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My guinea pig's chewing on his cage and it's causing his mouth to bleed.

jacobegreysenismypiggy

jacobegreysenismypiggy

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Hello my name is Hannah and I have a guinea pig called Jacobe. He is briefly a year old. He hasn't done this before until now. The year we've had him he has never chewed on his cage. He's currently in a plastic cage ready to transition into a CC cage. Before we do that I want to make sure he's comfy. Anyways last night I was getting him ready for bed by giving him fresh food,water and hay when I noticed a piece of bedding had blood on it. The night before he was chewing his cage all night and would not stop no matter how many times I asked him to stop. I pushed it off as he probably was teething. He's my first guinea pig since my previous one passed away. I had others but they were babies and my guinea pig I had that passed we got her from a bad home and we had her a year. She had not done the gnawing on her cage so this is my first experience with this.I got him out of his cage and checked him out but had no signs of bleeding anywhere. My mom suggested he had cut his mouth from chewing his cage. I had no clue how to inspect the inside of his mouth so I gave his veggies for the night and got him settled back in his cage. I kept my eye on him the rest of the night and today. No signs of anymore blood. He has food and plenty of toys to chew so no reason for him to be chewing his cage. He gets food and hay 2 times a day. Please let me know anything you have to tell me. Please and thank you.
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First, he isn’t chewing because he is teething.
Does he live with another guinea pig? If not, he may be chewing for attention or through boredom. They are highly social herd animals and must always be kept in pairs. A single piggy can get lonely.
you say you give him food and hay twice a day - do you always ensure he has fresh hay constantly available? He must never run out of hay.

can you try covering the parts of his cage which he is most chewing on? Perhaps with a fleece blanket for example. Without knowing your set up etc, it is hard to give further advice on how to do this
 
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Thank you so much! He is alone but we had others and they were female so we didn't them near him because none of them are fixed. He did get fresh food and hay and I made sure the hay was always available. There is no way currently to cover it up and if I were to cover it he'd chew through the blanket. We currently cannot get another piggy to accompany him and we give him plenty of attention. Usually the chewing happens during late night/early morning. Anywhere from Midnight to 6 in the morning. I have to get sleep and trying to get him to stop is taking a toll on my sleep and focus for school
 
Unfortunately human attention does not make up for the companionship from another piggy. I appreciate you can’t get him a friend at the moment, but being alone may well be the reason why he is chewing things he shouldnt be - to get attention and interaction
 
He gets plenty of attention,interaction, and companionship. We tried when we had the female piggies to have them around but because none of them were fixed he had ended up getting one of the piggies pregnant. One of the females passed away and the two babies we had that are his kids as well as the new piggy are with someone else. The new piggy wasn't born until AFTER we had gave them away. I do want another piggy but my parents told me to wait for a while for a new one since we had just gave away the ones I had because I was overwhelmed with how much it took to care for 4 piggies (Well 3 when my one piggy passed.) Any suggestions on what to do since we can't get him a friend?
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
He gets plenty of attention,interaction, and companionship. We tried when we had the female piggies to have them around but because none of them were fixed he had ended up getting one of the piggies pregnant. One of the females passed away and the two babies we had that are his kids as well as the new piggy are with someone else. The new piggy wasn't born until AFTER we had gave them away. I do want another piggy but my parents told me to wait for a while for a new one since we had just gave away the ones I had because I was overwhelmed with how much it took to care for 4 piggies (Well 3 when my one piggy passed.) Any suggestions on what to do since we can't get him a friend?
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I appreciate you spend time with him, but he doesn’t get interaction, attention and companionship from an animal that speaks his language though and this could be the issue.
you could try the enrichment ideas thread - Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
try scattering feeding his veg and pellets, hiding it in hay, stuffing boxes with hay, using forage foods within hay piles to encourage natural foraging behaviour
 
Right now he is in transition cage to a CC cage it's all a little of a mess but I've been told he needs a CC cage so I'm in works of getting him one. His cage is a pretty good size and he has so much enrichment. I do have a picture but I need to clean his cage. Anyways I need help on what to do with him during bedtime? He sleeps all day and is up all night because piggies are nocturnal.
 
We do that! I make sure to make sure he has plenty to do while I'm asleep I'm just afraid of feeding him too much. That's him in my profile picture! He's already pretty chunky loll. I love him so much and want what's best for him since he is alone and I learned from my previous loss of a guinea pig that interaction with other piggies is super important!
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
Right now he is in transition cage to a CC cage it's all a little of a mess but I've been told he needs a CC cage so I'm in works of getting him one. His cage is a pretty good size and he has so much enrichment. I do have a picture but I need to clean his cage. Anyways I need help on what to do with him during bedtime? He sleeps all day and is up all night because piggies are nocturnal.
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they aren’t nocturnal. They are crepuscular meaning they are active most during dawn and dusk, but they are also awake during the day and night and only sleep for short bursts at a time.
Unfortunately he is going to chew things it’s what rodents do. There is no magic way to get him to stop chewing on the cage. All we can tell you is that having lots of enrichment and a companion is the best thing for him.
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
We do that! I make sure to make sure he has plenty to do while I'm asleep I'm just afraid of feeding him too much. That's him in my profile picture! He's already pretty chunky loll. I love him so much and want what's best for him since he is alone and I learned from my previous loss of a guinea pig that interaction with other piggies is super important!
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it’s impossible to feed too much hay - they need it constantly. the only foods you need to keep limited are pellets (give just one tablespoon per day) and veg (give 50 grams per day).
 
