often only comment on the emotional state of your guinea pig with audio recording but cannot pin down what is wrong with them, lacking the more important wider context.
This guide here is a good introduction to many of the key interactive behaviours of guinea pigs so you can learn to understand them better: Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

- Border Watch / Border Lie-in
This is one of the most commonly misinterpreted behaviours. Very often lying next to each other by a cage divider means not two piggies wanting to be together across the bars but actually two piggies marking the border of their adjoining territories.
Only situational context in terms of general interaction and body language can tell you which one you are dealing with and often the signs can be too subtle for you to be sure unless the piggies meet face to face. Have thick oven gloves ready – you may need them!

- Bullying
The line between over the top dominance behaviour and bullying is not quite easy to judge and can be very subjective. Dominance behaviours are part and parcel of guinea pig society which hasn’t heard of political correctness. They are not perceived as bullying by the guinea pigs, merely as a way of forming a hierarchical group and maintaining it.
Bullying behaviours come into play when a companion is kept away from food (including hay), access to water, being locked into hut with only one exit, unable to sleep in peace constantly chased and chased away way past the roughest bit of the post-bonding intro 2 weeks’ dominance phase.
A bullied piggy will be very stressed or depressed and will not put on weight or be losing it. Sow groups can be much more subtle than boars.
In order to work out whether a piggy of yours is being bullied, a two day trial separation with a divider is recommended. A bullied piggy will quickly perk up noticeably and be much happier when away from their tormentor (who is usually protesting badly).
You can mitigate food/hut bullying by sprinkle feeding around the cage, installing water bottles at different ends, making sure that hay access cannot be blocked and use only huts and tunnels (preferably all the same so there is no prime property) with two exits either in different parts of a cage or with the exits on opposite sides in a row so the bully is physically unable to control it all.
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour

- Bum digging: see Poo stealing

- Bum sniffing
Pheromone sniffing. This is very common when piggies meet. In this case, it is a getting to know you behaviour. A boar will increasingly sniff out the status of sow when her pheromones start to change in the run up to a season. Increased sniffing can also indicate an illness and a changed smell. Humans keep on top of their news feed instead…

- Bum wiggling: see rumble-strutting

- Bum wiping: see scent marking

 

[Wiebke]

C

- Changes in behaviour
Sudden changes in behaviour like not turning up for a meal or being quite or even lethargic should ring alarm bells. Please see a vet as soon as you can and start weighing and support feeding any piggies that are losing weight or are no longer interested in food.
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Single Guinea Pigs - Challenges and Responsibilities

- Chasing and pushing a companion out/off
Dominance behaviour that is typically seen in the days after a bonding when the group hierarchy is firmed up or after a change in circumstances that requires a re-establishment of the hierarchy. Ideally you only use huts/tunnels with two exits and sprinkle feed around the cage instead of bowl feeding to cut down on the new leader throwing their weight around.
Chasing a sow in season: see entry 'Season in sows'.

- Chinning (facing off with raised heads)
If the heads are held up at the same height, both piggies presenting their chins against each other face on, then it is it is a slightly confrontational measuring up that may or may not end with a chase by the winner of the face-off. It is usually seen during a bonding where two piggies are very similar in power or if there is a ranking question.
Pushing the head up of a submissive piggy is mild dominance behaviour to remind the lower ranked one of the hierarchical standing.
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics (see chapter on contested leadership for pictures and how to read the power dynamics via the body language)

- Chirping (making bird-like sounds)
Guinea pigs can chirp like birds and have startled many an unsuspecting owner. It is still a mystery why they do it. Chirping is very rare and unpredictable, so you may never hear it. There is definitely a situational component because other piggies in the same room will just be very quiet while they can make a dive into hiding when you play a chirping video out of context.
This guide explores what we can say and what we cannot say about chirping including a video: Chirping

- Chuntering/chutting etc. (Piggies on the move)
Chuntering is the very specific nonstop chatting sound that guinea pigs make whenever they are on the move. It is a constant audible update of whether they are OK or not to help keep a group together and safe when they move in single file to and from their feeding grounds a distance away from the denning area on paths through dense undergrowth where they cannot see each other. It is somewhat like the equivalent of a gps update in terms of geolocation and status feedback rolled together in sound form instead of as a flight or ship map when you are flying or driving in a convoi.
The normal chunter means that all is OK.

- Clicking in mouth or chest
Please see a vet for potential dental issues (mouth) or promptly for potential pneumonia (chest).


D

- Depression
Before you can call a piggy depressed, you need to always have them vet checked first because very often the cause is medical before bullying. Bereaved guinea pigs will grieve for a few days but can become depressed from lack of company of their own kind in the longer term.
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour

- 'Dodgems' (intentional bumping into each other): see Zoomies

- Dominance behaviours
Guinea pigs live in a hierarchical society. Dominance behaviours are there to help create and reinforce a working group. They are very much at the centre of cavy social life and can range from the very mild to outright fighting.
You see most dominance behaviours during the two weeks after an introduction or after any major territory/leadership changes (ca. two weeks group establishment phase following any major change) as well as during times of high hormones (teenage and ovarian cysts in sows).
This link here gives you the full of list of mild to strong dominance behaviours in ascending order: Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Typical sow dominance behaviours: Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)


E

Eating hair: see Barbering

F

Fear and fright - spotting the signs
Guinea pigs are prey animals and run on instincts. It is very easy to overlook or completely misinterpet signs of fear because they are often very subtle.

