Chirping And The Hormonal Pig (video Link Too)

[Fweeper]

Hello all! Just thought I'd share this since my vet and I have been in close contact about my boy for...well, basically the whole time we've had him! Sundae is an aby/ridgeback cross with whom we've had a wealth of behavioural issues that culminated in him being diagnosed with a hormone imbalance massive enough to mean he's actually quite unstable depending on where in the month his cycle is. He's not precisely intersexed, but his hormones fight an internal battle that basically cause him to have a season, of a sort, that he finds very difficult.

He can never be in with another pig because he's frankly feral at some points of the month and has attempted to kill his brother and any other living thing within reach more than once when in a bad day. As a result, they live in a split cage where they have sight of eachother, can touch through the bars and chatter away, but importantly, he cannot get at Praline. Praline is absolutely fine about this, by the way, and is a very happy, normal, balanced pig. The fits Sundae has don't bother him.

Over the last few months, we've managed to get Sundae's life to a comfortable, settled middle ground, but every now and then he has a hormone spike and throws fits. During those fits, he chirps. Loudly. Sometimes for 10 minutes or more, continuously, seemingly in a trance. It also puts Praline in a trance too.
My vet has a theory that it's a variety of mating call, so I wondered if anyone else had any thoughts?

VID_20180320_220820128.mp4 I hope this link works, this is him, chirping this evening. He's in a bad spike at the moment, but has calmed now. You can see his white face in the dark there. I try and keep it dark for him when he's spiking, it seems to help to keep him calm.

 

[sport_billy]

No one knows why they chirp, I firmly believe it isn't distress. Widget chirps and i have seen her go from eating happily to chirping then back to eating.

Sending Sundae lots of love x

 

[Wiebke]

Hello all! Just thought I'd share this since my vet and I have been in close contact about my boy for...well, basically the whole time we've had him! Sundae is an aby/ridgeback cross with whom we've had a wealth of behavioural issues that culminated in him being diagnosed with a hormone imbalance massive enough to mean he's actually quite unstable depending on where in the month his cycle is. He's not precisely intersexed, but his hormones fight an internal battle that basically cause him to have a season, of a sort, that he finds very difficult.

He can never be in with another pig because he's frankly feral at some points of the month and has attempted to kill his brother and any other living thing within reach more than once when in a bad day. As a result, they live in a split cage where they have sight of eachother, can touch through the bars and chatter away, but importantly, he cannot get at Praline. Praline is absolutely fine about this, by the way, and is a very happy, normal, balanced pig. The fits Sundae has don't bother him.

Over the last few months, we've managed to get Sundae's life to a comfortable, settled middle ground, but every now and then he has a hormone spike and throws fits. During those fits, he chirps. Loudly. Sometimes for 10 minutes or more, continuously, seemingly in a trance. It also puts Praline in a trance too.
My vet has a theory that it's a variety of mating call, so I wondered if anyone else had any thoughts?

VID_20180320_220820128.mp4 I hope this link works, this is him, chirping this evening. He's in a bad spike at the moment, but has calmed now. You can see his white face in the dark there. I try and keep it dark for him when he's spiking, it seems to help to keep him calm.

Hi and welcome!

Poor Sundae, but lucky to have found a loving and dedicated owner!

The mating theory is new to me, I must admit! Most of the current theories go in the direction that guinea pigs express some kind of mental discomfort or tension. I don't think that we have the answer yet, to be honest.

What I can say from my own experiences:
- Only a small minority of guinea pigs ever chirp; but many chirpers do it repeatedly or even regularly. You can go through decades of ownership and never hear any chirping.
- The other guinea pigs tend to go very quiet when a piggy in the room chirps.
- There must be a strong situational tie, as a chirping audio or video played out of context on the phone or computer can cause a stampede for hiding; even if it is a replay of their own chirping. I have never experienced this reaction with 'live' chirping.
- Chirping seems to happen more often during the night hours than during day time.
- While I have noticed that my habitual residential chirper Heulwen chirps noticeably more often when there are tensions in one of my groups, on many occasions there has been nothing that I could point my finger to; this observation is also shared with many other owners of chirping piggies.
- In my own experience with mixed gender groups, sow groups and the odd boar pair, I have never experienced any link to mating or sows coming into a strong season - and believe me, I've had times when a strong season triggered a monster season in any sow close enough in her own oestrus cycle to keep the show running for three days and about 8 sows trying to mount everything within their reach (including the husboar).

I would however think that there is a strong argument that your boy's chirping is linked to his hormonal cycle, but that it is rather a way of venting some of the strong emotions running through his body at the time or giving voice to the distress that it is causing him.
- A frequent chirper can occasionally prompt another piggy to chirp on their accord; these others are however never prolific. I have only ever come across a video from a long running rescue that has recorded a chirping duet from two piggies in different cages across the room; they recorded it on their phone because it was so unique.

 

[Merab]

Poor Sundae - he’s lucky to have you.
I’m sure there are many others ( not on this forum of course ) who would give up on a piggy with Sundae’s issues

 

[Freela]

Love the name- I had a piggy named Sundae too, for almost seven years! Mine was a girl, though!

I've had pigs that would chirp occasionally, never for any reason that I could figure out. The other pigs certainly stopped and paid attention to it, though, so it plainly means something to them. Mine were all female. Some animals do make a repetitive chirp as a kind of mating call. Before my pigs, I used to keep pygmy hedgehogs and my male hedgehogs would make a repetitive sort of 'eeek eeek eeek' sound, which is supposed to be all about attracting a mate in the wild. They sounded like little alarm clocks going off. However, I'm not aware that the link between chirping and attracting a mate has been proven in piggies. It's an interesting theory, though!

 

[Fweeper]

Thank you everyone! I can't say Sundae's an easy pig to care for, but he's easy to love because outside of his hormone spikes, he's actually a very inquisitive, intelligent little lad! He often runs free in the house because he's fascinated by everything and likes to follow me around like a little dog. He gets plenty of exercise at least! haha His brother is more "a man of leisure", shall we say, wholly unconcerned by running about when there's a comfy bed to sleep in and hay to eat ehehe

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't had my moments of debating if Sundae'd be better elsewhere, but I know the strain rescues are under, and I know his behavioural issues would be a risk for other pigs, so it's best he's in a place where he's not a danger to any other already fragile pigs, I think. I dunno, I love the little fella, I'm probably biased!

Either way, the chirping thing is just so interesting to me, he's the first pig I've ever had to do it, and he does it with such regularity, it's become routine. It fascinates me that it may be a mating call, but...yeah, he's never going to be around girls to find out LOL That is a genepool that I don't have any wish to see extended! Wish I knew what all that chirping meant though!