Why is my Guinea Pig Boar biting me so much?

[Alamerona]

Hi TGPF, our littlest boar, Walker (Approx. 7m old) has had a terrible habit of biting both me and my partner whenever we handle him or pet him - It's not usually serious (I.E. no blood), but there have been a few occurrences of wounding on us from him. Again, nothing huge, but a little blood from an over-zealous nip. As far as we know he's had this sort of behaviour since we got him at 7 weeks old, and has yet to grow out of it - Whenever sniffing or saying hello, his first reaction is to sniff curiously, then nip on the part he's sniffing; this happens nearly every time we pick him up to weigh him, have laptime or give them floor time. We do support his back and feet fully with our hands at all times, however he likes to bite through our clothing, and nip our necks and chests, which is usually painful. When on our laps, he's more than happy to groom on us, fall asleep on us and more, however he is a VERY keen barberer, often eating my partner's hair and my beard. His cagemate, Bluebear, shows none of these behaviours, even during and after the time our previous little Boar, Joey, was around.

We regularly groom them and check them for mites and other points of annoyance, and have not noticed any irritations, signs of mites or discomfort - He's always eating well and drinking well, and has been perfectly healthy for over 6 months straight now with no prior medical conditions (We got a full, intensive checkup done at 7 weeks). Other than that the two of them have two of everything, and are generally well, asides from the odd testosterone spikes.

Why could Walker be doing this? Is it a comfort or exploratory thing? Are we doing something wrong? Does he not like us? Any help would be appreciated in understanding this behaviour! We have read all of the documentation on the forum, however nothing quite answered our specific question, hence the ask.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi TGPF, our littlest boar, Walker (Approx. 7m old) has had a terrible habit of biting both me and my partner whenever we handle him or pet him - It's not usually serious (I.E. no blood), but there have been a few occurrences of wounding on us from him. Again, nothing huge, but a little blood from an over-zealous nip. As far as we know he's had this sort of behaviour since we got him at 7 weeks old, and has yet to grow out of it - Whenever sniffing or saying hello, his first reaction is to sniff curiously, then nip on the part he's sniffing; this happens nearly every time we pick him up to weigh him, have laptime or give them floor time. We do support his back and feet fully with our hands at all times, however he likes to bite through our clothing, and nip our necks and chests, which is usually painful. When on our laps, he's more than happy to groom on us, fall asleep on us and more, however he is a VERY keen barberer, often eating my partner's hair and my beard. His cagemate, Bluebear, shows none of these behaviours, even during and after the time our previous little Boar, Joey, was around.

We regularly groom them and check them for mites and other points of annoyance, and have not noticed any irritations, signs of mites or discomfort - He's always eating well and drinking well, and has been perfectly healthy for over 6 months straight now with no prior medical conditions (We got a full, intensive checkup done at 7 weeks). Other than that the two of them have two of everything, and are generally well, asides from the odd testosterone spikes.

Why could Walker be doing this? Is it a comfort or exploratory thing? Are we doing something wrong? Does he not like us? Any help would be appreciated in understanding this behaviour! We have read all of the documentation on the forum, however nothing quite answered our specific question, hence the ask.

Hi!

Walker is the classic age at the height of his male hormones for being a tweaker.

You can get on top of this in his own social language with some piggy whispering techniques as described in these two links here. It is generally a matter of asserting your authority while still signaling that you want him to be part of your herd but that his behaviour is out of bounds. This mimics the way socially savvy piggies deal with miscreants in their own herd pretty effectively.

Here are the links with the detailed tips and relevant pictures of the behaviours you need to use:
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

 

[Alamerona]

Hi!

Walker is the classic age at the height of his male hormones for being a tweaker.

You can get on top of this in his own social language with some piggy whispering techniques as described in these two links here. It is generally a matter of asserting your authority while still signaling that you want him to be part of your herd but that his behaviour is out of bounds. This mimics the way socially savvy piggies deal with miscreants in their own herd pretty effectively.

Here are the links with the detailed tips and relevant pictures of the behaviours you need to use:
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
Who is the Boss - Your Guinea Pig or You?

Thanks for this Wiebke - It's just difficult because we love him to bits, and we obviously don't want to be bitten 24/7! We've tried some of the techniques in those pages, but I suppose another question is how do we know we're doing them correctly? That's our main issue atm

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for this Wiebke - It's just difficult because we love him to bits, and we obviously don't want to be bitten 24/7! We've tried some of the techniques in those pages, but I suppose another question is how do we know we're doing them correctly? That's our main issue atm

Be firm but at the same time picture in your head how precious your boy is to you and how much you want him to be here. Always start and finish with an assurance that you love him.

I usually get on top of serious tweakers within a couple of weeks. They may still do a little tweaking when I take them back to the cage, but only very mildly to tell you their own feelings.

Also make sure that the tweaking is not his signal that needs to pee and that it is just a boundary pushing dominance thing.

 

[Alamerona]

Be firm but at the same time picture in your head how precious your boy is to you and how much you want him to be here. Always start and finish with an assurance that you love him.

I usually get on top of serious tweakers within a couple of weeks. They may still do a little tweaking when I take them back to the cage, but only very mildly to tell you their own feelings.

Also make sure that the tweaking is not his signal that needs to pee and that it is just a boundary pushing dominance thing.

Hi again Wiebke,

We tried this with Walker last night after some biting, however we don't quite know if we're doing it right. We're placing our fingers underneath his chin and forcing his head up, however due to his resistance he often skirts around our fingers, or ends up pushing his throat onto our fingers; we're scared we're hurting him

I've noticed there are a lack of illustrative or video guides on how to do this correctly - Do you have any examples we can see to make sure we're doing it correctly? We've tried both standing up holding him and during laptime on a pillow, however the result is the same.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi again Wiebke,

We tried this with Walker last night after some biting, however we don't quite know if we're doing it right. We're placing our fingers underneath his chin and forcing his head up, however due to his resistance he often skirts around our fingers, or ends up pushing his throat onto our fingers; we're scared we're hurting him

I've noticed there are a lack of illustrative or video guides on how to do this correctly - Do you have any examples we can see to make sure we're doing it correctly? We've tried both standing up holding him and during laptime on a pillow, however the result is the same.

You only do it shortly to express your opinion. He will get the message. As a reminder, it usually just helps to fonedle his ear and very gently pinch it shortly. Your boy is getting the message, he just doesn't like it, like squirmy little naughty boy.

We don't have a video uploading facility on here and my hub is crap at taking videos.