Signs of fear and fright:
- Dashing for cover and starting a stampede.
- Large white rim around the eyes.
Some guinea pigs have naturally larger eyes showing more white (the same as humans) but even then, the whites will be very pronounced.
- Being quiet and docile.
Guinea pigs being picked up by strangers in a pet shop or taken to the vet, having their first nail trim or groom and being very cooperative and not making a sound are on their instinctive unresponsive prey reflex and fearing for their lives. They are not relaxed breathing cuddly toys!
A relaxed, confident piggy is talking (even if it is complaining loudly), not allowing you to manipulate and handling them without responding in some fashion by sound or gesture. They will also not make a dash for cover as soon as back in their carrier or cage.
See entry Prey animal instincts
- Keeping their distance or over-the-top dominance behaviour when meeting other guinea pigs.
See entry Fear-aggression.
- Stiff or tense body language, edgy and jumpy (even if very subtle).
Do not handle with your bare hands and refrain from making any sudden movements. Keep up a steady flow of soothing chatter as to not startle them and trigger an instinctive defence bite.
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Children And Guinea Pigs - A Guide For Parents

- Fear-aggression
Guinea pigs are very reliant of being socialised and growing in group where they are taught by their elders how to master social interaction and their environment especially in the formative weeks between weaning and the onset of teenage (ca. 3-16 weeks of age).
Sadly this is usually the time they are separated from their family and sold as pets.
Combine that with the fact that the vast majority of for-sale guinea pigs are commercially mass produced for pet shops or for sale breeders as cheaply as possible and without regard to their social needs in often stressful surroundings, this makes for a perfect recipe for problems; especially as a cage situation doesn’t allow the loser or the newly introduced piggy to just walk away.
Most aggression in guinea pigs is fear based and is an over-reaction in a situation in which a piggy on overload or pushed past their limit with no other recourse by fight their way out of a tight spot or to keep a piggy pushing for dominance away but to go on the attack.
Typical fear-aggressive/insecurity behaviours are a stiff body language, strong territorial behaviour, low teeth chattering, rumble-strutting with a pronounce bum wiggle, yawning, lunging and flying tackles before getting into a tussle or or a full-on bite; usually to the face if it is to get out of a tight spot.
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs

- Fights and tussles
Tussles are altercations where both piggies are unwilling to actually fight. They can turn into a full-on fight if neither party is willing to step away or if the stronger party keeps pushing their advantage relentlessly.
A fight is more distinctly an altercation with deep bites to the rump or face. The happen mainly between boars that cannot move away from each other in a cage situation; especially during a teenage hormone spike. They can much more rarely happen between a fear-aggressive sow being pursued too relentlessly by a boar overtaken by his hormones.
One blood has been drawn intentially (other than an accidental slash from a misjudged back foot swipe), this is generally the end of the relationship; piggies won’t go just happily back together. Forcing them to stay together and clash repeatedly is cruelty because they are kept in a highly stressful situation and are not allowed to express normal species behaviour by walking away from each other. If you have two boars, please ensure that their cage is large enough to be split and make sure that you have got a divider.
The sow equivalent of a full-on bite is a mouthful of hair – that again is a sign of a very deep dislike. It would be good if they could be separated.
Once piggies make up their mind that they don’t like another one (never mind whether they are related or haved lived together all their lives), then they are usually not going to change their mind.
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Bonds In Trouble
" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)


G

- Growling: see entry Rumbling

- Grunting: see entry Pain


H

- Hair on end (pain or hostile encounter)
Other than pain related raised fur (see entry: Pain), a threatened or seriously riled up piggy can make themselves bigger by having their hair standing on end; the body posture is increasingly stiff corresponding to the degree the hair is standing up and the strength of the feeling.
Please make sure that the piggies in question cannot meet or a separate immediately with any strong feelings. This is never going to work out.

 

[Wiebke]

I

Illness (how to spot the early signs and emergencies)
Guinea pigs are prey animals and are wired to suppress signs of illness to a great degree. This means that when you notice symptoms, your piggy is very likely already quite, quite ill and needs to see a vet fairly quickly.
In our forum parlance:
- as soon as possible: this is potentially a life or death emergency; see an out-of-hours vet now at any time of the day or night (UK) or see a vet as soon as you can (other countries without any 24 hours vet access).
- promptly: if at all possible, please have your piggy seen within 24 hours or seen as quickly as possible
- at your own convenience during regular hours: this is not an emergency but should be checked out by a vet in the coming days or (if specified) during your next regular vet check.
These guides here contain all the necessary information to help you spot signs of illness and what to do in an emergency:
Early Signs Of Illness
How Soon Should My Guinea Pig See A Vet? - A Quick Guide
List Of Life And Death Out-of-hours Emergencies
Emergency Resources and Critical Illness Care - Contents list and subforum link
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment


K

- 'Killing' - the persistent myth
Guinea pigs do NOT kill intentionally, whether that is babies or other boars.
Eating parts of a dead-born or just died baby or an unexpectedly passed companion is in fact usually the result of increasingly desperate attempts to 'wake-up' an unresponsive companion when gentle licking and then nibbling becomes gradually more intense. It is an expression of love and care in an extreme situation.

