Guinea Pig Logic!

piggieminder

piggieminder

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Duck has a cardboard box of hay, his favourite pass time other than eating hay is to push the box round the cage. I've just gone to clean him out and found the box blocking the water bottle. Instead of moving the box he's chewed a slot in the back of the box so he can get to the bottle nozzle. I've decided this is him showing some intelligence rather than being a bit daft?

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Have any of your piggies shown their 'intelligence' in a surprising way?
 
Very smart little Duck! LOL!

Tomie has figured out how to open the cage door. When it's close to time for evening play time and snacks she just opens the door and goes out into the room preemptively. I think she thinks that her presence in the hall causes the snacks to appear, not that we open the door when we put down the snacks. Now we have to tie the door shut to keep her contained.
 
Piggies can be very clever indeed!

Did you know that domestic guinea pigs have actually less brain mass that the wild species but that is because they don't need the bigger data storage of a taxi driver memory to safely navigate a much, much larger territory? What our domestic guinea pigs are much better at in comparison is problem solving in a more complex and challenging human environment but those different brain areas don't translate into more mass.
 
So quality over quantity then?
My sister in law was utterly delighted yesterday. The boys have recognised her for a while now but when she arrived as soon as she spoke there were loud wheeks even though they couldn't see her. Then when the cage got opened Master Boris actually launched himself at her for a cuddle!
 
A few years ago my OH took his dad away for a long weekend visiting relatives. As he reversed the car back in front of the house the guinea pigs we had at the time all started wheeking and getting very excited. They must have recognised the car. I was quite miffed, I don't get that treatment when I come home! OH has never forgotten his greeting, he reminds me of it frequently!
 
piggieminder said:
A few years ago my OH took his dad away for a long weekend visiting relatives. As he reversed the car back in front of the house the guinea pigs we had at the time all started wheeking and getting very excited. They must have recognised the car. I was quite miffed, I don't get that treatment when I come home! OH has never forgotten his greeting, he reminds me of it frequently!
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What we always noticed was that when we came back from a holiday, our piggies would wheek when the front door opened because of the carer coming in - but they will never do it when one of us is in the house because that doesn't translate into food!

They also know whether it is me or my hub getting up and coming downstairs first - the excitement level differs but they can distinguish us by the footsteps from the floor above and by the treads when coming down the stairs. Not stupid at all.
 
My blind Mischief would sit in front of my feet and stare at me punctually a quarter of an hour before any food was due and then start wheeking 5 minutes early. Nothing wrong with her internal clock. :D

We massively underestimate their memory capacity and the fact that most of their senses are much finer than ours with the exception of the eyes (which is our strongest sense).
We also massively underestimate the complexity of their social interaction and their creativity when dealing with a new environment and learning to master it to their own satisfaction - and how good they are at manipulating us whether positively or by attention seeking whichever ways makes us notice them.
 
Our piggies get excited whoever they hear moving first in the morning because first person downstairs does breakfast.
I go away for a few days regularly. I get the cold shoulder treatment for a few days afterwards. OH says it's because they know they will get no more pizza or sticky toffee pudding.
Mine have internal tummy clocks, except Bertie who thinks any human movement means food, especially the back door, we only go in and out of the back door to get grass or dandelions.
The intelligence of piggies is amazing.
 
I had to train the goblins out of reacting to every single rustle of plastic, and it worked! Except I got Readigrass and it comes in a bag. And now it's the only plastic rustle they'll react to because they know it means yummy stuff, and I can still stuff myself and not have to worry about apologising to the neighbours (again).
 
Wiebke said:
What we always noticed was that when we came back from a holiday, our piggies would wheek when the front door opened because of the carer coming in - but they will never do it when one of us is in the house because that doesn't translate into food!

They also know whether it is me or my hub getting up and coming downstairs first - the excitement level differs but they can distinguish us by the footsteps from the floor above and by the treads when coming down the stairs. Not stupid at all.
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It is so neat how they can distinguish people by footsteps... my son gives them a treat when he gets up in the morning, so they respond to his feet coming down the stairs but not to the rest of us. They're definitely very clever about the things that interest them (90% of which is food for mine!)
 
My favourite story which made us realise they are way more intelligent than we give them credit for.

Years ago I had washed the guineas and they were in their indoor cage drying I. Our living room near the front door drying, I had six, a very tight knit group with a very dominant boar. I went out to the shops and without realising didn’t lock the front door properly.

My husband was upstairs and heard all six guineas kicking off…you know the sound they make when they are worried about something. It was so loud he came down to find out what was going on to find a burglar in the house just walking into the hallway. As soon as the burglar spotted Mike he ran with Mike after him. The guineas fell silent and carried on eating…their job was done.

To this day we tell this story to people who think Guinea pigs are boring, they literally prevented us from getting burgled that day.
 
Guinea Slave said:
My favourite story which made us realise they are way more intelligent than we give them credit for.

Years ago I had washed the guineas and they were in their indoor cage drying I. Our living room near the front door drying, I had six, a very tight knit group with a very dominant boar. I went out to the shops and without realising didn’t lock the front door properly.

My husband was upstairs and heard all six guineas kicking off…you know the sound they make when they are worried about something. It was so loud he came down to find out what was going on to find a burglar in the house just walking into the hallway. As soon as the burglar spotted Mike he ran with Mike after him. The guineas fell silent and carried on eating…their job was done.

To this day we tell this story to people who think Guinea pigs are boring, they literally prevented us from getting burgled that day.
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I’ll bet that surprised the burglar 😁
 
Guinea Slave said:
My favourite story which made us realise they are way more intelligent than we give them credit for.

Years ago I had washed the guineas and they were in their indoor cage drying I. Our living room near the front door drying, I had six, a very tight knit group with a very dominant boar. I went out to the shops and without realising didn’t lock the front door properly.

My husband was upstairs and heard all six guineas kicking off…you know the sound they make when they are worried about something. It was so loud he came down to find out what was going on to find a burglar in the house just walking into the hallway. As soon as the burglar spotted Mike he ran with Mike after him. The guineas fell silent and carried on eating…their job was done.

To this day we tell this story to people who think Guinea pigs are boring, they literally prevented us from getting burgled that day.
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Our house has a 'wheeker alarm', too! :D
 
One of mine (years ago this was) so terrified one of the neighbourhood cats that I never saw that cat in our garden again.

The piggies were having some lawn time. One was asleep in one of their hideys, the other was eating grass. I noticed one of the cats trying to sneak up on the run, it was slinking through the plants around our pond. Pickle Pig also noticed the cat, and dived into a nearby tunnel. Aha, I thought, he's clever, he's hiding away.
The cat came around the side of the run, and looked quite surprised that there was no piggy in sight. Just then Pickle Pig fairly galloped out of the tunnel, straight towards the cat, shrieking as loud as he could. The cat scarpered with his tail all fluffed out like a loo brush.

I am fairly sure Pickle had thought this one through. First hide, then surprise, then triumph.
 
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