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Terrified piggy

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*Midnight*

Junior Guinea Pig
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My friend gave me her 2 year old male, as his 2 brothers had died and she didn't want him to be lonely. He was in a hutch outside in a shed and we have put him in an indoor cage opposite our 2 girls. He spends his time inside his house only very occasionally coming out even though we have put a towel over the cage to help him settle. He seems so scared and races round the cage when we go to get him out and sits on your lap looking petrified. Not known of such a scared piggy so need some advice please. Don't know whether to get him out often or just leave him to settle for now?

Any advice much appreciated, thanks
 
I would leave him for a couple of days to get his bearings.

It must be strange for him to move from the quiet outdoors into your home. All noises (voices, TV, phone etc.) will be a little odd at first. Marmite brrred everytime we sneezed or coughed for the first week :))

Give him time, he'll come round. Just make sure he's eating and drinking and little by little his confidence should grow, especially hearing your girls :)

Good luck x
 
I agree. I would leave him for a few days so he settles in.

when approaching the cage with fresh veggies, I would calmly and quietly talk to him so he associates you with good things.

In my experience, scaredy piggies quickly come round
 
One thing I did was to leave a veggie leaf in the doorway of the house/hidey to encourage her to come out. I left everything right outside the hidey house and slowy moved things further away into the corners as she got her confidence
 
One thing I did was to leave a veggie leaf in the doorway of the house/hidey to encourage her to come out. I left everything right outside the hidey house and slowy moved things further away into the corners as she got her confidence

We have been leaving veggies in the doorway of his house but he won't go anywhere near it until a while after we have left the room and he won't come out and eat his dry food, we have left his bowl just outside his doorway
 
I have had quite a few like this. At the moment I have little Teddy who is completely traumatised from living with a rabbit. He races round and climbs the bars and is terrified. With piggies who have issues like this, I always do pretty much the same. Put in a cage at the beginning of my shed where I am always passing by, so he sees people moving around. I talk all the time I am in, and when I am not in the shed the radio is on. I never ever give them an enclosed hidey hole, or leave that shelf/house thing in the cage, because they would not be able to see out and see what is going on, and get used to it. Also I would not be able to see in to see how they are doing. In Teddy's cage at the moment for a house, he has one of those stepping stools in a corner so two sides are enclosed but the two front sides are open, so we can see each other but he feels secure underneath the stool. His little safe spot. I start by not attempting to touch for the first 3 - 4 days only to put food in, so they get used to the cage being opened for nice things. Then after that I will try and have a chin tickle for a few seconds. Don;t ever try to stroke the top of their heads. Gradually I can chin tickle for long periods. The first time I pick up I keep them close to the cage with smells and noises that they recognise. It can be hard catching them at first, but do try and do it as quickly and firmly as possible to minimise distress.
It's just about taking small steps at a time. I have had Teddy about a month now, and he will happily let me put my hand in, chin tickle, tummy tickle, and he is 'slightly' better at catching, but much better when he is out now.
Guinea pigs very quickly get used to noises in their immediate environment. All mine are used to barking dogs, hoover, radio, trains, aeroplanes, so don't worry about making a noise if they are in your house.
Good luck, it's well worth the wait, the first time they come out of their safe space to say hello to you.
xx
 
Thank you Nutmeg, a lot of detail there which is brilliant. We will put all of the advice from all of you in to action and fingers crossed he will start to settle this coming week. As for the chin tickle i think that's a way off as we struggle to get near him at the moment, and hope he doesn't bite! It's just the first boar we had did bite when we tickled him under the chin:))
 
Just curious - whats the rationale behind not stoking the tops of their heads?

Had my latest lot for over a month now and the girls still wont eat when I am in the room.
The boys are coming to meet the bowls as they go into the cage and then begin nosy troughing of the contents before my hand has even left the cage.

I got them all at the same time - its just taking the girls a bit longer xoxo
 
Guinea pigs natural predators come from above, so they are instinctively wary. Even when they are really really tame and friendly, they still often don't like it, unless you start under chin, and generally work your way round to nose/.head, so they don't feel threatened. xx
 
Guinea pigs natural predators come from above, so they are instinctively wary. Even when they are really really tame and friendly, they still often don't like it, unless you start under chin, and generally work your way round to nose/.head, so they don't feel threatened. xx

Never knew that, it's never seemably worried any of the pigs we have had in the past, i guess because they have never been as scared as little Magic. You see this is the kind of think i needed to know, even though we've had guineas for 15years there's still lots to learn. Thank you x
 
I just though i'd let you know how he's getting on. He's alot better now, he's out of his house, talking to the girls, but we still can't quite get to the cage without him running for cover. He will get there though, we have faith. Thank you all again for your help;)
 
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