Highly stressed mothers may eat miscarried or dead-born babies (or parts) in a desperate attempt to not attract predators and to save herself if she has no chance to move away in a cage situation but neither she nor dads will kill babies intentionally. Please remove any dads asap as mothers come into season again within hours of giving birth; any wild chases right over the new-born babies can injure them; not to mention the higher risk burden of a back-t--back pregnancy on a poor mother's body.
Deadly fights in boars are accidental and generally happen only if a deep fighting bite hits a vital spot. They are very rare indeed. Please separate boars long before they get to that stage. You can always test a bond as yo whether it is still functional with a 2 days separation and a re-intro outside the cages on neutral ground.
In nature, the losing boar would usually remove himself from the premises; but this is not an option in a cage situation where boars are forced to fight out their differences repeatedly and more and more seriously.
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Bonds In Trouble

Serious bite wounds are deep needle-like wounds where the piggies sink their incisors deeply into the skin - more often in defence, by the way. Gnawed open wounds are generally self-inflicted or the result of a burst cyst.
" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)


L

- Licking or nibbling ears
Licking or gently nibbling ears is the friendliest form of dominance. It translates as ‘I want you to be part of my group’. You can also mimic this with your guinea pigs upon arrival and as a reminder to cooperate more when medicating or cutting nails.
Occasionally ear nibbling can go overboard and become ear biting. This is generally more common in neglect situations when piggies cannot get away from each other and the fight the for survival is in earnest; you can often spot a neglect piggy by their ragged ears.
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

- Licking eyes
Licking eyes indicates affection and moral support for an ill piggy or the reaffirmation of a close bond after a rather wild season. However, piggies will also lick their mates on any part of the body that is currently in their reach to express affection.
You can also use this behaviour in the form of gently stroking the area around the eyes, cheeks, nose or under the chin/lower lip (personal preferences differ) for your own piggy whispering to assure your piggy that you love them; do so always before and after any admonishing so your piggies know that they are still loved and wanted. This is the way a socially very savvy piggy deals with problem mates in a very gentle but often effective way.
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

- Licking human skin
Licking human skin can be sign of affection. It corresponds licking their mate; especially around the eyes but also anywhere on whatever part of the body is within reach. Gently stroke your piggy in their favourite spot as a response.
However, skin licking can also be for salt and minerals on your skin.

- Lost baby wheeking
This is a very distinctive loud wheek with which young guinea pigs under 4 months signal that they have got separated and lost from their mother or their group.
You can also hear it from new guinea pigs where one of them cannot deal with being without their mate.

- Lunging and flying tackles
Lunging is first and foremost a defensive and not an aggressive behaviour. It is a very strongly worded ‘stay out of my space’, usually by a fearful piggy. It very much depends on whether the other party keeps pressing their advantage or steps back what happens next.
A flying tackle is the act of desperation of a piggy in fear, when fear is turning into aggression and the strongest way a piggy can try to get another piggy move away from them.


M

- Mounting
Mounting is both a sexual behaviour and very much more a dominance behaviour used by both genders in both contexts.
Mounting is much more used as a mild dominance behaviour in daily life between boars. It can range from a casual ‘hey, bro, here I am’ mounting multiple times a day to a much more hormone driven mounting during one the of massive hormone spikes during teenage and sometimes early adulthood.
Boar mounting (which can happy any way up from any side, including the other piggy’s head) can go completely overboard during bonding, whether that is with another boar (especially a baby or ypungster) or with a sow. With a baby boy, it is advisable to provide a little refuge with two exits that the bigger boar cannot get into.
If the mounting is truly excessive and nonstop to the extent that the piggy at the receiving end cannot eat, drink or sleep unmolested, a boar-boar bonding may have to be considered as failed and with sows it may have to be put on ice for a couple of days to allow the hormones to settle down for a re-intro – provided the sows want him back.

Sow seasons tend to last around 15-17 hours but only at the very end are they ready to conceive and will allow a boar to sexually mate with her. It is the sow who has to sit still and lift her bum, not the boar who is calling the shots. In the run up a sow when firmly in the grip of hormones in a strong season will often mount the sow ranked next lower in the hierarchy (or lacking that, the next higher ranked one), or occasionally even her generally less than pleased ‘husboar. For more details, see entry 'Season in sows'.

More information:
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)

- Mouth sniffing and food snatching
This is a learning behaviour from babies and young guinea pigs. Rodents don't have a vomit reflex, so everything they eat has to come out the other end. It is very important that they learn what is safe to eat, how it smells and taste. They do this by smelling their mother's and other elders' mouths and snatching food from them. This is well tolerated by the older piggies. Guinea pig have about double the number of taste buds compared to humans and roughly five times that of cats.
Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs (see chapters 2 'Baby Days' and 3 'School Weeks')

- Moving sounds: see Chuntering

N

- Nibbling: see Biting

- Nipping: see Biting

- Nose touching/sniffing and nose bumping
Saying 'Hello'. The answer can be an enthusiastic touching/sniffing back or a decided bump on the nose (never a bite!).
Bumping can have two meanings: responding to a youngster it means 'Don't get ideas'; to another adult: 'Keep off my property'. It is still only mild dominance.


P

- Pain
Knowing the symptoms of pain is very useful so you can spot pain-related behaviourial changes better.
Any guinea pig that is 'off' (i.e. not willing or slow to turn up at feeding time, not really interested in food or not eating at all, very flat/lethargic) needs to see a vet quickly.
Switch from weighing once weekly to weighing daily at the same time on your kitchen scales. Keep in mind that around 75-80% of the daily food intake is hay, which you cannot control by eye. Step in with feeding support according to our recommendations.

