Fweeper
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello everyone, back again! One day I hope I'll be able to post here regularly and happily, but sadly that day is not today.
The boys have been living in their split cage since August. They've been happy and actually had zero health or behaviour issues in that whole time, which is a first for them! The vet actually called me to check on them because they hadn't seen them in a record quantity of time for things outside of nail clipping!
The past week, however, Sundae is back to his own ways, yanking on the bars, throwing screaming fits, peeing through the bars and other generally aggressive, clearly unsettled behaviour. While I'm less worried about injury now they physically can't get at eachother, it's not exactly pleasant to see him so upset so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on ways to help him be happier?
For reference, they have somewhere in the region of 12 square feet each in their main cage and about the same again each in the run I put them in when their main cage is being cleaned out. They loathe floor time with a burning passion and sit, scared witless and unwilling to move. They don't like lap time, same result. It's taken me a year to be able to touch them in the cage, they hate being stroked or cuddled, and tolerate my handling them twice a day with extreme huff. Anything I can do to make Sundae happier isn't going to involve contact with humans, let's put it that way!
He has plentiful hay, both to eat and in a paper bag to play with, but unlike Praline, he doesn't enjoy toys and has no interest in them.
I should add, Praline is the happiest pig ever! He popcorns about, noses his toy ball around, nests in his hay and generally enjoys life, this is entirely Sundae's problem.
Edit: Forgot to add, they're somewhere around 18 months oldish.
The boys have been living in their split cage since August. They've been happy and actually had zero health or behaviour issues in that whole time, which is a first for them! The vet actually called me to check on them because they hadn't seen them in a record quantity of time for things outside of nail clipping!
The past week, however, Sundae is back to his own ways, yanking on the bars, throwing screaming fits, peeing through the bars and other generally aggressive, clearly unsettled behaviour. While I'm less worried about injury now they physically can't get at eachother, it's not exactly pleasant to see him so upset so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on ways to help him be happier?
For reference, they have somewhere in the region of 12 square feet each in their main cage and about the same again each in the run I put them in when their main cage is being cleaned out. They loathe floor time with a burning passion and sit, scared witless and unwilling to move. They don't like lap time, same result. It's taken me a year to be able to touch them in the cage, they hate being stroked or cuddled, and tolerate my handling them twice a day with extreme huff. Anything I can do to make Sundae happier isn't going to involve contact with humans, let's put it that way!
He has plentiful hay, both to eat and in a paper bag to play with, but unlike Praline, he doesn't enjoy toys and has no interest in them.
I should add, Praline is the happiest pig ever! He popcorns about, noses his toy ball around, nests in his hay and generally enjoys life, this is entirely Sundae's problem.
Edit: Forgot to add, they're somewhere around 18 months oldish.