Dang google! Google told me they were nocturnal! He sleeps for hours at a time. He is currently taking a nap as we speak. He sleeps the majority of the day! I don't know if I mentioned that we do take him outside with a fenced area ( A piggy playpen) and allow him outside but he isn't that much of an active piggy. He runs at night but that's about it as well as when I try to clean his cage and take him out,he runs away from me.
 
He gets about a cup of veggies a day and 2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day. I make sure to not overfeed him with pellets and treats are a special occasion thing. Every other 2 weeks he'll get them after I clean his cage but no more than a few a day. He has these corn cobs for piggies that he LOVES to gnaw and eat in between meals. He also gets hay biscuits and I'm super cautious about the treats I give him because I know piggies are very small stomached animal and a lot of pet store treats aren't good for them.
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
Dang google! Google told me they were nocturnal! He sleeps for hours at a time. He is currently taking a nap as we speak. He sleeps the majority of the day! I don't know if I mentioned that we do take him outside with a fenced area ( A piggy playpen) and allow him outside but he isn't that much of an active piggy. He runs at night but that's about it as well as when I try to clean his cage and take him out,he runs away from me.
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he may be sleeping a lot because he doesn’t have a companion. My two only ever sleep for short bursts, about half an hour at a time, otherwise they are very active. I’m really sorry though but i don’t know what else we can advise you, their main needs are hay and companionship!

jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
He gets about a cup of veggies a day and 2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day. I make sure to not overfeed him with pellets and treats are a special occasion thing. Every other 2 weeks he'll get them after I clean his cage but no more than a few a day. He has these corn cobs for piggies that he LOVES to gnaw and eat in between meals. He also gets hay biscuits and I'm super cautious about the treats I give him because I know piggies are very small stomached animal and a lot of pet store treats aren't good for them.
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a cup of veggies is absolutely fine and is the recommended amount.

What is the ‘2 (1/3 cups) of food twice a day’ that you give him? Is that the pellets?
 
My bad I didn't specify about what type of food it was! He gets 2 scoops of a (1/3) cup of pellets and he gets the Wild Harvest guinea pig food.There is sometimes we cannot get that type so we get either Menu or Kaytee. I don't know if that's important information or not! I had my last piggy briefly a year and was still learning all I needed to learn so when i got more and my first piggy passed I had to start over and i'm so lost sometimes!
 
jacobegreysenismypiggy said:
My bad I didn't specify about what type of food it was! He gets 2 scoops of a (1/3) cup of pellets and he gets the Wild Harvest guinea pig food.There is sometimes we cannot get that type so we get either Menu or Kaytee. I don't know if that's important information or not! I had my last piggy briefly a year and was still learning all I needed to learn so when i got more and my first piggy passed I had to start over and i'm so lost sometimes!
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a third of a cup is 4 tablespoons and if he gets two scoops of that a day then he is having 8 tablespoons a day. Guinea pigs should only have one tablespoon per day. Too much of this kind of food can lead to health problems
wild harvest is a muesli (it has lots Of different coloured bits). This isn’t a good type of food to feed. It encourages selective feeding and contains items which aren’t good for piggies. They should have one tablespoon per day of a plain guinea pig pellet Fortified with vitamin c. Their main food intake needs to be hay (80% of the daily food intake). Veg is 15% and pellets is just 5%. The less hay they eat due to overeating unhealthy things, then there is more risk of health issues
Pellets Or Muesli / Dry Mix?
 
That is what my mom buys him! I cannot really buy him things yet but I'll let her know! Should I cut it down to once a day for feeding and continuing to make sure he has hay all day? Instead of 2 cups a day and hay. They need hay so that will not change how much he gets there. I use bedding for his cage is that ok? Sorry if I'm asking a lot I want what is best for him! Treats? What are ok for him? I've done research but many websites say so may different things about treats.I know what veggies and fruits he can and can't have.
 
Cut it down to one tablespoon per day. A 1/3 cup measure is far too big.
the only thing he needs a lot of is hay.

the only treats my piggies get are a different type of herb. They have coriander /cilantro every day but I give them a small piece of dill, basil or parsley as a treat (parsley is high in calcium so needs to be kept strictly limited to one small amount once per week). I never give fruit due to the high sugar content.
 
Thank you! He gets veggies and he LOVES veggies. The only fruits he has tried are strawberries and watermelon and he wasn't a fan of either! As you can see in my profile picture he is a big boy! We've had him a year and this is how big he has gotten since we got him as a baby. He came with another and we named her Molly but she passed a while back due to complications of getting pregnant back to back. I have seen people give fruit but because there's so much restriction with it we stick to mostly veggies
 
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