Vet access and life-saving home care until and during treatment:
Please book a vet appointment as soon as possible with a serious pain issue and start a support thread in our Health&Illness section for moral and practical support until you can see a vet and during treatment.
How Soon Should My Guinea Pig See A Vet? - A Quick Guide
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
A guide to vets fees, insurance and payment support.
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility (practical care tips for any ill guinea pig that is not moving around much)

Symptoms of pain:
- Eyes: watering constantly; any single eye drawn in or pushed out (in comparison with the other side). A squinting eye is a sign of major pain from an eye poke or something scratchy stuck under a lid. Very red conjunctiva and any purple tear gland being pushed out by a swollen conjuctiva should also be vet checked.
Please see a vet within 24 hours or as soon as possible in case it is an eye injury which can deteriorate quickly. A fully closed or bleeding eye counts as an emergency.
Guinea Lynx :: Eyes
- Head shaking (ear irritation), ear pawing (pain) and head tilts (pain/balance organ affected)
Shaking the head usually means an irritation in outer ear. Please NEVER pour anything into the ear on spec; you can make things really painful instead of better. Any head tilt or earache should be seen promptly by a vet; it is often reversible the sooner it is dealt with (severe build up of wax; ear infection; e.cuniculi with rabbits in proximity; potential calcified bulla syndroma) CBS (Calcified Bulla Syndrome) and Neurological Problems - Symptoms and Care
- Repeated teeth grinding and clicking: possible dental overgrowth in back teeth or a developing dental root abscess. Switch to weighing daily to step in with feeding support as needed and see a vet.
- Skin biting, some hair loss and self-barbering: pain in or under the skin; please see a vet for potential parasites, ringworm, arthtritis or painful lumps. Bites from other piggies outside of fighting teenage boars are actually very rare; most wounds to the skin are self-inflicted.
New Guinea Pig Problems: Sexing & Pregnancy; URI, Ringworm & Parasites; Vet Checks & Customer Rights
Barbering ( Eating Hair)
- Fur standing up/puffed up: pain deeper inside the main body. Be aware that hair standing up can also happen in a hostile encounter.
- Hunching: Pain or ache in the main body, especially the spine, kidney and bladder, liver or reproductive tract area closer to the spine. It is often one of the earlier, vague signs of illness. Please see a vet during regular hours if your piggy is hunching ever more noticeably.
- Bunching up and stopping to sleep on the side:
Again, this is another symptom of pain/ache but this time further forward and lower in the body from possible internal growths, lower lying ovarian cysts and stomach pain. Arthritic piggies with stiff and painful legs will also stop stretching out. A vet check at your convenience via a regular appointment is advised.
- Grunting:
Occasional grunting when bending down to pick up poos is not uncommon in older, stiffer piggies. If it is happening fairly regularly, your piggy could have arthritis or an obstruction deep in the body (growth) that is making movement somewhat uncomfortable. Have any older piggy vet checked for arthritis if they are no longer able to pick up their poos from the anus and clean themselves.
Grunting when pooing can also indicate some kind of pain or obstruction in the vicinity of the anus that is impacting on pushing the poos out.
Constant loud grunting is extreme acute pain in the body (especially with a twisted gut or deadly bloat with an enlarged concrete-like gut); see a vet as soon as this is a life-or-death emergency for a guinea pig in total agony.
- Twisting of the fully body: This can be a symptom of severe pain but only in combination with other major signs of illness (apathy, loss of appetite, back leg paralysis). You can also often observe a guinea pig fitting or twisting that is in the last stages of a natural dying process when oxygen deprivation is setting in. Please contact a vet as an emergency.
For playful jumping see entry 'Popcorning'
For neurological fitting see this guide here: CBS (Calcified Bulla Syndrome) and Neurological Problems - Symptoms and Care
Dying (multiple organ failure): A Practical and Sensitive Guide to Dying, Terminal Illness and Euthanasia in Guinea Pigs
- Squeaking when peeing and pooing, arching the back/straining
Guinea pigs do not suffer from constipation. Please have your vet check for problems in urinary tract (urine infection/UTI, bladder stones/sludge, sterile interstitial cystitis), in the reproductive tract (ovarian cysts in sows and semen rods/penis pouch infections or impaction) or for well developed arthritis in the lower spine.
Guinea Lynx :: UTI
- Loss of appetite can be caused by pain in the mouth or in the body amongst a wide range of other causes.
Please see a vet promptly and step in with feeding support asap. A guinea pig that is not eating is already a very ill guinea pig and needs instant feeding support to keep them alive.
See our practical emergency support advice links below, which contain all the practical how-to advice.
Guinea Lynx :: Anorexia (not eating)
- Limping, hopping, swelling on the foot or leg: please have your piggy checked for a sprain or a break (the latter when the piggy is not able to put any weight on the leg and does not have any resistance when you gently push on the leg; please be aware that the source can be in the leg and not the foot).
Well kept guinea pigs on a good general balanced hay based diet with limited pellets and mainly green leafy or watery veg and fresh herbs don't usually suffer from scurvy; but guinea pigs on a very high regular level vitamin C supplementation can react with scurvy symptoms to a sudden drop because the body gets used to these high levels.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
- Partial or full back leg paralysis can have very different causes; one of them can be a source of pain in the lower or body or spine. Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility


- Playing behaviours: see entries Popcorning and Zoomies

- Peeing (Spray peeing and target peeing)
Peeing at other piggies can have a social function.
- When boars spray-pee newly met sows or sows coming into season with their testosterone laden pee, they are marking them as ‘theirs’.
- Sow on the other hand will target pee at a boar or another sow that is too insistently sniffing their bum or trying to mount them. Boars are physically unable to defend themselves this way, by the way...
Cross gender bonding is very much a smelly pee fest and should be ideally conducted on the lawn or indoors in a room that can easily be wiped down and that has a widow or a fan.

- Pheromones (communication by scent)
Scent and pheromones play a much bigger role and carry a lot more information for guinea pigs than they do for humans because it is one of the strongest senses while it is one of the weakest human senses.
Personal scent and pheromones give information on health, age and gender while the mingled group scent will define the territory of a group of bonded guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are also wired to follow scent marked paths in single file in thick undergrowth to and from the herd feeding grounds that are shared by several groups living in fairly close proximity. The chuntering noise guinea pigs make is there to stay in contact and give an update that all is fine (or not) where they are.
For pheromones in the context of cross gender bonding and sexual intercourse, please read entry 'Season in sows'.

