Naughty Guinea Pigs!

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Sianthomas98a

Sianthomas98a

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How do I discourage bad behaviour in my piggies? They are only little (7months old) but they are being quite naughty at times.
How do I discourage behaviour such as tipping their food bowl over repeatedly etc?

Thank you in advance as you have made me so welcome here xxxxxx
 

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I think this is classed as their teenage phase (could be wrong) but mine are the same age and are exactly the same. I've had to buy a ceramic bowl for nuggets but even then Katie still picks it up with her teeth. They do settle Down in a few months but I do find it funny watching their little antics.
 
Is there anyway you could weight the food bowl down?

Mine use to have a plastic bowl but when they lent on it, it would tip up so it wasn't their fault. Now I've got ceramic ones and they don't do it anymore... you can get them really cheap about £2.50 :)
 
Sweet girls. The one sleeping looks like she is very confident in your care because her eyes are closed. As to the bowl tipping. No help from me I'm afraid. My boys have always had heavy ceramic bowls and Peanut Butter manages to tip those over. The strange thing is he didn't start doing it until he was an adult. A few days ago I caught Hazelnut sniffing all around the bowl that PB was eating from having tipped it to a vertical 90 degree angle. A few hours later Hazelnut was attempting to do the same to his bowl! This after almost 4 yrs of never doing such a thing.
 
I have one of those plastic bowl like you do and a heavy ceramic bowl too. My boys are usually always tipping the plastic one over but completely ignore the heavy one..

It may be worth having a look into something heavier, which should help with that :)
 
What beautiful piggies!
I've always used ceramic bowls for the piggies but they still manage to tip them over. Puzzle will stick both front paws right in the bowl and tip it up vertically so the food is right in front of her face! However, it might still be worth a try using ceramic bowls.
 
Guinea pigs are animals and do not understand you don't want them to tip over a bowl or move things around. Please don't think of their behaviour as naughty. They are just being guinea pigs. Mine tip pellets out of the bowl and I just put them back.
 
Such cute piggies! They don't mean to be naughty, they are just manipulating their environment to best of their ability (i.e. in the clumsy fashion of little critters without working hands!) Mine have been known to tip the food dish occasionally- generally either because they are standing on the edge and putting all their weight on one side, or because they are trying to drag the dish around and have an unfortunately mishap (Sundae, the lighter pig in my avatar pic, especially likes to relocate the food dish by holding the edge in her mouth and then walking backwards- this works better some days than others! We actually keep two food dishes in the cage because Sundae seems to want to hide or guard the food so much, it's easier if we let her think she's in charge of the food while Linney just eats from the other dish.) You might want to try a heavier bowl if they are tipping it over relatively often. We have ceramic bowls with thick bottoms, and considering the amount of dragging of food dishes that goes on, they don't tip all that often because they are so bottom-heavy.
 
Thank you all so very much!

I love all your stories about various food bowl mishaps - I'm glad my girls are not being too badly behaved! (I tend to forget that they are animals as they are so clever at times!)

I've ordered to ceramic bowls online and we will see ...

I find guinea pigs fascinating - thank you all so very much! xxxxxx
 
Teaching them not to do something wont really work, but finding a solution will. Those bird bowl holders that secure to the sides of cages maybe worth a go. A heavy ceramic bowl or dish, i used the mini cookware bowls from poundland. Zooplus have a cute wooden stand sorta of thing that the bowls slot into, looks like a cute dining table for piggies haha, that may work. or maybe put their bowl in a place they cant tip? for example i put my boys bowl in their hay tray, with hay maybe an inch deep around it. They cant tip it, and even if they did it would only land on their hay so no biggy.
 
MissBubblegum said:
Teaching them not to do something wont really work, but finding a solution will. Those bird bowl holders that secure to the sides of cages maybe worth a go. A heavy ceramic bowl or dish, i used the mini cookware bowls from poundland. Zooplus have a cute wooden stand sorta of thing that the bowls slot into, looks like a cute dining table for piggies haha, that may work. or maybe put their bowl in a place they cant tip? for example i put my boys bowl in their hay tray, with hay maybe an inch deep around it. They cant tip it, and even if they did it would only land on their hay so no biggy.
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That's a great idea about putting the bowl in the hay tray. Wish I'd though of that when Peanut Butter was young. After 3 years I'd hate to spoil his fun. When I first got the boys I did think of using those clip on cage metal bowls like you do for birds, having had birds in the past, but I confess to being mesmerised by photos of piggy feet on the lips of ceramic bowls. Never even crossed my mind PB would learn to tip them over!
 
hehe thanks @Lilly i actually discovered that technique worked well as i had started putting their bowl in their hay tray so they would do their business in their while eating. They have a hay rack above it so they always have fresh unsoiled hay.
 
I think that the reason why piggies tip up their ceramic bowls is because a lot of these bowls are so deep, and tipping them up helps piggies reach food in the bottom. My piggies have shallow ceramic bowls, and have never tipped them up -or over. They do step into the bowl to reach food on the far side, but it doesn't tip it up. I got my bowls from The Hay Experts.co.uk.
 
My Freckles kept tipping the heavy round rabbit food bowl I bought them, and I didn't want old food lying in the hay - so in the end I gave them an oval ceramic oven dish which is shallow but too heavy and awkward in shape to tip - result! Its also a great size as both my boys can feed from the one dish without annoying each other as they are still a good distance apart when eating. :lol!:

sometimes I do put the rabbit dish back in with a few nuggets and Freckles is straight over and tipping it - thats how he gets his fun. :yahoo:
 
Lilly said:
@7squeakers. &
@smileyface:)

Interesting about the shallowness of the bowl being a factor. Will have to see about that as these days, Peanut Butter, having gotten so good at it, automatically tips the bowl every time he eats..
Click to expand...

I think they just enjoy doing it if they can - Freckles loves to up-end everything, bowls, cardboard boxes etc - little monkey!:lol:
 
I use ceramic bowls for treats and my girls don't tip them.They are guinea pig bowls so quite shallow and small enough they can reach all of it.I have an oblong cooking dish for the other lot and they can't tip that.That is shallow too
 
I think The Hay Experts sell corner bowls like that too, or is it Zooplus? Try both.
 
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