Behavior They are so smart ! - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**Duffinvt** · #1 10-14-09, 11:59 am

I never knew how smart guinea pigs are !! I am amazed each day at something new they learn to do. Today, I used the cube "fence" to fence off the wood stove as it is now going. I usually use this to fence off the wood floor portion of the living room from the slate. My treadmill, couches, lamp cords and way too many hazards are in the wood floored part. So I put my extra piece of left over coroplast - 8" high and 8 ft. long up as a fence. Propped it up with various objects. Well, it was way too quiet and I looked up from cleaning the cage to see the girls exploring the wood floor space ! I had a terrible time getting them back to the slate. I propped the coroplast strip even better with more stuff.... and Busy promptly pushed it and the objects away and escaped again, Shady right behind her !! I finally had to corner them and "elevator" them back to their cage.

Speaking of the elevator, the girls do not like to be picked up by hand so I use a plastic tunnel as an elevator, holding my hands over the ends to safely transport them. I swear the girls know they will get to have floor time and now happily go into the transport tube. And when ready to go back I say "home, home, home" and they go in the tube with very little coaxing. And get a treat of fresh hay when back home in the cage. Is it my imagination or are they really that smart?

Also, I give them about 45 minutes to one hour of floor time each day and they seem tired out after an hour. Is that enough time?

**Africa** · #2 10-14-09, 02:34 pm

Such a cute story, and I like the idea of the transport tube! ha ha, I tried the box piggy elevator but they dont like that so much... they get very suspicious of me when I put a carrot of something inside a box with a hole in it... maybe a tube would work better.

And I definitely think they are smart! Well, smarter than we think. I have just taught Popcorn how to do a circle, and Im so amazed at how quickly he learnt how to do the trick! He knows that doing a circle gets him treats, so often in the beginning stage of learning when the veggies were finished he would just stand in front of me doing circles...ah, it would melt my heart! So cute! of course I dont want to give him a treat for just doing a circle without me saying "Circle" first so I would just ignore him dancing in circles... but too precious!

**princesspoppy** · #3 10-14-09, 02:49 pm

Nice story. I give my girls 1-2 hours floor time. And lap time twice a day.

**Duffinvt** · #4 10-14-09, 03:05 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by princesspoppy

Nice story. I give my girls 1-2 hours floor time. And lap time twice a day.

I have not pushed for lap time yet as the girls are still getting used to me. Do you sit on the floor? I read of people having the gps on the couch. Aren't you afraid they will fall off? I'd like to hear more about lap time routines.

Tdchewy · #5 10-14-09, 03:11 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duffinvt

I have not pushed for lap time yet as the girls are still getting used to me. Do you sit on the floor? I read of people having the gps on the couch. Aren't you afraid they will fall off? I'd like to hear more about lap time routines.

I do lap time at the same time as floor time. I pick one up at a time onto the lap while the others run and play. Swap piggies every 10 minutes or so. they seem to love all the attention

**princesspoppy** · #6 10-14-09, 03:19 pm

Well,first lap time consists of the 2 pigs sitting on my tummy while i watch the early morning news. Then i take them down stairs and have my coffee on the sofa and they just let them stretch out of the next 10-15 minutes.sniffing my clothes or ears or climbing all over me. Then they have breakfast and 30 minutes of running around the living room. I pretty much keep them close by. Best part is after i take my kids to school i actually get into there cage and play and scoop poop. The rest of the day is random. Garden time or running in the kitchen.

**Duffinvt** · #7 10-14-09, 03:22 pm

Hmmm... if the girls are over a year and have not had lap time, is it too late? They really don't like to be handled.

**Africa** · #8 10-14-09, 03:30 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by princesspoppy

Well,first lap time consists of the 2 pigs sitting on my tummy while i watch the early morning news. Then i take them down stairs and have my coffee on the sofa and they just let them stretch out of the next 10-15 minutes.sniffing my clothes or ears or climbing all over me. Then they have breakfast and 30 minutes of running around the living room. I pretty much keep them close by. Best part is after i take my kids to school i actually get into there cage and play and scoop poop. The rest of the day is random. Garden time or running in the kitchen.

To be honest, I have never quite understood how people let their piggies run around the house, dont they pee and poo everywhere? Maybe Im missing something somewhere, Im paranoid, for floortime I always put down shower curtains and towels in an enclosed area. How do you do it? have you trained them to pee in a litter box? I have boars so they scent mark all the time.