- Piggy washes
Guinea pigs give themselves several washes a day, starting by spreading saliva on their front legs and then rubbing the legs over their body, using their tongue where the legs cannot spread on their back, then moving on to their anus. Lastly, there can be a nose clearing sneeze. Saliva has mildly antiseptic properties, which helps to keep the skin healthy.
For this reason, we strongly recommend not to bathe guinea pigs frequently or unless medically necessary but to give guinea pigs mobility issues or very mucky boars a helping hand with a ‘bum bath’ with baby warm water. The plain water will not destroy the skin microbiome.
Piggy washes in a socially interactive context mean ‘I want to be friends with you’. The other piggy may answer with their own piggy wash or pretend not to notice. Mutual reaffirmation of wanting to be or remain friends can be exchanged through the bars, at the start of bonding or in between rounds of working out the leadership during bonding. You can also see it between bonded piggies after an altercation or during a group crisis when tensions have been running high.
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics (see chapter 'Getting to know each other')

- Poo eating (coprophagy)
Guinea pig eat some of their poos as part of their digestive process. They do so at different times to passing waste poos and pick these caecotroph poos that contain all goodies needed for a second run through the gut for further breakdown usually straight from the anus or seek for them on the floor because they contain vital gut microbiome that will not survive for long.

- Poo stealing
This is a self-medicating behaviour of guinea pigs recovering from a serious illness which has affected their gut microbiome/appetite badly. They are trying to snatch a freshly dropping caecotroph (a re-digested ‘eaten poo’ which contains the nutritional grass/hay fibre parts for the second run through the gut with plenty of microbiome attached). If eaten as fresh from the source as possible, the microbiome in the caecotrophs can reach the ill gut alive and help to kicks-tart the ailing microbiome. Occasionally, excessive digging behaviour can become such a nuisance that a short term separation may be required.
‘Poo soup’ (syringing the water in which freshly dropped poos from a healthy companion have soaked shortly) mimics this live healthy microbiome transfer and is one of the few housewife tricks that have stood the test of time. Provided that the transfer doesn’t take more than 5-10 minutes, ‘poo soup’ – while a bit gross – can be more effective than probiotic powder. The companion should not be on any medication themselves, though.
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

- Popcorning
Fun time and happiness! Popcorning is the guinea pig equivalent of hopping and dancing with joy. It is very descriptive and can be very idiosyncratic, the same as human dancing. Although all ages can popcorn, you will mostly see it in youngsters.
This link here contains plenty of videos to show the range: 'Popcorning' and 'zooming' - joy and exuberance (videos)

- Prey animal instincts
Guinea pigs are prey animals and they have some of their survival instincts deeply wired into them. Some of these are often totally misunderstood by people who are thinking of guinea pigs only as a pet and not as a species in its own right.
Especially the 'uninteresting prey' survival instinct often fools wannabe or new owners because their piggies are so docile in the shop and initially and then they wonder why their piggies are suddenly 'hating' them when in fact they finally start trusting their owners enough to show their true feelings. While playing 'unresponsive prey' does work with a bored playin predator, it does absolutely not with humans...
With new guinea pigs that are not used to human interaction, it is very helpful that avoid any predatory behaviours and therefore can avoid triggering the prey reflexes as little as possible.

Prey animal instincts:
- Flight reflex
Running away is a good survival tactic. Be careful - the more you chase a guinea pig, the more frightened and wound up they can become. It can take days for the instincts to settle down again.
Using our method for a hands-off pick-up and weigh-in, you can learn to work around this reflex.
- Fight reflex (defensive bites)
Any sudden movement in a guinea pig on edge can trigger a split second instinctive deep and full on defence bite.
Please avoid sudden movements (arm waving) or sounds (shrieks, loud voices, shouts or laughter), especially in children - interaction should always under your close supervision.
Also NEVER go between fighting piggies with your bare hands. Guinea pigs react to the movement and not to the object that is moving. These instictive bites are full-on, very deep and can cripple your hand if they hit the wrong spot.
- Unresponsive prey reflex
Designed to give a piggy the chance to survive when a predator just worries or plays with their prey. A bored predator is a predator you can escape from! It is unfortunately often mistaken for 'docility' or 'cuddliness' by new or wannabe owners. We are the one species the tactic doesn't work with.

These guides give you more in-depth information and practical tips on how to work around prey animal instincts and make friends with your new guinea pigs more quickly:
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely

Children And Guinea Pigs - A Guide For Parents
Children And Guinea Pigs - Age Appropriate Interaction And Responsibilities.
Guinea Pigs as Classroom Pets - Why Not

- Purring: see Rumbling

 

[Wiebke]

R

- Rumble-strutting and ‘boar hakas’
Rumble-strutting consists on rumbling while shifting the weight from one stiff back leg to the other, which makes the bum wiggle.
Although sows can and will rumble-strut during bonding and when experiencing a strong season (and occasionally even turn tables on a boar), rumble-strutting is very much a daily boar behaviour.
It is the way a boar displays himself to sows in order to get an invitation from them to join their group as the resident ‘husboar’ and how he measures up to other boars around. While sows have a group internal hierarchy, boars do have a herd hierarchy amongst themselves, which overarches groups and ‘bachelors’. This hierarchy is established peacefully by mutual rumble-strutting pacing next to each other. I call this measuring up a ‘boar haka’. He who has the most resonant rumble wins. Younger or smaller boars often try to compensate with stronger bum wiggling for falling short in the sonorous rumbling stakes.
In my own experience, boars meeting sows are either those that try to mount them without a by your leave (I call them the mountaineers) or the ones to rumble-serenade them. The first lot is often (but by no means exclusively) more dominant in outlook than the rumble-strutting group. Not every sows appreciates the bold approach…
Occasionally, a happy boar may rumble-sing just to himself, feeling utterly content in his ‘boarliness’; often seguing seamlessly into a popcorning session.

