Piggie won't stop eating C&C cage! :(

[littlelily1993]

Hi there, I'm hoping that someone can offer me some advice as I'm at my wits end a bit!

About a montg ago I adopted a 4 year old female pig called Petal for my bereaved piggie Lily. Lily is very dominant and Petal very submissive so it was a good match. However for the past few weeks Petal has been waking me up in the night because of her incessant chewing of the cardboard of the C&C cage around the ramp. She's taken a whole chunk out of it and it makes such a loud annoying noise! She only seems to do it at night, sort of early hours of the morning.

The pigs have unlimited supplies of hay, food, veggies (particularly hard veggies like carrots so good for teeth) and toys. I've put some chew stop spray around the area but it doesn't seem to phase her. Lily has also started doing it too - but only a bit, and I'm sure it's because she sees Petal doing it.

Petal is quite a quiet and shy piggie, Lily often mounts her and rumblestruts at her but doesn't bully her. I was worried it could be a nervous habit or something.

I need an undisturbed sleep so any advice is very very much appreciated!

 

[Piggies&buns]

are they on fleece bedding? If so, then you can tuck the fleece up and over the correx so they can’t get to it. You can also buy anti chew strips to put on the edges of correx.
Have you tried changing up their toys etc so they have something new to take their interest. Sometimes something as simple as a different type of hay can be enough. Piggies do like to chew though, so it may be that there isn’t a reason for it other than that.
As an aside, it may be how it is written, but the only food that should be unlimited is hay. Pellets should be limited and ideally bowls removed after a meal. Veg should also be limited and carrots should only be fed as a very occasional treat as they are high in sugar.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Just to clarify, the original post says cardboard but @Piggies&buns thinks you mean plastic correx and I too assume correx because that is what C&C bases are usually made of... if they are eating a lot of plastic that is a bigger concern than the noise!
Possibly as @Piggies&buns says you are just supplying "too much" of everything- a golden rule of animal welfare when it comes to enrichment with toys or novel foods is to not provide it all the time, otherwise its not a treat it just gets boring. Also many so-called guinea pig toys may look appealing to us but have no real interest for a guinea pig!
Try to limit your feeding, maybe rethink your toys, and rotate what items you put in the cage, swapping a hidey house for a cardboard box for a few days, putting in a brown paper bag full of fancy hay, all these simple things can keep piggies entertained.
As for the noise... piggies do not sleep all night like humans do, they more take power naps then are ready to get going with some more chewing and water bottle rattling! The best you can do on that front is buy some ear plugs and make sure they are chewing something healthy!
If it is a specific cage area they chew, can you block it off with a heavy wooden house for a while? I would definitely avoid using any sprays or chemicals to deter chewing...

 

[anyar.dris]

You can buy this nibble guards.

Nibble guards - C and C Guinea Pig Cages

 

[anyar.dris]

Or if you have binders with slide clipbars (like below), you can use that as well to cover the edge of the correx.

Rexel Nyrex-80 Spine Clip A4 Black Pack of 5 80SCA4 13025, Pack Size [ 1 ] SKU RX13025: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products