Genius Pig

**Tonka** · #1 02-15-07, 07:34 am

My little g-piggy is so smart! Okay, so listen. Normally all my previous pigsters are your average fat lazy bones snuggly guinea. Not my little Centra. She broke out of the cage and has been eating the cheese off the mouse traps. She's got crazy amounts of agility! Anyhow, she has a typical cavy cage. What can I do to make it genius pig proof?

EDIT: I don't want the mouse traps in my house anyway. My spouse wants them there but I can't stand the thought of killing a widdle mousey!

EDIT2: OH NO! I posted this in the wrong forum section. You guys, I am SOOO sorry. Please move it if the technology exists to do so! I'm SOOOOOO SORRY!

**cavylover103** · #2 02-15-07, 08:45 am

I think dairy products can harm them , but correct me if im wrong.

**FoolOnTheHill** · #3 02-15-07, 08:48 am

Most guinea pigs are actually pretty smart, but a small pet store cage isn't exactly stimulating so they laze around. Pigs really perk up in a C&C as you've discovered! Some ideas to make life more interesting for your pig ~

A buddy for her (another female or a neutered male). This will keep her active.
The biggest cage you can manage. Add a second or even third level so she has lots of places to explore.
Plenty of floor time each day. Set up a big pen or give her a whole room to explore. If you give her a room don't forget to keep electrical wires and anything else she might chew (ie books) out of reach, and block up small holes she could get stuck in.
Toys - tubes, a couple of bricks to climb over, a big pile of hay to tunnel through, boxes and hidey houses, toilet-paper tubes and paper bags stuffed with hay, plastic stools to hide under or sit on.
You can make it more interesting by scattering her veggies around the cage and moving the toys around regularly.
Take her out for lap time and cuddles often. There are a few games you can play with pigs. I taught one of mine to "beg" by sitting up on his back legs for veggies. All I did was hold the veggies above his head and he soon learnt. Now if I have veg and he can smell it he sits up for some (it's very cute!)
I read this challenge in a book, you might want to try it. 1. Get four different coloured bowls and put veg in one of them (say red). 2. Let your pig out and allow her to find and eat the food. 3. Take her away, refill the red bowl, switch around the order of the four bowls and let her out again. 4. Let her find it and repeat over. Soon she will realise the food is in the red bowl and go straight to it.

As a note, you shouldn't allow her to eat cheese as any type of dairy is not good for guinea pigs. Why don't you try those live-release mouse traps where the mouse goes in and the trap tips so it can't get out again? You just pick it up and release mousy away from your house. To stop your pig escaping you could make your cage two grids high instead of one.
Anyway, hope this helps

**Tonka** · #4 02-15-07, 09:01 am

That is all excellent advice. I think she is just a little horny. I have read that manually stimulating your guinea can help them relax and not get into so much trouble. I'm a little iffy on it, myself. But I'll do what I can to make my precious Centra more comfortable!

**VoodooJoint** · #5 02-15-07, 09:05 am

Is this all some sort of joke?

**Tonka** · #6 02-15-07, 09:07 am

No. I could have sworn I read that. Maybe it was one of my friends pulling my chain. So, that's not normal then, I assume. I feel like an idiot. Pretend I never said anything.

**VoodooJoint** · #7 02-15-07, 09:31 am

Masturbating your ginea pig most certainly won't help, it's abusive and illegal in most states.

I find it hard to believe that your GP has been eating the cheese off of the mouse traps. Even if she was it would be nearly impossible as she would get caught in the traps and most likely suffer serious injury.

If you are playing a game please do it elsewhere and stop treating this foum like a playground.

**Tonka** · #8 02-15-07, 09:44 am

You should work on your tact. You're being really rude right now and I find that it is unwarranted.

**VoodooJoint** · #9 02-15-07, 09:45 am

Your posts are disturbing to say the least. Think before you post and I won't have to respond as I did.

**Tonka** · #10 02-15-07, 09:46 am

I did not realize it was so disturbing. I'm glad I verified that this advice is false prior to applying this "unconventional" method. I think the fact that I check first shows SOME level of responsibility.

**Hansel** · #11 02-15-07, 09:49 am

Tonka have you ever heard of a troll?

It is important for the mods here to be on the ball about things like that. Your posts do sound a little off - but if it is just that you are miss informed then you are at the right place to learn!

**Tonka** · #12 02-15-07, 09:57 am

I'm familiar with trolls from movies. I'm not sure what you're getting at.

OH, also, Centra did eat the cheese. I'm aware that's a problem. We're switching our rodent capturing methods to a more humane method that will alleviate the cheese problem. However, she has eaten the cheese. Is there is something she should take since it's not good for her? Or will it just pass through her system?

**VoodooJoint** · #13 02-15-07, 10:02 am

A forum troll is someone who shows up on a forum and posts controversial or disturbing stuff to try to get a rise out of people. We sometimes have a problem with trolls and have zero tolerance for them. Trolling will get a person banned around here.

Just watch your GP to make sure she's eating, peeing and pooping fine. Most likely no damage was done.

**Tonka** · #14 02-15-07, 10:15 am

How on earth would a random person come across a forum about guinea pigs, of all things, and decide that they could spend their day posting controversial stuff (like bad pictures or making fun of us animal lovers)? It seems like such a random forum for a troll person to find amusement.

**Tulia&Susie** · #15 02-15-07, 10:34 am

People have their ways. They could just randomly want to type in something like animals or guineapigs just for something to type then this website may show. They click it join and just troll around.

**VoodooJoint** · #16 02-15-07, 10:53 am

Here is the banned member thread. There are likely to be some troll names there http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...iscussion.html read through and do searches for some names listed there, sorry but the best/worst stuff was probably removed from the boards.

We get trolls all the time. Some come on stricktly to upset us, others eventually become trolls because of a fight/debate they got into, some, well, it's hard to tell if they are a troll or just genuinely ignorant.

**Tonka** · #17 02-15-07, 11:12 am

Wow. So troll is actually like an official term. Oh my gosh. The internet is hilarious. I saw a story on Dateline about how the internet is quickly becoming the main form of communication and how fads and e-terms are on the rise. They had an oh really? owl or something that is some sort of internet icon. I had a good laugh.

**muffin** · #18 02-15-07, 05:40 pm

The live capture traps I have seen are very good. We got two mice with them. Peanut butter is a good lure, so good that when a trap had fallen shut and was left lying empty, somwthing tried to chew is way in! Anyway, chack them as often as possible, as the mouse will be very scared and get thirsty. If you haven't already I would remove the snap traps, as your piggy could be very seriously injured and even die if for example she escaped during floortime or from her cage, sounds likely since she is so smart! As far as keeping her in her cage, if it is a C&C you could make a lid and fit it securely, there's lots of ideas in the photo gal

Thank you FoolOnTheHill, for this useful post, say these 2 members:
landhermie (02-16-07), MilwCavyMom (02-15-07)

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