I have no idea what I’m doing pls help

MortyJojo

MortyJojo

New Born Pup
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Hi y’all, I’m a New Guinea pig owner and I am oh so very confused on what to do. I have two male guineas (morty and jojo) that are about 2 months old. the first week I had them home I made the mistake of chasing them around the cage to pick them up and hold them. I still have to chase them around in order to catch them especially Jojo. Morty will kinda get in my hand and let me pick him up but there have been a few times where I almost had a grip on Jojo and he managed to slip away but usually he runs and hides. Jojo gets scared by almost my every movement and doesn’t really respond to his name or anything. He wheeks when he hears a bag crumple cuz he thinks/knows that means food. So does morty. I feel as though I’ve messed up and like they don’t like me. They will eat out of my hand and kinda climb on me if I’ve got food. But if I stick my hand in the cage to pet one of them they run or nibble me. That’s another thing is they bite me, not enough to draw blood but a pretty good pinch. Idk what to do to get them to trust/like me. SOS
 
Hello, please don’t freak out at so young this is completely normal behaviour :)

here’s an amazing video To help you with taming.

 
Welcome to the forum.
Don’t panic.
Take a deep breath and calm down.

Guinea pigs are prey animals.
Their default position is ‘you’re going to eat me!’
Most guinea pigs hate being caught for this reason. Many will never like being held.
My Phoebe hates it with a passion although she will let me pet her in the cage.

Take a step back with your boys and just leave them be for now.
Feed them, talk to them but don’t try to catch them or hold them. Let them settle and come to associate you with food.

The forum guides for new owners plus the piggy whisperer tips are well worth reading.
Enjoy your piggies for who they are.
 
Hi! Glad to be here
And Thank you for the advice!

I’ll be sure to read up on those. I’ll continue to hand fed them and not pick them up to hold them and I’ve got a book I could read out loud to them. If I need to clean their should I use a cuddle sack to relocate them?

From what I’ve gathered this far it seems as though personality plays a roll in what they do and don’t like also.

How long would you say I should wait before I try pickin them up again?
 
One thing I forgot to mention is Jojo mounts morty on a daily basis and the rumble at each other like it’s a dominance thing. They haven’t gotten into a full blown fight which is good but should the mounting and the battle for dominance have ended by now?
 
2 months into being piggie parents we still can’t catch our boys (I mean we can, but it takes a while and it scares them) the best way we have found to relocate and do lap time is to get them into a cosy like a tunnel or cuddle sack and move them this way, it’s so much easier for both human and pig in our experience. In terms of actually holding them we only do this now for health checking, we opted for turning the sofa into a pig safe area with a cosy and just sitting next to them, this has made our pigs feel a lot safer and they typically come to sit on us when they want to now. I don’t know how helpful this is, I’m not an expert at all, these are just things I’ve picked up as a newbie that work well for us 😁
 
If you are from the UK and of a certain age then you'll understand what I mean when I say I used to sing the Benny Hill theme at my husband trying to catch them to start with. If not, Google it. It was hard work. Coralling them into a space makes it easier. Or into a tunnel.
 
MortyJojo said:
Hi y’all, I’m a New Guinea pig owner and I am oh so very confused on what to do. I have two male guineas (morty and jojo) that are about 2 months old. the first week I had them home I made the mistake of chasing them around the cage to pick them up and hold them. I still have to chase them around in order to catch them especially Jojo. Morty will kinda get in my hand and let me pick him up but there have been a few times where I almost had a grip on Jojo and he managed to slip away but usually he runs and hides. Jojo gets scared by almost my every movement and doesn’t really respond to his name or anything. He wheeks when he hears a bag crumple cuz he thinks/knows that means food. So does morty. I feel as though I’ve messed up and like they don’t like me. They will eat out of my hand and kinda climb on me if I’ve got food. But if I stick my hand in the cage to pet one of them they run or nibble me. That’s another thing is they bite me, not enough to draw blood but a pretty good pinch. Idk what to do to get them to trust/like me. SOS
Click to expand...

Hi!

Your piggies still like you if they climb on your hand; they just don't like being picked up and chased.

Please take the time to watch a video of how you can train your piggies to come into a pick up conveyance in order to avoid chases and triggering guinea pig prey animal instincts. You will also find the guide about how guinea pig instincts work and and how you can get round them as well as a little course in piggy whispering (i.e. communicating in cavy social key behaviours) that will help you to make friends with them quicker - they instantly understand what you are saying and it takes you out of the predator zone. Whispering is surprisingly effective! :)
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig Safely

These guides are all part of our very useful New Owners information collection, which addresses all the most often encountered problems, help you avoid common pitfalls and helps you to learn understand guinea pig social behaviour and what is normal and not in behaviour as well as the body/health in your weekly body checks and weigh-ins. Lots of really helpful care, housing, enrichment and diet tips, too!
Here is the link, which you may want to bookmark, browse, read and re-read at need: Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
 
My Meg has known me since she was born (5 years ago) and still doesn't like being picked up. Her brothers (Christian (RIP) 🌈 and Dennis (RIP)🌈) didn't mind being picked up it all depends on the personality (Pigsonality?) of the guinea pig and how long you have had them for. Your piggies are still very young. Read them your book while sitting next to the cage. This will let them get used to your voice. When my piggies were new I would talk any old rubbish to them like what I had bought in the weekly shop to what I had been doing that day just so that they would get to learn that I wasn't a threat and that I would't harm them. It always helped them to learn that I wouldn't harm them by giving them a treat like a dandelion leaf or a bit of cucumber etc.
 
MortyJojo said:
One thing I forgot to mention is Jojo mounts morty on a daily basis and the rumble at each other like it’s a dominance thing. They haven’t gotten into a full blown fight which is good but should the mounting and the battle for dominance have ended by now?
Click to expand...

Mounting, rumbling and chasing is all entirely normal and something they will do throughout their entire lives. It is more intense during establishing a hierarchy and throughout the period of their teens when hormones are at their highest (which lasts from 16 weeks of age until 14 months of age) but it is something they will always do. Your piggies at two months old haven’t yet started their teens so you can expect to see this kind of behaviour for quite some time to come. My three year old boar pair still do it now even though it is less than when they were younger.

Running away and not wanting to be held is very normal. My two don’t like being held at all, they trust me and come to see me and take food from my hand, but being picked up and held is never going to be something they will like.
 
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