guinea pigs will just not be picked up

E

Elaine Prince

New Born Pup
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piggies run out of any thing I try to tease them in too, they are so fast as running away I can't scoop them up. I am running out of ideas, watched loads of videos too, but nothing works.
 
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean?
Are they escaping their cage? Or are you referring to when you try to herd them into a carrier to pick them up? What type of carrier are you trying to use?
 
It just takes a while of trust building. Hand feeding etc. All of mine where like that (particularly my young ones) but they all come round. They will never particularly like being picked up (they are prey animals) so I only handle them for health checks. They do come to me to sit with me or have some attention, but I don’t make a habit of picking them up a lot.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean?
Are they escaping their cage? Or are you referring to when you try to herd them into a carrier to pick them up? What type of carrier are you trying to use?
Click to expand...
Hi.
Piggies&buns said:
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean?
Are they escaping their cage? Or are you referring to when you try to herd them into a carrier to pick them up? What type of carrier are you trying to use?
Click to expand...
Hi. I have tried all sorts, snuggles, tunnels, to pick them up in their cage, it is a big cage. I have even tried putting a box over their houses, then removing their house, so they are left in the box, worked at first, but now as soon as they see the box they run out of their houses and into a corner.
 
Bradshaw Piggies said:
It just takes a while of trust building. Hand feeding etc. All of mine where like that (particularly my young ones) but they all come round. They will never particularly like being picked up (they are prey animals) so I only handle them for health checks. They do come to me to sit with me or have some attention, but I don’t make a habit of picking them up a lot.
Click to expand...
They are 6 months old now. They ask to come out of their cage and run around the floor, even nudging me out the way, and they will put their paws on me to take food, its just when I want to pick them up. I have 2 older piggies and I taught them to go into a big raffia bag, then they went outside in a run. Tried the bag with these 2, but as soon as they did it once, they figured what was happening and that was that.
 
I have tried putting food in the snuggles, snd the bag to temp them in. I just can't catch them putting my hands under their tummy to scoop them, or even if they are in a corner, they dart away so fast. If it wasn't for wanting to see to their nails or health check, I would not pick them up, not if they don't like it.
 
I use a cat carrier or enclosed fleece house - like your older piggies, they just get straight into the carrier as they know it’s how they are moved around and go out for play time/back in to their hutch. I can pick them up from the carrier, but they, like most piggies, don’t like it.
All you can do is keep trying, slowly and steadily until they realise they are still safe
 
Something I find that helps is to “coralle” (no idea how you spell that) into a smaller area, otherwise it ends up like a Benny Hill chase. So let them go into a corner and then put something there to stop them running out (the back of a hidey or something). Then you have to be firm, quick and decisive. Mine have been here 5 years now and are largely consenting to being picked up but at the start it was very frustrating. The more you manage it, the more positive associations they have, but there is still the overwhelming prey instinct. Their natural instinct tells them the only time your feet leave the ground is because something picked you up to eat you and they just can’t put that behind them, no matter how safe they might otherwise feel.
 
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