- Rumbling, growling and purring
These three very different behaviours can sound very similar to the uninitiated, so I am grouping them together in order to make a distinction clearer.
-Rumbling: Liquid sustained rumbling comes with a bum wiggle; it is a mild measuring up and displaying behaviour mostly of boars (see entry on rumble-strutting).
- Growling is a sharp short deep rrr in the throat. It is a sound of displeasure, often as a reaction to a sudden sharp noise, like a door banging. It can also be a reaction to something you are doing if your grooming is not to your piggy’s liking.
- Purring sounds very similar to a cat’s purring. It is usually only heard during a petting session and comes with a very relaxed body.
Please keep in mind that many piggies don’t love being petted for long periods if they are allowed to have their say and would rather return to the cage after a rather sort petting session. So don’t beat yourself up if yours don’t purr – giving them the choice and a say in how and how long they interact with you makes them ultimately happier.

- Running at top speed and bumping into each other: see Zoomies

S

Scent marking
The tiny scent gland in guinea pigs is sitting just in front of the genitalia. Scent marking their territory or leaving a mark in any shared or freshly cleaned territory is normal and regular behaviour; it is the reason why guinea pigs can’t poo and mess around in their newly cleaned quarters quickly enough – their home needs to have a proper address and occupancy list again. Both genders wipe their bum on the floor although you will spot boars more often at it.

- Season in sows
Sows come into season around roughly every two weeks. Very often you won't notice anything, especially in the less highly ranked sows whose seasons are often more subdued unless they experience a strong hormone spike, especially during the height of teenage (often the weeks around 6 months of age) or in adult sows as a bit of nonstop season if hormonal ovarian cysts cause problems. A season lasts around 15-17 hours but only during the very last part of it is a sow actually ready and willing to mate sexually with a boar.
- If a sow behaves like she is constantly in season, please have her seen by a vet for hormonal ovarian cysts. It is very stressful for the sows and disruptive for their companions. Hormonal ovarian cysts are most common between about 18 months and 3-4 years of age but can accosionally happen sooner or later than that.
- Sows can come into season spontaneously when suddenly coming into contact with boar pheromones or with the boar himself if they are close enough in their estrus cycle to trigger a season. In this case, the hours of working up to sexual mating will not apply.
It is therefore NEVER SAFE to mix full sows and boars at any time and for any length because the actual act is taking just a few seconds and happens too quickly for you to step in to prevent it.
- Please also keep in mind that it doesn't matter whether one or both genders are de-sexed (neutered or spayed) because the social interaction will be still the same. Spayed sows don't have a season if their ovaries have been removed but they will still exhibit some of the behaviours listed below when living with boars experiencing their own hormone spikes.
- Multiple sows in the same room coming into a season if they are close enough in the estrus cycle can have their own season triggered a little early by the pheromones of a strong season and then trigger more herself as she responds. This can lead to several days of utter madness in a large herd or adjoining sow groups. You will find that over time sows in a room (especially when living with a bonded 'husboar') coordinate their season into two groups that are perfectly counterbalancing each other in the estrus cycle.
- Many sexual behaviours like rumble-strutting or mounting also have a dominance context and are used by both genders (including with companions of the same gender) in that context, so please look up the entries 'dominance behaviours', 'bonding', 'rumble-strutting' and 'mounting' if you are not quite sure of the correct context in which you are interpreting a behaviour. You are much more likely to witness dominance behaviours than sexual ones.
- Always double-check the gender of all your piggies upon arrival at home and before putting any new piggies together. We do have a self-help Sexing Guide with lots of reference pictures and tips where to look and feel and also offer help with sexing on the forum.
Illustrated Sexing Guide
Behaviours connected with a sow coming into season:
- Bum sniffing
Regular sow bum sniffing by a bonded boar can indicate an upcoming season. The boar is niffing the pheromones to get an update on how close a sow is in her estrus cycle.
- Peeing (by both genders)
Boars spray-pee sows coming into season with their testosterone-laden pee in order to mark them as theirs to mate. Sows with target pee when they are fed up with bum sniffing or to protect their rear end while they are not ready to mate with a boar. Mixed gender bonding and sexual mating in a strong season is very much a smelly, pheromone pee fest on both sides. An open window can help. The piggies will clean their coats themselves within a couple of days but white coated sows can end up with a bit of a yellow tinge and boars with a yellow nose; especially during teenage.
- Sow whining
In a mixed gender group or pair, a sow will whine to a boar when she is not ready for mating but willing to once her time has come. Sows coming into season, will usually stay close to a boar they want to mate with. The whining serves to whip up the boar excitement so there can be quite a lot of hanky panky during the hours of the run up as the sow will do everything to keep her rear end out of reach of the boar.
Expect lots of rumble-strutting and mounting attempts from the boar, with can lead to
- Chasing, merry-go-rounds (chasing each other's bum by running in a tight circle), sow-sow or sow-boar mounting and tussles
All part and parcel of the fun of a strong season in the hours before the serious sexual mating takes place. It can be vocal, lively and dramatic.
Sows in the grip of their own strong urges with mount the sow below in ranking in a group (or above if there isn't any other). Female companions will usually be surprisingly understanding and patient in allowing themselves to be mounted repeatedly but complain quite a bit. A dominant sow will make it clear with nip or a back leg swipe (or some stronger behaviours) once they have had enough. A mounted boar will be rather surprised and not exactly pleased.
Chases between the boar and the sow, sometimes in a tight circle as a 'merry-go-round' or non-aggressive fending-off tussles are par for the course, as is lots of squeaking drama...
Please remove any houses with just one exit and but otherwise do NOT interfere.
- Mating
A sow ready to mate sexually will sit still, and slightly lift her bum to allow a boar to mate with her. It is the sows that in control of the process, not the boars. When she is no longer receptive, she will become increasingly unwilling to be mounted by her chosen boar, who may be slow to get the message if he has got carried away a bit.

