Regular Chirping

[Cuddles With Cavies]

Hiya, I have a Peruvian sow who chirps pretty regularly at least several times a month. In the past 24hrs she’s chirped 3 times. Each episode only lasts between 1 to 2 minutes.

I posted a video of her doing it on an FB group and got slammed for her being extremely scared, anxious and in pain.

There doesn’t seem to be any reason for her doing it though. She does it at different times during the day, when I’m there or when I’m not. There’s nothing going on outside the cage to scare her and the cage hasn’t been rearranged. She lives with another sow and neutered boar and gets along great with them. They all live in a 2x9 C&C.

So what are peoples thoughts. What can I do to help her feel more secure and stop chirping?

 

[Piggies&buns]

There is no clear answer on why piggies chirp as the circumstances in which people report hearing it aren’t always the same, so no conclusions can be drawn from it. This guide explans bit further Chirping

 

[Claire W]

I had a piggy who used to chirp and she wasn't scared or in pain when she did it. As above, there is no clear answer as to why they do it. I really wouldn't worry

 

[Wiebke]

A few piggies are regular chirpers, some are one-off chirpers and the vast majority will never chirp. In my own experience, chirping is more common when there are tensions in the piggy room but there is very often no obvious cause for it. Other piggies may also be encouraged to try chirping themselves if you have a regular chirper.
But you can certainly not shut up a chirper; especially not not one of the regular operatic singers giving a concert because some of them seem to actually rather enjoy themselves and seem to somewhat proud of their achievement.
My own chirpers over the years have been mainly piggies with a somewhat nervous disposition; that may also play into it.

Chirping is much more complex than most people think from just listening to videos. It seems to have a strong situational component. Playing a chirping video out of context can really spook listening guinea pigs (hence the social media slamming), yet I have played the same video on other occasions and there was no reaction from my piggies at all, nor was there when I took that video in the first place. The video in the guide is from my regular chirper Heulwen who did give chirping concerts for most of the 8 years of her life.

While piggies go quiet when there is a chirper in the room, live chirping doesn't cause the outright dash for cover that a video does because there is obviously a situational context that eludes us humans. Piggy companions hearing the sound for the first time are usually rather alarmed by it but when living with a singer, they kind of get used to it and become a lot less fazed.
People slamming chirper owners are quite obviously very much unaware of this crucial situational component.

I have also several times noticed that the sound breaking out of a piggy for the first time can really surprise the chirper themself, as can when they discover volume changes and modulations to their chirping and start playing round with it.
Additionally, there have been recorded instances where chirping has been clearly used by a piggy as an attention seeking behaviour, especially by singles; so it is another piggy behaviour that can be taken out of its original context and used for a different purpose by the piggies themselves.

We are still a very long way off from explaining it because of the elusive situational component that can trigger chirping.

I have collected what we can say about chirping and what chirping is not in our chirping guide: Chirping