Scared Piggies - Whats happened?

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claire8234

claire8234

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone

I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. My two boars are coming up for 10 months now and have always lived happily in a two storey hutch outside. As we have nowhere to house the hutch over winter they have come inside to live in a 2x4 C&C cage with 2x1 top tier.

When they were outside they would wheek everytime you went near them and come and take food from your hand. They were always a bit wary when you opened the hutch door but would generally not run away from you and would always come up to the wire to say hello.

Since coming inside its like having untame guinea pigs again :( they hide in a pigloo or a tunnel as soon as you go near the cage, run like mad away from you if you go to touch them and have haven't heard them wheek for food once.

I tried to tempt them to come and see me this morning with some veggies but carrot just stayed in the tunnel and daisy snatched it out my hand and ran away.

They have a run around in the living room when my little girl gets home from school and seem fairly happy but again run away from you if you look like you are going anywhere near them. Trying to get them out the cage is fun as I have to tip them out the beds to get hold of them!

Why have they become so scared - is it the change of environment and do they just need to get used to their new home? Is there anything I can do as I also feel they are scared of me!

My daughter adores the guinea pigs and was so excited about them coming indoors and its such a shame they don't seem to want anything to do with us :(

Claire

x
 
How long have they been indoors? Where in your house are they?
 
They have just spent their 2nd night indoors and are currently in my daughters bedroom as this is the only place that has any space big enough to house a cage.

Its a quiet room and my daughter only really goes in their when she goes to bed so I know she isn't doing anything to scare them, plus is is very sensible around animals and I know she wouldn't do anything silly that would upset them.

I feel really guilty as if I have somehow made them unhappy! I know guinea pigs are generally a little skittish and like to hide but they are really jumpy and nervous.
 
Its proabably because they are still getting used to their new surroundings, are they on the floor? If so try and raise them if you can, i know when i 1st got mine they were in a cage on the floor and they always hid away, as soon as we got a stand for the cage we noticed a massive difference and it really helped with their confidence, they feel intimidated being low down.
 
Mine were "hutch" pigs if you like, but since coming to live here they have been in a cage, now a C & C cage. They were the same at first; I am assuming the reason is that in a hutch they only get approached from the front whereas suddenly in a cage they have someone looming above them! This brings out their hiding from predators instinct hence the running away. Persevere, in no time at all mine got used to it, & Daisy even stands on her back legs begging food from my hand now, she looks up expecting me to feed her lol :))rolleyes
 
Thanks Poppy's Mum. They were in a two tier hutch as well so probably aren't used to being so much lower when someone comes near them.

I sat on the floor next to them for a bit earlier and they finally ventured out and gave me a sniff :)

They've got a corn on the cob to demolish now so hopefully that'll keep them happy for a bit :)
 
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