Guinea pig confidence !

[abcdefarah]

Hi all,

I have had my two boys Albie and Zeb since the end of February, they are 5 month old biological brothers but we got Zeb a week later and the breeder said he had lost a lot of weight after being separated from Albie this automatically made me think he was going to be a lot physically weaker. When we got him, he would have bad reactions to veggies a lot and his fur was matted the poor thing. (We have brought him back to health since t!)

Anyway, since we have moved house and got a C&C cage, Albie seems to be so much more comfortable and confident. He will come out for chin tickles and let’s me stroke his ears (a few weeks ago he would run a mile) but Zeb is still terrified of my hands. We used to try and handle them as this is what the breeder told us but now we are not picking them up unless it’s for health checks, and are letting THEM come to US.

My question really is, does anybody have any tactics or ways to help Zeb to become more confident? He is scared at the tiniest noise and stops sleeping, whereas Albie will turn over, close his eyes and keep snoozing!

Thanks so much in advance,

Farah x

 

[Siikibam]

Not all piggies will like being held or cuddled. And not all like being touched etc. All you can give him is time and to go at his pace. Start with hand feeding. If that goes well then you can try stroking, but slowly. If he doesn’t like it you just leave him be. Hopefully over time he will be less scared, but it may be that’s just his nature.

PS I wouldn’t force handling if they don’t like it.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Some are going be more scared than others, some will come round, some won’t. All you can do is keep up with the whispering tips and see how it goes.

They sound very much like my two boys though. Dexter was confident within a few weeks of coming to me and will happily come over for chin rubs and take food from me etc, but Popcorn has taken 18 months to (almost) consistently take food from my hand (there are still times he backs away). He will not tolerate being touched and scares so much more easily than Dexter. My handling (as in physically picking them up) of my boys is only for health checks.

 

[Merab]

Keep on doing what you’re doing and be patient.
My Phoebe would run and hide as soon as I came anywhere near the cage - it took nearly 6 months before she stopped doing that.
Now she’s the one who comes demanding strokes and attention but still hates being picked up or held