Alamerona
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi TGPF!
Recently I've observed an odd little change in our dominant boar, Joey, where regardless of cage layout, temperature, lighting, noise, food, etc, he'll always resort to resting *underneath* his pee liner, even if it's used or dirty - This is a bit of an issue, as when his brother Bluebear starts popcorning, he sees it as a regular bit of flooring, and can jump ontop of him unintentionally.
To combat this, we put a bunch of obstacles in his way blocking entry to this part of the cage, to see if that would reset his behaviour (This has only been recent - Last week or so), but he brute-forced his way under there when everything was quiet, shoving aside the cardboard house and tunnel we put there to try and deter him. On some instances, he'll even tunnel under the second liner to the bare doggy pee pads we have underneath. For reference as well, they always have plenty of hay to tunnel under, and we often put hay over some of their tunnels to give that tunneling experience.
It's a bit odd that he's so persistent to get under there, so I'm just wondering why? Nothing has changed in terms of their cage, behaviours (Other than this), eating habits or hydration, and they both appear fine and healthy... But this sudden change is bizarre - Could it be due to the darker days and colder temperatures (Meaning the house is warmer than usual due to needing to use central heating)? Or could it be a sign of something else? For reference here's a picture of the area he rests - The pink ball shows where he'd usually be.
Recently I've observed an odd little change in our dominant boar, Joey, where regardless of cage layout, temperature, lighting, noise, food, etc, he'll always resort to resting *underneath* his pee liner, even if it's used or dirty - This is a bit of an issue, as when his brother Bluebear starts popcorning, he sees it as a regular bit of flooring, and can jump ontop of him unintentionally.
To combat this, we put a bunch of obstacles in his way blocking entry to this part of the cage, to see if that would reset his behaviour (This has only been recent - Last week or so), but he brute-forced his way under there when everything was quiet, shoving aside the cardboard house and tunnel we put there to try and deter him. On some instances, he'll even tunnel under the second liner to the bare doggy pee pads we have underneath. For reference as well, they always have plenty of hay to tunnel under, and we often put hay over some of their tunnels to give that tunneling experience.
It's a bit odd that he's so persistent to get under there, so I'm just wondering why? Nothing has changed in terms of their cage, behaviours (Other than this), eating habits or hydration, and they both appear fine and healthy... But this sudden change is bizarre - Could it be due to the darker days and colder temperatures (Meaning the house is warmer than usual due to needing to use central heating)? Or could it be a sign of something else? For reference here's a picture of the area he rests - The pink ball shows where he'd usually be.
