Is it possible......?

[xxangelxx2440]

Hi everyone, not posted for a while because my dominant female has calmed down now due to old age, but something interesting has happened between her and my nearly 3 year olf male.
My male, Acer has a habbit that when ever I say 'go back' when they're in the outside run I'd squat down, hold out my hand and he'd put his two front paws on it so I can lift him up to go back into his cage.
Now last year my dominant female, the brown and white one lsst year paid attention to this but ran away when ever I offered my hand butthis year for 5 consecuative day's she's copying the male and doing it as well, so I no longer have to chase 2/3..... which is weird but nice.....
Has anyone else noticed this kind of behaviour with their pigs? Because every habit my two black one's have had she seems to be copying them, from pulling on my sleeve to hurry me up to letting me catch her now. Anyone else notice shared behaviour withtheir pigs?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

What most people are not aware of because the way most piggies are sold as pets during that time is that guinea pigs have actually a formative 'school age' between weaning and teenage where they attach themselves to an older piggy that is willing to take them on and learn the intricacies of social interaction, what is safe to eat and how to master their environment by watching, copying and sniffing/snatching 'safe' food from their elders' mouths.
You can learn more about this from an article I have written for Guinea Pig Magazine last May (issue #56, Days of Their Lives, Part 3: The School Weeks) as part of an article series about the various guinea pig ages from the first day of life until old age and death. The last part of the series is in the current issue.
https://www.guineapigmagazine.com/


What you are seeing is your older lady taking her cues from the likely now more dominant boar as his way seems to be working better than hers. I have certainly seen many instances of guinea pigs learning and copying from each other. Sadly they are far too often reduced to being an animated human toy pet because they are a very interesting species with much more complex interaction than anybody would have expected - and that includes very much the ability to lean from each other.
Just watch how much baby boy Llelo is observing and copying from his new uncle boar Dylan during their first free roam on the shared roaming ground in this video from 2018:
Many social species actually pass on skills to others. I still remember my first own piggy demonstrating to his wife how to jump in and out of their cage because he had mastered it but she hadn't. It was touching to see how he was encouraging her.

 

[Bill & Ted]

I haven’t noticed any of mine, but how lovely she is doing that All your hard work paid off threefold

 

[Sweet Potato]

Gundham taught spud how to dig up the fleece and tip over the carrot cottage. Does that count?

 

[Wiebke]

Here are some more videos from my Tribe:

How to get 12 piggies off the lawn in 3 minutes

Sadly I don't have a video of my blind Mischief who I could direct to come back to her moved run on the lawn completely hands-off (with a flap door), provided I stood next to the entrance and kept up a steady flow of vocal updates whether she was on course or not over the distance of several yards. Poor Mischief spent her life scrambling after my larger than life piggy Minx although she drew the line at stair jumping.