Grumpy Piggy?

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dan2sl

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I just wanted to get your opinions on my grumpy little baby and find out if anyone else has a guinea pig like this? (other than Piggie Pooh who has Liddell's sister, Versace who can also be a little grump sometimes!)

One of my original piggies Rush gave Birth shortly after we got her so we had 3 more guinea pigs than we had initially anticipated! She had one boy and two girls. we handled all of them on an almost daily basis (Liddell and Versace even more so than the others!) and always had them on our laps when we were watching tv and were giving them veggie treats. I wonder now if maybe that is why they are so reluctant to be handled, as they dont associate it with nice cuddles but more with "give me my treat and put me back!".

Liddell is the only one of the 5 who never let me stroke her in the cage. she will approach my hand to see if i have anything for her and if i go to stroke her she will run away straight away (she is 14 months old now). She is long haired and hates to be groomed. When i pick her up she bites me (quite hard!) she is happy to sit with me or on my lap but doesnt like to be stroked and wriggles about or runs off if I try to stroke her.

She is a lovely happy guinea pig the rest of the time and always comes to see me when I come in the room and is SO cute. But she is a biter which makes it hard to groom her. I wonder why she is like this? do you think there is anything I can do to get her to at least resist a bit less? Maybe it is just her feisty little personality because she was the runt of the litter and we didnt think she would survive at first.

Here she is, you can see why people love her regardless of how much she doesnt like us! :))

DH000034-1.jpg
 
I wunder if she is thinking that everytime you are going to get her out, she is thinking she is going to get groomed, something she doesnt like and is nipping/bitng as a way of saying "put me down" , which will stop her getting groomed in her eyes.

It might be worth when she bites to tell her no and blow, but not to hard, on her as this is an unusual reaction that pigs dont normally like and she might then start to asociat the blow with the nipping and reaslise than when she nips she gets a sensation she doesnt like so in theory should stop it in time.

Wehn it comes to grooming her it might be an idea to try and introduce food into the equation, so shes got sometime she likes, ie the food, with something she doesnt, the grooming, but the food might give her something els to think/concontrate on and isnt assocating grooming with a "nasty" feeling.

hope that makes sense!
 
Awww she is so cute hun. Versace dosnt like to be handled either and she will try to bite now and then but hasnt really succeeded (other than my tops). I try handling her loads but it hasnt made a difference so we have accepted that she just doesnt like being handled much and generally when cuddles are happening she will run around beside us rather than on us :)
It may be to do with grooming, maybe she just really hates it. Dior and Duke both get groomed a lot here and dont mind it (they actually both had a bath this morning) but Versace hates it and will struggle and bite when she needs doing
 
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i got a boar (romeo ) and he hates being handled, he will pretend to be in throws of death alot of the time, he has never ever been mis treated as i had him from being a baby and he used to be ok then but as he matured he would really hate to be cuddled..... i talk to him alot and he lives in a super huge run with his friend Devon. i think some piggys like people are sometimes grouchy!
 
How long are you handling the mini-pig for? I've always found that younger pigs seem to enjoy their own independence more than, say, an older boy who has learned to enjoy the warmth of a people-leg. My mini-pig was, and still is, quite nippy (not with me anymore but he is with the other pigs in the cage) and he's approaching a year now.

Koda (mini pig :)) was treated very well at the rescue where he was born so it seems that his response to me was more an investigation of his boundaries or testing what I was (gaining understanding of his surroundings, perhaps?).

He also hated me pawing at him or grooming him until he got older and seemed to realise that I'm awesome and if I have his foot in a vice-grip he isn't getting away until his nails have been done and his butt hair clipped.

Don't take it personally :)
 
Thanks everyone :-)

When I groom them or do their nails I give them parsley! I buy it especially as its their favourite and the only thing that will get liddell to sit remotely still for the trim or nails! last night i tried to do the nails with only the help of an apple and some blueberries and she wasnt having any of it! :))

Even that doesnt help sometimes, she is such a character, she spins round when i try to trim her nails or her hair and bites the scissors or the nail clippers! She needs a hair cut again, that photo was taken in May and its crazy how much it has grown already! I tend to keep it shorter as she hates being brushed so much!

I bought some shampoo from gorgeous Guineas last week so its first bath time soon, that should be interesting! rolleyes

i think the last few months i haven't handled her more than a few times a week because i just think, well she doesnt like it so I'll leave her, but maybe i just need to persist! I also think maybe because her hair goes in all different directions its very hard to know how to stroke her!

Jools - Glad Duke and Dior are behaving themselves! they were always well behaved for a cuddle or a groom it was just catching Duke that was the hard part! :))
 
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