And to reply to Duffinvt, my take on this is that every piggy is different, my one boy especially hates to be handled, he is just a scardy piggy. He wont ever like to be cuddled so I hardly ever do lap time. I do lots of floor time though!

And popcorn is the opposite, he loves to be cuddled but not necessarily on my lap

**princesspoppy** · #9 10-14-09, 03:31 pm

How long have you had them ? Maybe they just need time. My girls didn't like to be picked up also. Took a good 3-4 weeks for them to get used to it. Now.....oh my goodness. They can't get enough of it. I really think they enjoy it.

**princesspoppy** · #10 10-14-09, 03:36 pm

No carpet in my house. Wooden floors. So i don't have a problem . I put news papers down in the corners of the room just in case. So far,no little accidents .
Yes now potty trained but sometimes they get lazy and poop in a corner in the cage.

**Duffinvt** · #11 10-14-09, 03:52 pm

Mine are on a slate floor that has scatter rugs and I put down towels. They usually avoid the rugs. preferring to run on the slate. Both girls will use a corner for a bathroom if they need to. But, since it is slate, I don't mind and just clean it up when I put them back in the cage. For the most part they seem to wait until they get to their cage to pee/poop.

**Bamysmum** · #12 10-14-09, 09:23 pm

My girls don't seem to like floor time - they just run to where their pen is and huddle in the corner next to it. So I've stopped floor time as they have far more fun running about their pen where they feel safer and happier.

Good job there's room to run in the Pig Pen!

Time out of the pen is now cuddle time on my lap or lounging on the sofa. They're a spoilt bunch

**Wheekie** · #13 10-14-09, 11:39 pm

Bamysmum...so happy to read your post, cause after reading most of the stuff here, I thought I had the only piggies in the world that didn't seem to like floor time!

**Duffinvt** · #14 10-15-09, 12:44 pm

Am I ever in trouble ! I let the stove go out so I could use the mesh cube fence between the slate and wood floors and let the girls out. Busy remembered her adventure of yesterday and went to the corner where she escaped yesterday and bit and pulled on the mesh cube. I stopped her and propped something against it, but she succeeded in bursting through the corner. What a little devil she is !

**luvmycavies** · #15 10-15-09, 01:59 pm

My 2 older rescue girls who have been in and out of several homes before ours, just learned to give kisses before a treat. It is the cutest thing to see them rise up on thier back legs and give a "kiss" when I put my head down into the cage and ask them for one. Of course they always get a treat afterwards but it is adorable! They are also so noisey whenever someone is in the kitchen and if they run out of water before I can get to them they are banging the water bottle against the cage and wheeking at me. How dare i neglect them for even a second!

**Duffinvt** · #16 10-20-09, 09:16 am

Despite having this huge area to play in, the girls contiue to escape ( I have waited weeks for my local Bed, Bath and Beyond to get cubes in so I can make a proper fence. I only have a few extras now). Once they get under the couch or treadmill I have a hard time corraling them. So, today they will only have the 6' x 4' bathroom to play in as I cannot continue to chase them around the house !! Oh, and Shady managed to get up the 8" step to the main part of the house. I'm a bit frustrated that this 16 ft. X 12 ft. space is not to their liking ! I've put a dozen toys, boxes, tunnels, etc. out there and they are still not happy !!

**Wheekie** · #17 10-26-09, 10:07 pm

That's so funny! (Sorry...I know it isn't to you!) A little piggie going up an 8" step!

My Cotton escaped from his playpen at floor time once, got under my couch and it took me three hours to get him out! So I understand your pain!

**distancel** · #18 10-27-09, 01:10 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duffinvt

I have not pushed for lap time yet as the girls are still getting used to me. Do you sit on the floor? I read of people having the gps on the couch. Aren't you afraid they will fall off? I'd like to hear more about lap time routines.

Once my piggies are on my lap it's rare they will move much at all. Pretty much they just want to put their paws on my arm and look at the tv and talk to me or call out to each other (I'll have one out at a time and the other in the cage comes to look at what's happening hehe). When they start to squirm a bit I know they usually need to go to the toilet so they go back to their cage.

Oh yeah that is one thing, one at a time for lap time is a must with my pigs anyway. They tend to get annoyed at each other for some reason if I have them both out. I think they both think they own my lap.

"Thank you, Duffinvt, for this useful post," says:
Africa (10-14-09)

"Thank you, princesspoppy, for this useful post," says:
Africa (10-14-09)