Can't get my piggies out of the cage

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Roky

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Hi,
It's really hard to get my piggies out of cage. I never do it by hand, just use a transporter full of food. But after few times I did it, they treat this transporter like a trap, are very carefull with it and try to take food without getting in. So when I want to take them out in order to clean the cage, it's quite impossible, I have to do it by force, but I'm worried that they will have some trauma later. I really don't have time to try taking them out for hours. Should I just do it by force? I can't see any other way and I must clean their cage... Building a bridge between cage and the floor didn't help either, they just totally don't care about it. What am I supposed to do?
 
Before even considering talking your pigs out, you should try hand feeding them everyday so you and your pigs can bond and make friends. Once your piggy knows you and trusts you it should be easier for you to stroke them when they are in their cage. If you want to take your pigs out of the cage approach them carefully first, then gently stroke their backs and finally gently pick them up.
 
None of my pigs like being picked up, some are still quite skittish.I use either one of their tunnels or a cat bed, it’s like a tent shape so covered and they normally run into that.I also don’t like cornering them as I know it must terrify them.
 
Like Gem789 said, perhaps try a tunnel so it feels like less of a trap? When I've tried to catch my new piggies with just hands, I offered my hand slowly in front of them (not from above) for them to sniff and talked to them softly. Once they started to back away, I'd stop approaching them, let them move away and slowly try again. I wouldn't always pick them up and gave them a chance to approach me too, so they got used to me.

Nowadays I still do the same thing and, when I want/need to pick them up, I gently manouvere them into a corner where they can't so easily get away and then pick them up slowly so they don't feel like they're on a rollercoaster. Mine will even sit still now, although it helps that they're quite amiable piggies!
 
Take what I'm going say with a grain of salt, but it has worked thus far with me with both current pigs. I just got a young female yesterday (took to vet today, weighs 0.8 pounds) and guessing she's around the 4 week mark. She's pretty timid, but nonetheless was skittish. Just today, she took veggies from hand (within 10 minutes of returning from the vet, so just to put it into perspective), a couple times and has been letting me pet her in the cage.

A trick that'll sound completely ridiculous I started with my boar and carried over to my female, is pretend my hand is another rodent. Basically, thumb, index finger, pinky, and ring finger "walk" around like a small animal with legs, while my middle finger acts like the head (think of an aardvark or elephant). I'll add fresh pellets and timmy hay, then immediately "walk" around on the fingers, while "poking" my middle finger's tip into the pellets to make noise against the dish. Then, I'll "walk" over the hay lump, and poke that, acting like it's "eating" or "foraging". So far, it works about 98% of the time assuming they aren't tired. The female especially, stops the skittish behavior, and will come over (remember, just got her yesterday and roughly 4 weeks; the boar is about 2 weeks older and does the same thing to a certain degree). If they come to "sniff" me, I'll raise the tip of my middle finger, and get close to their nostrils for a very brief second (lets them smell the food you were poking and mimics pig to pig behavior) then immediately BACK to the food/hay. If they run away at other times, I'll pretend to run away too, in opposite corner (again, mimic the legs running and kick up bedding material) then go right back to the food. With the male, I'll sometimes "follow" him at same speed he's moving, bump his rump, pretend to "popcorn", then run away. The female, I'll just popcorn around and run away if she runs, then go back over to her.

So far, this seemingly ridiculous "trick" has worked with excellent results. They seem to ignore my arm or "see" it as an extension of the weird little rodent thing walking around their cage.The female will actually walk directly under my arm and "behind" the hand rodent to sniff. If calm, you can walk over, and slowly pet them around the shoulder blades and talk to them. Then slowly move hand away and go back to "hand rodent". Also, IF they can't see my hand, I'll rub my thumb against my index and middle finger. That "sound" indicates I'm there, and not trying to sneak up.


So "hand rodent walk", pretend to "eat" by poking food/hay, pretend sniff, back to food, run away and "popcorn " (just hop hand a couple inches and scurry to opposite end). If something has a texture, I might scrap my middle finger nail on it, to simulate chewing, etc. Unsure how all of this might work with older adults, but both younger pigs have responded favorably. Just keep hand low to the bedding and finger tips on/in the bedding and move middle finger like it's sniffing the ground (or looking for ants ;)) and maybe articulate from side to side like a turtle neck. Seems to completely disarm them. So instead of threat, you "appear" as a weird stick rodent with no eyes. Also, if you try this and get to the stage where it lets you pet them on the shoulder blades w/o running away, that can sometimes be a good time to pick them up (slowly- don't want to act like a predator getting a guinea pig dinner). Though try to alternate it up, so they don't associate the petting with instant pick up i.e. walk away at times after petting, etc. GL.
 
Also, fwiw, I had a cat years ago that ALSO reacted to the "hand rodent" thing, which is how I got the idea now. With the cat, it'd go low, shake it's rump, then run and pounce. At the least second, I'd raise my hand up (like I was going to grab cat face with all fingers forward) and the cat would do a retreat (was quite funny tbh, wish I had video of it). Sometimes I'd mimic the cat by dropping the palm low with palm acting like a butt on the ground, and "shake" back and forth before "pouncing" towards the cat, which would also pounce XD then both hand and cat would retreat back to starting potions.

So, with that cat, mimicking it's behavior with something that "resembled" a rodent/animal, also worked, but was more for a play time event.
 
Yeah, but my piggies are used to me already, I can easily stroke one of them (the other one too, but he doesn't like it). The problem is they get insanely panicked when I try to take them I out. I ordered a tunnel on the internet and I'm going to try this method, untill then I must take them out by force :/
 
Roky said:
Yeah, but my piggies are used to me already, I can easily stroke one of them (the other one too, but he doesn't like it). The problem is they get insanely panicked when I try to take them I out. I ordered a tunnel on the internet and I'm going to try this method, untill then I must take them out by force :/
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Some of my pigs are used to me and are very friendly when I’m handling them but hardly any pigs like being picked up x
 
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