Why do Guinea Pigs.......?

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JoBo

JoBo

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Head nudge when you fuss them. Several of my guinea pigs shuff their heads up when you fuss their heads and i have no idea why they do this, does anyone else's pigs do it, and do you know why ?/
 
hmm, mine dot hat but i just assume it's because they want their noses or chin rubbed, abit like cats nudge? x
 
I've always assumed it's a stop touching my head signal. I could be wrong though.... Putt does this alot, where as Cookie likes head strokes...
 
I always thought it was a 'please dont do that' sign. If ours do it I tend to stroke their backs which normally has them producing a rumble or two.
 
Mine do this and when i asked why, i was told it means get off! As in they dont like it.
 
oooh, i wont keep on stroking them when they do this then! haha! oops x
 
Ha Ha i felt really guilty too when i found out, as i used to do it all of the time thinking they were playing!
 
I did wonder if it meant that. i suppose its better then them biting you to tell you to get off lol xx
 
When mine do this, I take it as leave me alone, so I put them back in their cages. They don't like being with me too much, but a few strokes are ok, then it's the head nudge...
 
Same, all my boars have been quite forceful so I did take it as a 'please stop' sign lol
 
Hahaha. I do that to plop he headbuts and then relaxes and flops back in my hand. I think he likes it. But he is a strange little pigglie. He stares at me from his hutch while I'm in the kitchen.lol
 
minty is the only piggie who does this but she loves her head scratched and closes her eyes and relaxes, I think she has a tickly spot that I catch occasionally and she will nudge, I move up a bit and she goes back to falling asleep. The other 3 hate having their noses scratched but love a tickle behind the ears
 
I think I read somewhere that it was a prey response the headbut thing.

Mine only seem to do it if you go straight for the nose nose/head. If you have been stroking them and work your way round to the head then mine seem to not mind it, but I also think its an individual thing as mine HATE their chins to be touched and i hear others love it.
 
It is a 'get off' as other people have said, but I've found that only my coronet boars do it! my peru's all love it, I think it's because that's where the hair starts growing in the opposite direction, so they enjoy it. So coronets love a chin tickle and peru's love a head rub! LOL! :))
 
My girls it depends on their moods :x
As they've grown up it changes.......so much like us eh!
At the moment it's the ........nup not happy mum..........or it's.....go away mum.......or sometimes it's.......... get out of my way...........
it seems to depend on them.........yes it's mainly a not happy or not impressed signal.....but you need to read each piggie (even our two boys were different at times)

I can at times stroke each of our girls happily for ages........ and other times not.. hence what i said above :))
 
I suspect it is a natural reaction to having something touching the head,and is the way they would push through long grass if they were in the wild.
 
I can't remember where I heard this, but I think it's less to do with not wanting their heads to be touched as not wanting their eyes to be covered.

Birds of prey are the main predators of guinea pigs and related species in the wild in South America. They have eyes sort of on top of their heads so they can see danger from above - probably better than from any other angle. Cover the eyes and they can't detect danger.

I've tried explaining that there are NO hawks in the living room, but they just don't believe me! :)
 
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