More in-depth information on sows in season, ovarian cysts, strong seasons, bonding and dominance behaviours:
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour (see chapter on Hormones)


Seizures: see entries Popcorning and Pain

Settling in, picking up, handling and lap time
Arrival in a new home, especially coming from a pet shop or for sale breeder without human interaction and socialisation (unlike a good welfare standard rescue) is very stressful for guinea pigs. You want to avoid triggering their prey animal instincts as much as possible. Unlike what all those cute videos on social media suggest, guinea pigs are not naturally born animated cuddly toys.
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
How Do I Settle Shy New Guinea Pigs?
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely

- Shake while rearing on the hind legs
Piggies that sit up on their hind legs and giving themselves a shake are saying: "That was not fun at all!"
You see this gesture often after a grooming session or during bonding when an encounter or a round has not gone quite the way the piggy wanted.

- Sleeping (eyes closed or open)
As prey animals, guinea pigs generally sleep with their eyes open (which can give the odd start when you want to check whether they are still breathing; i.e. their sides are still moving). They will sleep with their eyes closed only if they feel very secure or are very tired/exhausted.
Please also accept that most guinea pigs are not sleeping snuggled up like rats but that they prefer their own little snug hidey or corner. A guinea pig that is sleeping out in the open is a piggy that is feeling safe and confident in their environment.
Two guinea pigs sleeping/resting next to each other across the cage divide is generally not the desire that they want to be with each other, especially in new or fighting guinea pigs. It is instead a territorial behaviour. See entry Border Watch.
Friendship can come into it in long term neighbours (in combination with other friendly social interaction) while babies under 4 months that rely on adult guardianship should always be bonded straight away.

- Sounds
The vocal component of guinea pig interaction conveys mostly the mood/state of mind/constant status update when on the move. The higher, louder and quicker the usual chattering squeeking is, the more nervous or excited a piggy is. Youngsters are usually loudest and most vocal, if not downright dramatic.

Having your new piggy chattering away (even if still a bit nervous) is generally a good sign; it means that they are no longer frozen with their prey animal instincts and trust you enough to tell you how they are really feeling about something. Even if it may look like your guinea pigs suddenly hate you (teeth chattering or tweaking), it actually means a major step forward in the development of your relationship. Please take their message into consideration and piggy whisper back that you love them before placing them back in their cage.

Sounds should always ideally interpreted with their situational context and with the attendant body language (how stiff or relaxed a piggy is). Just going by the sound means that you are much more likely to put the wrong meaning on a sound and that you are missing out on three quarters of the social inaction.

Some sounds with very different meanings can also sound very similar to a new owner who doesn't take the body language into account.
See entry 'Rumbling, Growling and Purring'

There are sadly lots of bad sound guides around as a result. This one here is one of the better but it will help you only so much. learning to understand body language and social key interactive gestures is much more crucial in getting the message, as far as your piggies are concerned!
Guinea Pig Sounds

- Snorting
A snorting guinea pig during a bonding session is a thoroughly fed up guinea pig on the verge of losing their temper. Last warning!
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

- Squealing in babies (complaint, surprise, submission etc.)
Especially babies are very vocal. Louder squealing generally signals a more heightened state of emotion. It can sound very dramatic but usually isn't.
Older guinea pigs are very careful to not hurt their very agile offspring and they most certainly do not intentionally bite or kill them.
Nipping, chasing etc. are usually very carefully judged gestures of power to discipline them and emphatically put them into their place in the hierarchy.
For submission squealing please see entry submission below.
Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs (sub-teenage baby development see chapters 1-3)

- Submission squealing (at the top of voice)
The appropriate response to any dominance behaviour is very loud submission squealing, which can majorly throw a new owner. It is not the dominant piggy being ‘mean’ and the squealing piggy is definitely not in pain; it is all about establishing, affirming and maintaining a group hierarchy that is at the very core of guinea pig society.
Submission squealing is best translated as ‘I am not a rival of yours.’ It is a very effective preventative behaviour despite it being so dramatic; especially with baby piggies!
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

T

- Teeth chattering
Teeth chattering is basically an expression of displeasure that can vary enormously in intensity and that can run the whole gamut from very mild and low chattering that roughly equates to a bit of human grumbling when being forced to do something they don't like to really loud and intense chattering with their hair standing on end and the body being very stiff if piggy has REALLY taken against another one and is very, very angry. And anything in between.

- Teeth grinding: see Pain

- Territorial behaviours
That guinea pigs are territorial and have territorial behaviours is little known and behaviours are very often misinterpreted. Guinea pigs have both a territorial Group setting (centering on their denning/cage area) and a larger communal Herd mode. We are making use of both during the bonding process or in the way we keep piggies.
For more information on the complex social life of guinea pigs, you will find the article series in Guinea Pig Magazine 'The Herd, The Group and I' very interesting (issues #63-68).
Issue #67 (out March 2022) deals specifically with territorial behaviours.
Guinea Pig Magazine: Home

Some piggies are very good at picking feuds even through the bars; usually these are piggies that cover their massive fears and insecurities with overly aggressive behaviour. If it is answered by the other side, you may want to think of either moving the cages apart or putting in an opaque divider unless this is the only way of socialising a single guinea pig that is unable to bond with other piggies.

