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Advice on handling please!

Cavychaos

New Born Pup
Joined
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Hello,

We have recently adopted two males, the older one is a year old and we were told that we need to be patient with him as he’s a little unsure. The other is now around 11 weeks old and is bonded well with his friend.

We have had guinea pigs in the past (from a large pet shop) and we were able to handle them relatively easily from the beginning.

Our new boys are a little different (as we knew), and we are finding it very difficult to handle them at all.

I really don’t want to be hunting them around the cage, but they will not just jump into the snuggle sack and are now wising up to the fact that we are trying to pick them up.

The older one is particularly nervy and bites if we try to pick him up.

I’m happy to leave them to settle longer, but getting concerned that as time goes on, they will become less used to being handled and then I don’t know what we’ll do when they absolutely need to be taken out of the cage for health checks, grooming or floor time.

Help!
 
Hello,

We have recently adopted two males, the older one is a year old and we were told that we need to be patient with him as he’s a little unsure. The other is now around 11 weeks old and is bonded well with his friend.

We have had guinea pigs in the past (from a large pet shop) and we were able to handle them relatively easily from the beginning.

Our new boys are a little different (as we knew), and we are finding it very difficult to handle them at all.

I really don’t want to be hunting them around the cage, but they will not just jump into the snuggle sack and are now wising up to the fact that we are trying to pick them up.

The older one is particularly nervy and bites if we try to pick him up.

I’m happy to leave them to settle longer, but getting concerned that as time goes on, they will become less used to being handled and then I don’t know what we’ll do when they absolutely need to be taken out of the cage for health checks, grooming or floor time.

Help!

Hi and welcome

Unfortunately, this is quite a wide area with lots of tips and no quick magic wand solution but there are some shortcuts that are surprisingly effective. Sadly, the growing mass production of pets on all levels means that most have never had much in the way human interaction and that many come from a stressed background, whether that is pet shops or for sale breeders, so your problem is a very common one.. :(

You may find the practical information guides in our chapter on settling in and interacting with guinea pigs very helpful. The guides have a look at how things look from the guinea pig perspective, how their prey animal instincts work; practical tips on how to avoid triggering them (including pick-up) and a little course in piggy whispering so you can get important messages across in their own language long before they have figured out humans. We can just not pack the whole range of tips and in-depth information into every single post!

You may also find our link about enrichment (with lots of ideas) interesting because interaction doesn't just have to be reduced to handling; you can build up trust by providing and watching your piggies have lots of fun and constantly talking to them during that time, so they become used to you and associate you with good things. ;)

Tweaking is dealt with in both the biting guide in the Behaviour chapter and the guide 'Who is Boss' in the Settling in chapter. The problem can be comparatively easily solved with a little piggy whispering, which mimics the way socially savvy piggies deal with the miscreants in their group in a good and effective way. I owe my gratitude to my teacher Terfel and how he dealt with his three rambunctious and strong-willed cataract wives by asserting his authority very gently and near imperceptively but very effectively. ;)

Here is the access link to our very useful practical information collection: Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides

The full and even more extensive information resource can be best accessed via the shortcut on the top bar. A lot has changed and moved on in recent years, so I hope that you will find some nuggets in there you may also find fascinating as well as helpful!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I like to pick up my piggies in a pigloo (photo attached). Only one at a time though. I weigh them weekly in them too.

If I want to cuddle them I tip them onto my lap under a towel or put my hand on top of their backs and then take the lid off and pick them up.

They may never like to be held though. Do they come to you for food?

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Ah, thank you both for your replies.

@Wiebke I will have another look at all of the brilliant advice on here and persevere with bonding with them on their own terms.

@weepweeps we have a snuggle sack which was reasonably successful at first for getting the baby into, but less so now. The pigloo might work, but then I’m not sure what would happen beyond getting them in there and lifting them out. The older one will not just sit on my lap, he seems very nervous. The younger one might!

The thing is, they are pretty sociable when in the cage, they’ll take food from us and come up to the side when they hear rustling or the fridge door open. When I clean the cage, they don’t try and hide, in fact they actually get in the middle of everything 😆. They will let us stroke them sometimes in the cage.

I’m just concerned about when they need their nails cutting…
 
Some don’t like being handled but learn to tolerate weighing, health checks and nail trimming. You can always trim one paw each time until they’re all done. How long have they been with you?
 
@Siikibam we’ve had them just over three weeks, so early days.

Currently, there’s no way the older one would let us anywhere near his feet, never mind the rest of him!

Our previous pair were pretty tolerant when it came to being handled, we didn’t do anything special with them, but just picked them out of the cage when needed, no bother.

Our new boys are more demanding 😆
 
Three weeks is a very short time. They may settle down soon. But they may not. It’s great that they are happy to come to you for food. They do trust you. But just don’t want to be handled unfortunately. As the pigloo is made of hard plastic they don’t actually “feel” you picking them up. A snuggle sack is soft so I imagine they still feel you holding them? With regards to nail clipping. I always get someone to hold them while I clip. They are bribed with veg also. Good luck. 😃
 
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