Can guinea-pigs recognize words?

[Alicia]

I know they can recognize sounds like the fridge door opening and they squeak for vegetables, but what about words? Can a guinea-pig recognize its name?

 

[Skelly]

Daisy and Minnow respond to their names, if I call Minnow Daisy ignores me and Minnow comes running and vice versa.
They also know the word veggies, said in a high pitch, they go mad

 

[Salt n Peppers mum]

Mine do 9 boys, I walked into the room shouting 'Minty' and he looked up and popcorned

They seem to love my baby voice though, Minty was found wandering streets 18 months ago and has lived with me ever since after fostering him for a rescue then keeping him

 

[Chappers]

Mine do 9 boys, I walked into the room shouting 'Minty' and he looked up and popcorned

They seem to love my baby voice though, Minty was found wandering streets 18 months ago and has lived with me ever since after fostering him for a rescue then keeping him

Aw bless, did you just stumble across him walking around the street.

 

[Lilly]

My 2 boys recognise the sound of their names and the words carrots, parsley, grass, lettuce and music. Hazelnut also recognises the question "chin rub Hazelnut?". He will lift his head. You have to ask, otherwise you'll get your finger bitten.

 

[Salt n Peppers mum]

Aw bless, did you just stumble across him walking around the street.

He was picked up from the streets, and handed into the vets.
Someone in the vets overheard the converstion about the wandering piggie with mites and suggested they ring BARC.
The vets rang Barc (Barnsley Animal Rescue Charity) to take him, as I foster the Boars for them he came to me and ended up stopping

Minty is black & white with his friend Finlay

 

[ZaraPiggie6]

Mine riot when I say " do you want nom noms" they know that means food!

 

[lauraboara]

He was picked up from the streets, and handed into the vets.
Someone in the vets overheard the converstion about the wandering piggie with mites and suggested they ring BARC.
The vets rang Barc (Barnsley Animal Rescue Charity) to take him, as I foster the Boars for them he came to me and ended up stopping

Minty is black & white with his friend Finlay
QUOTE]

Quite a few end up stopping with you Paula and they are lucky pigs!

Back to topic, my boys seem to recognise 'Get in your sack' and similar everyday phrases but they are also having a lot of visual clues as well - like the sack for example. I think there have been studies to show that piggies can tell the difference between colours eg red bowl contains food, blue doesnt. Mine certainly go mad for the red bucket which means HAY!

 

[twiams]

Although they do recognise words and things they don't have a clue what your saying they just associate the sounds we make when we say those things like.

We associate wheeks with happiness and excitement they associate the sound and tone of there name with you wanting them. Same with all animals (:

My guinea pigs love the sound of my boyfriends mum coming upstairs because she never picks them up but always gives them treats without fail when she comes in the room and as she's disabled she takes longer to get up the stairs and you can hear her hand sliding up the hand rail as she walks and so they go crazy over that, the same with bag rustles, there food bucket opening and chopping board sounds.

 

[Posiesparkles]

Not so much words but Misty can tell from the sounds who is walking into a room - I am the soft touch who will feed her extra treats so I get wheeked at, Mr P less so!

When I had my trio and their cage was in our bedroom, Storm used to bang the metal hay rack against the cubes of her cage at 4am to show her annoyance at lack of treats! (and yes, I always got up and gave them a 'little something'! )

 

[bessiehen]

They're funny creatures aren't they? Mine squeak without fail when I go in first thing and say 'din dins' but when my husband goes in and says the same thing they hide at first (he is rarely the one providing din dins). When I say 'bye bye' or 'goodnight' Burt often hops into his bed I try and use the same tone / pitch of voice though with repeated instructions - I don't know about actual words.