Guinea Pig Behaviour Patterns
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- Category: Care
- Hits: 13
Guinea pigs might be small but they have huge personalities, are vocal and are a social species.
A popcorning guinea pig or a guinea zooming around is one of the nicest things to see.
Guinea pigs are also a prey species and as owners it is so important we respect that.
Hides are essential in a guinea pig cage so they always have somewhere safe to go. Tunnels, cardboard boxes with doorways cut out, log bridges, cosy hides and of course lots of hay to burrow in are all different ways of helping your guinea pig feel safe.
A cage that meets/exceeds the minimum sizes written about in our suitable environment post allows guineas to move around and explore, lots of hay allows them to forage around.
Guineas are awake for around 20 hours a day, just having short naps so the need for constant access to space, food and water is essential.
Normal guinea pig interaction behaviours are often wrongly thought of as fighting and people will often seperate guineas thinking they are fighting when they are only expressing normal behaviours. All guineas, male and female, will rumblestrut, chase each other, mount each other and have little squabbles.
Boars sadly still face a lot of discrimination due to people thinking they always fight.
We have bonded hundreds of boars over the years, including adult bondings, who have remained happy, a successful bond is based on personalities and knowing who is dominant and who is submissive. Brave & Mokey, Noel & Thackery, Cecil & Dudley and Monty & Norman are some of our happily bonded boar pairs who are permanent residents here at the rescue and lots of our volunteers have happily bonded boar pairs.
We don't believe neutering has any effects on a boars behaviour like it does most other animal species.
Not all guineas enjoy being cuddled and the majority of them will run away when being picked up. This is due to their prey instinct and as owners we shouldn't be forcing a guinea to be cuddled if they really don't like it. There is just as much joy watching guinea pigs interact with each other as there is handling them.
The volunteers spend a lot of time with all the guinea pigs here at the rescue making sure they are tame and comfortable being handled.
Guineas do need to be handled as a minimum for weighing, nail clipping, their weekly health checks and if they are visiting a vet.
Some are lap guineas and love sitting on an owners lap and relaxing with their legs out or falling asleep but others really don't enjoy it.
It's an owners job to respect each individual guinea.
Guineas are a social species and the need for same species companionship is important to them. Guineas living together or side by side allows them the opportunity to display normal social interactions and behaviours.