Typical territorial behaviours:
- Nose bumps through the bars
The less friendly answer to a friendly 'Hello, neighbour'. It can mean a fairly mild 'Don't presume' to a youngster or a 'Stay on your side' to a new neighbour.
Please note that guinea pigs do not bite others (and especially not strangers) through the bars/
- Bar biting and rattling
- In newly arrived guinea pigs over the age of 4-6 months meeting piggies on the other side for the first time, this is generally a fear-aggressive response and not a friendly one. Keep an eye out for a slightly tense body language.
- In newly separated piggies it means that guinea pig causing the trouble wants to go back - but only to continue where they have left off. NOT friendly at all. Please concentrate on how the other piggy is reacting to being away from their mate. If they are perking up noticeably and are staying away from the divider, then they are relieved. Otherwise, they are more likely spoiling for a fight, too. If they are both really still at it, cable-tie some cardboard to the divider until they have settled down.
- Boars coming into the presence of sows want to be with them, of course. Newly neutered boars meeting sows for the first time are often very excited; especially when a sow is coming into season. A single full boar being moved next to sows for company is best kept in a traditional cage in order to avoid accidental meetings - boars can be amazingly determined and athletic when a sow is having a stronger season in their presence)!
I strongly recommend to cable tie any grids and if needed to ensure that your piggy cannot jump, climb or squeeze between loosened grids until things have a settled down fully a few weeks later.
- Lying/Sleeping against the divider / 'Territorial border lie-in'
In new neighbours, after a cage clean or in newly separated guinea pigs, this is a territory border marking dominance gesture. I call this a 'Territorial Border Lie-in'. It is usually the boars or a very dominant group leading sow who do this as a marked gesture.
Friendship only comes in much later and is accompanied by other gestures that signal a wish to be friends like ostentatious Piggy Washing (ideal mutual).
- Rumble-strutting in parallel along the fence ('boar haka')
When performed by sows against their neighbours, it is always territorial dominance and translates as 'Keep away our property!'
In boars it is a bit more differentiated although there is always a territorial dominance component. It can go from a fairly friendly and joyful measuring up through the boundary as to who comes top in the ratings to some real grudge matches between permanently fallen-out boars. The intensity and context of this has to be taken into consideration. You can find a couple of boar hakas of different intensity in the boars chapter of our bonding guide for comparison: A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
- Defence bites especially to the face during an unplanned invasion/breach of territory if one party feels cornered/threatened (for more information on defence bites see entry Biting).

- Tussles: see Fights

- Tweaking: see Biting

- Twisting:
Twisting with joy and exuberance: see Popcorning
Twisting and fitting with pain (when clearly ill or dying) or from neurological issues: see Pain

V

- Vibrating: see entries Rumbling and Rumble-strutting


W

- Wheeking
Wheeking is the English word for all the sounds guinea pigs guinea pigs use for communication.
Guinea pig vocalisations have to be very much interpreted in their situational context and with the attendant body language. The constant vocalisation expresses more the mood rather than a specific behaviour. The quicker, higher and louder the wheeking the more apprehensive a piggy is. In new piggies it is always a good sign when they are vocalising; it means that they are no longer afraid and have started to settle in; especially youngsters. Adults can be naturally strong silent types.
In fact, youngsters from a few days old until around 6 months of age basically don’t stop chatting unless they are asleep; this way, the group can keep track of them at all times. Guinea pigs are at their loudest around 4 months when they have the reach but not yet the experience and are at their most vulnerable to predation and injuries.

If you want to listen to just the sounds, then these two links have a correct interpretation of behaviours, unlike many others that make the rounds online: Guinea Pig Sounds
For further information see entry Sounds.


- Wheeking for food
A loud food wheek is one of the most distinctive guinea pig behaviours. It is not seen in wild piggies but has developed from an attention seeking behaviour in domestic guinea pigs. With the very acute hearing, your house and especially your fridge and any rustling bag will be quickly ‘wheeker alarmed’.

- Whining (sows not ready to mate but willing to)
A sow sitting next to a boar and complaining volubly is a sure-fire sign that she is coming into season. While the sow is basically saying ‘I am willing but not ready to mate'. Any boar will basically hear only the ‘willing to mate’ bit and can get very excited, depending on the strength on the pheromone output and how long he has been with sows.
In order to mate a sow has to sit still and lift her bum a little; until she is ready for mating at the end of her season, she will do everything to keep her rear end out of reach of a boar and rather mount another sow (or even the boar) if her own urges take over in a strong season.
For more in-depth information see entry 'Season in sows'.

- Whispering techniques
Using socially interactive guinea pig behaviours when inviting and settling in new guinea pigs or when dealing with guinea pigs showing unwanted behaviours is a very effective way of dealing with a problem in their own language instead of waiting for them to figure out humans.
My main teacher has been the gentle but socially very savvy Terfel dealing with his strong-willed cataract wives. I owe him a lot!
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?


Y

- Yawning at another guinea pig
Yawning is a typically fear-aggressive ‘stay away from me’ behaviour from a guinea pig when meeting other piggies they are afraid. It is a milder expression that is usually not followed up with aggression but more often with submission.


Z

- Zoomies
Speed running around a cage or a roaming area is called ‘zoomies’. Especially young guinea pigs with an excess of energy will zoom but you can also see it sometimes in adult or even golden oldies. My oldest ‘zoomer was an arthritic blind ca. 8 years old sow who could only waddle along her own scent spoor but who had no less fun than a baby.
'Popcorning' and 'zooming' - joy and exuberance (videos)