Hops_in_Heaven
Junior Guinea Pig
Caramel joined my herd at the beginning of February after the death of her cagemate. I currently have five sows in total, all about three years old, give or take. They are Bliss, Cuddles, Frolic, Tickles and Caramel.
At first, she was timid and Cuddles chased her a lot. There was a lot of rumbling from Cuddles and some hiding from Caramel, which sometimes became nipping when Cuddles just wouldn't leave her alone. There were one or two tense face offs, but no bloodshed, and no attempts to injure from what I saw. Every other pig got along fine with Caramel, though Cuddles did start annoying everyone else, too. She gave up on bothering the head pig, Bliss, and the second-in-command, Frolic, very quickly, but pestered Tickles a lot, too.
After about three weeks, during which I monitored the situation closely, it seems to have settled down. Cuddles and Caramel get along now. As far as I could tell, Cuddles just really, really wanted to be in charge of somepig. She did it before when Tickles grew to her adult size, two years ago. She can be really stubborn if she wants something. For example, even though there are five water bottles, she might decide she just has to drink from that water bottle some other pig is using and will make complain noises and might push her nose in the way until she can have a drink. Thankfully, she now seems to have accepted her role in the hierarchy, and is no longer excessively rumbling and chasing anypig.
Caramel has a few bad habits that she might have picked up from her previous home. She's not as careful with fingers as my other pig, and will bite a lot harder until she realizes that she isn't biting into a veggie. She doesn't draw blood. It doesn't seem malicious, and sometimes she just gets my finger instead of the veggie I'm offering her.
When I first got her, she would chew on the plastic pigloo and bite the bars, for seemingly no reason. She would chew on the metal bars of the hay rack instead of chewing on hay. I chalked it up to the stress of the transition to my herd, and it has subsided somewhat.
However, when I am chopping up veggies or even open the fridge, she resumes bar biting. Every pig runs to the side of the cage. They wheek and stand on their hind legs, holding their front feet to their chests, noses in the air. They're performing a trick we taught them years ago just for fun and seem to think they'll get veggies for doing it. Caramel just bites the bars as hard as she can.
I don't know why she's doing this. She has peaceful relations with the others in the herd. Just yesterday she was sleeping side by side with Cuddles. She knows the schedule. The cage is a 2X10 C&C one and it has five water bottles and more than five shelters and a hay area with four fleece hay bags. We have to sew a fifth hay bag for the cage. She doesn't appear to be stressed and has no reason to be.
To dissuade her, I tried poking her nose every time I catch her biting the bars. I tried blowing gently in her face too, if I caught her. I tried pulling the fleece up higher to cover the bars, though she just leans on her hind legs to get the higher bars. I don't like doing this and think it's mean, but I don't know what else to do. I taught her the trick and reward her with food, thinking that if a discourage one behaviour and reward another, she'll learn to stop. All she's learned is to wait until I'm further away from the cage to bite the bars.
TL;DR: I'm worried about her teeth. I also want to be able to chop a stalk of celery without having to sprint to the cage to stop her from biting the bars after I cut each piece. She doesn't seem to be stressed as far as I know, and she only does it for veggies. How do I make her stop destroying her teeth?
Also sorry for writing a novel. Just wanted to provide all the necessary details.
At first, she was timid and Cuddles chased her a lot. There was a lot of rumbling from Cuddles and some hiding from Caramel, which sometimes became nipping when Cuddles just wouldn't leave her alone. There were one or two tense face offs, but no bloodshed, and no attempts to injure from what I saw. Every other pig got along fine with Caramel, though Cuddles did start annoying everyone else, too. She gave up on bothering the head pig, Bliss, and the second-in-command, Frolic, very quickly, but pestered Tickles a lot, too.
After about three weeks, during which I monitored the situation closely, it seems to have settled down. Cuddles and Caramel get along now. As far as I could tell, Cuddles just really, really wanted to be in charge of somepig. She did it before when Tickles grew to her adult size, two years ago. She can be really stubborn if she wants something. For example, even though there are five water bottles, she might decide she just has to drink from that water bottle some other pig is using and will make complain noises and might push her nose in the way until she can have a drink. Thankfully, she now seems to have accepted her role in the hierarchy, and is no longer excessively rumbling and chasing anypig.
Caramel has a few bad habits that she might have picked up from her previous home. She's not as careful with fingers as my other pig, and will bite a lot harder until she realizes that she isn't biting into a veggie. She doesn't draw blood. It doesn't seem malicious, and sometimes she just gets my finger instead of the veggie I'm offering her.
When I first got her, she would chew on the plastic pigloo and bite the bars, for seemingly no reason. She would chew on the metal bars of the hay rack instead of chewing on hay. I chalked it up to the stress of the transition to my herd, and it has subsided somewhat.
However, when I am chopping up veggies or even open the fridge, she resumes bar biting. Every pig runs to the side of the cage. They wheek and stand on their hind legs, holding their front feet to their chests, noses in the air. They're performing a trick we taught them years ago just for fun and seem to think they'll get veggies for doing it. Caramel just bites the bars as hard as she can.
I don't know why she's doing this. She has peaceful relations with the others in the herd. Just yesterday she was sleeping side by side with Cuddles. She knows the schedule. The cage is a 2X10 C&C one and it has five water bottles and more than five shelters and a hay area with four fleece hay bags. We have to sew a fifth hay bag for the cage. She doesn't appear to be stressed and has no reason to be.
To dissuade her, I tried poking her nose every time I catch her biting the bars. I tried blowing gently in her face too, if I caught her. I tried pulling the fleece up higher to cover the bars, though she just leans on her hind legs to get the higher bars. I don't like doing this and think it's mean, but I don't know what else to do. I taught her the trick and reward her with food, thinking that if a discourage one behaviour and reward another, she'll learn to stop. All she's learned is to wait until I'm further away from the cage to bite the bars.
TL;DR: I'm worried about her teeth. I also want to be able to chop a stalk of celery without having to sprint to the cage to stop her from biting the bars after I cut each piece. She doesn't seem to be stressed as far as I know, and she only does it for veggies. How do I make her stop destroying her teeth?
Also sorry for writing a novel. Just wanted to provide all the necessary details.
