2 Month Old Outdoor Born Piggies Nervous In New Indoor Home.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Solspiggies

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 28, 2016
Messages
27
Reaction score
9
Points
75
Location
Estepona. Malaga. Spain
Hi, I'm a new Piggie owner, adopted two sisters yesterday born to a friend of mine. So far they have been born and lived outdoors in a chicken coop, surrounded by chickens, lots of piggies and in very dusty wildlife conditions being fed only fesh grass and veg. Also I will mention I live in the hot south of Spain! Did i mentioned they were OUTSIDE! (35/40° - 95/104°during the day) So its been quite a shock for them so far as we have brought them home to a beautiful 2x3 + 2x2 loft, C&C fleece bedding cage. They are very shy, but that's not my concern. They are venturing out to eat lettuce and cucumber but have not touched a strand of hay or drank from their water bottles. How can I get ten used to their new modern set up? Its like they are wild and don't know what a bottle is or hay.....any suggestions? Thanks from a very excited Piggie owner.
 
:wel:

Hello! So welcome to the amazing world of piggies :D
My advice too you is give them time and be patient with them piggies that have been kept outside and in what you describe as dusty fend for yourselves kind of environments are going to take a while to get used to been inside with soft fleece :D there's a whole new bunch of sounds and smells for them to get used to. I have just adopted two totally Ferrell boys bless them but they were the same didn't move out of their hideys for two days with me around no hay was eaten at all, so I put in a pile of ING hay (not sure if you can get that?) and out they popped and devoured it in seconds!

It's all about making them feel secure in their surroundings so things like:-
Cover the hay and food area with a blanket

Put hay right by their hideys

Make little tunnels for them to explore the cage without actually been exposed, I put strips of fleece balanced on wooden bridges that works really well!

Sing while you around them so your not a threat how many singing predators do you know :D

That's just a few tips that I use with great success (6 boys & counting) as for the drinking, when you wash their veg don't dry it leave plenty of water on it that will help with the water intake or give things like cucumber but not too much it can cause diarrhoea ;)

Time patience and understanding is all you need good luck x
 
Thank you! I
They have lots of places to hide and I've made a kitchen area out of a storage box that has a huge pipe connected to it with fleece lining and hay one side and their food,veggies at the other. So they sit in there hiding, pop out grab food and retreat back into the pipe to eat it. I foraged some frezsh grass from the garden and mixed in with they hay, they seem to eat both now. One question, can I feed then just fresh grass? I mean as a substitute to hay?as have in abundance and good hay is hard to get here,its dry and all chopped up.
I will cover their eating area maybe they will venture out of their hiddind.
Thank you! I'm fascinated with these little creatures!
 
hey,
you could always try using a small bowl of water aswell as a bottle, I have 2 Piggies, one will drink from a bottle, the other (for whatever reason) prefers a bowl.
This is normal behaviour for them though, stick with them, they'll be venturing out when your around and wheeking for food very soon.
A.
 
I wouldn't replace hay with grass. Hay is supposed to make up the vast majority of a Guinea pigs diet. It's also essential to keeping their ever growing teeth trimmed down to a nice length. Grass isn't tough enough to do this and they really do need hay to keep their guts going. Good on you for mixing in the grass to encourage them to try it! They can have grass along with their hay or if the temperature is right and you have a safe enclosed area you can let them out to graze a bit but make sure they have 24/7 access to hay. Piggies can never eat too much hay!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top