Why does he grind his teeth?

[AlisonK]

Hi,
I'm new to guinea pigs and my new boy George seems to grind his teeth - as if he's eating hay (except he's not) when I am holding him sometimes. I've read about clicking his teeth and listened to a clip of the sound and it doesn't sound like that - so I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad one. Any thoughts?
Thanks

 

[Emiley]

Hi,
I'm new to guinea pigs and my new boy George seems to grind his teeth - as if he's eating hay (except he's not) when I am holding him sometimes. I've read about clicking his teeth and listened to a clip of the sound and it doesn't sound like that - so I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad one. Any thoughts?
Thanks

I think it means he's either nervous, annoyed or scared. It's not a good thing anyway

 

[mikulinek]

It depends what you mean by grinding teeth:

If it's quite loud and sometimes accompanied by: strutting (shifting his weight from one side to another so it looks like he's dancing); puffing his mane on the back of his neck or aggressive behaviour then this is chattering. Chattering is a sign of aggression out of fear, territorial dominance, nervousness etc. and is not a good sign. Something is bothering him.

If it is a quite grinding and he's sat quite still and doing very little else then this is actual teeth grinding. Piggies will always keep some food toward the back of their mouths. It's easy for piggies to grind down their front teeth and they have to do this but to get their back teeth ground down, they will keep food in there (usually hay or hard green leaves) and grind down their teeth. They need to do this like all rodents to keep their teeth from getting too long.

Hope this is helpful and I hope this is just grinding and not chattering

 

[AlisonK]

Well, he tends to do it when I pick him up and he is nestled in my arm. There isn't any other obvious behaviour with it that I've noticed. He hasn't done it in the last couple of days and when he did he would stop after short time. I'm thinking he was nervous - we have only had him for a week. He seems to permanently want to hide but when we get him out and he starts exploring a little he seems totally different, and he's getting very good at coming to the edge of his cage to be fed his veggies and will sit really well in my lap, munching some veg while I stroke him. I guess we'll keep taking it a day at a time.
He has been rehomed with me and my next task is to find him a friend, I'm hoping this will help him to really settle well and maybe be a bit more confident. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[mikulinek]

Hey Alison,

Actually, when it comes to piggies, there are possibly the world's most timid creatures so it's not advisible to pick them up in the first week. They need a good week or so just to get used to their surroundings. The softly the softly approach with them will reap dividends in the long run. Try petting him furing veggie feeding time to get hime accustomed to being petted and so he has a positive association of petting and food!

It's definitely a good idea to get him a friend and piggies are very social animals. There are some things to take into consideration when choosing a friend and if you want advice on this I'm sure everyone on here would be happy to help

 

[Sonia]

Its bruxxing..My girls do it when they are excited and they know veg is on the way and cocoa does it when on my lap..and she has just started licking my hand so i know its contented.

 

[ghostbusterbunny]

Pretty much all my girls do it the second way that mikulinek said, and it's quite a common thing with piggies!

They're munching away on whatever was in there when I rudely picked them up! Guinea pigs are grazers, so they're constantly munching away, so you'll probably hear that noise quite often.