Young male guinea pig doesn’t want to leave his hide.

[Jelewis]

Hello all,
I adopted a young guinea pig about 2 months ago, his name is Francis Madison Grimm. I think he’s about 4 months old now. He has had a very healthy appetite, enjoys zooming around his large enclosure, and yelling at me about every noise I make in the house. But quite suddenly, starting last night, he doesn’t want to leave his little plastic castle and he is far less sassy than usual. He eats perfectly normally but only if I put his dish in or at the entrance of his castle, same goes with his hay and fresh veggies. Every few hours I’ve been holding his water bottle up to him so he can drink for awhile, and he does so.
The only change that has occurred recently is that I gave him some dandelions the day before. I had read that piggies can have them so I gave him a couple ( no pesticides).
He kind of re-situates his back legs often, which is a new behavior. Like, I wouldn’t call it wobbling, more like shuffling from foot to foot maybe.
His eyes are clear and bright, his skin and coat are healthy. No signs of bumble feet. I checked his hind legs and they seemed to my untrained eye to be moving correctly.
Any ideas of what might be going on?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Please have him seen by a vet to diagnose the start of any illness.

Shuffling on his back feet, could be because of discomfort.
There is also a dominance behaviour called rumblestrutting (which is normal for teenage piggies - at four months old your piggy has just hit his teenage months) and is often accompanied by a purring sound. However, given you are also reporting a change in behaviour and less interest in seeking out food independently, then having a vet check carried out is important

Switch from the routine weekly weight checks to instead weighing him daily. As hay is their main food source, and intake cannot be judged by eye, weighing is the only way to know he is still eating enough. Any drop in weight signifies a reduction in hay intake which can point to an illness and requires you to step in with vet care and syringe feeding.

The guides below will offer further advice.

Does he have a friend? You must always check out any medical angle first and get any illness treated and a clean bill of health, but as highly social herd animals, guinea pigs need a friend at all times. If he is alone, then he will get lonely so finding him a friend is important. Particularly piggies under four months of age must never be kept alone.

Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Companionship

 

[weepweeps]

Definitely sounds like he needs to be seen by a vet. Hope he gets on ok. Keep us posted

 

[Wiebke]

 

[Jelewis]

Please have him seen by a vet to diagnose the start of any illness.

Shuffling on his back feet, could be because of discomfort.
There is also a dominance behaviour called rumblestrutting (which is normal for teenage piggies - at four months old your piggy has just hit his teenage months) and is often accompanied by a purring sound. However, given you are also reporting a change in behaviour and less interest in seeking out food independently, then having a vet check carried out is important

Switch from the routine weekly weight checks to instead weighing him daily. As hay is their main food source, and intake cannot be judged by eye, weighing is the only way to know he is still eating enough. Any drop in weight signifies a reduction in hay intake which can point to an illness and requires you to step in with vet care and syringe feeding.

The guides below will offer further advice.

Does he have a friend? You must always check out any medical angle first and get any illness treated and a clean bill of health, but as highly social herd animals, guinea pigs need a friend at all times. If he is alone, then he will get lonely so finding him a friend is important. Particularly piggies under four months of age must never be kept alone.

Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Companionship

We removed his castle for a few hours and his behavior went completely back to normal. Eating, zooming, all like normal. Then we put his castle back in and he went back to not wanting to leave it, even for his fave snacks. I have an appointment set up for him, but I was wondering if maybe this could be a sign of depression? He’s a single pig.

(We adopted another pig but he’s in quarantine for a couple weeks).

 

[Piggies&buns]

It may well be. He is too young to be alone at all.

How old is the new piggy? Quarantine can only be done with piggies over four months of age. Below four months old, then it’s imperative they are never alone.
If he is under four months old, then you cannot quarantine him and instead must bond them straight away regardless of the risks of passing on illnesses - you simply have to accept that if the new piggy brings something in, then you may well be treating them both. This is because with piggies under four months, it’s crucial that their social needs are met, young piggies are desperate to belong and need the guidance and companionship of another piggy.

Even if the new piggy is over four months of age, given Francis has already been alone for a couple of months, I would personally still forego quarantine and bond straight away given he is still so young

 

[Jelewis]

The new piggy is 7 months old. I’ve allowed them to sniff each other through the bars and they are both rumble strutting. Francis seems to be biting or maybe nibbling, but Alexander doesn’t seem to mind? I’m just a little worried they’ll attack one another? I’ve never introduced guinea pigs before so I was trying to follow a guide to make sure it went well.

 

[Piggies&buns]

The new piggy is 7 months old. I’ve allowed them to sniff each other through the bars and they are both rumble strutting. Francis seems to be biting or maybe nibbling, but Alexander doesn’t seem to mind? I’m just a little worried they’ll attack one another? I’ve never introduced guinea pigs before so I was trying to follow a guide to make sure it went well.

If you’ve allowed them to sniff each other and have interaction through bars that isn’t properly quarantining. True quarantine is the new piggy being completely in a separate room so no illness can be passed from one piggy to another.

As I said given your younger piggy is young and has already been alone for so long, then I would just carry out the bonding. Their interactions through the bars are not an indication of what will happen when they are put in a neutral territory bonding pen.

When bonding piggies on spec there is going to be a risk things won’t out, plus two teenage piggies can be trickier given there are hormones in play for both of them. However, you wont know until you try.
Put them on neutral territory for several hours and see how things go. If things work out, you can then clean out the cage they are to live in and then move them into together to start forming their relationship Fully.

If things don’t work out, then they will need to live in separate but side by side cages permanently.

Best wishes for the bonding

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

 

[Jelewis]

I only let them meet through the bars after your post saying I should put them together right away. He was actually quarantined.

After hours of normal dominance behaviors the boys calmed down and I put them in the cage together. They spent the night together and everything seems to be going alright. Though it seems Francis’ castle is a dominance trigger so he can’t have it anymore.

If things go poorly from here, they are in a large C&C cage that I can split in half.

 

[Siikibam]

Make sure any hides have two exits on them. And two of everything - bottles, hay areas, bowls (if you use them). I would scatter feed so they can’t hog.