Hello World!

aww I know what you mean - I don't think I'm ever going to be guinea pig-less.

Chocolate - I love the name!

Hello! Yes, guinea pigs are amazing little creatures, that you probably wouldn't even know about unless you lived with one. They have tons of personality.

The first major tip would be to get Chocolate a buddy if possible. Guinea pigs are herd animals, and do much better with at least one buddy. You will be amazed by the difference, you will see much more popcorning and activity. Something you and your little gal wouldn't want to miss out on. Here is a wonderful link to read over.
Guinea Pigs Social Life

Also, having the right food is very important. Make sure it's non of the gunk with the seads and other added useless treats. Here is a link to Ly's food chart.
https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...cavys-diet-read-me-nutrition-charts-info.html

You will find it under the diet and nutrition section of the forum under one of the stickies also.

Make sure you read all the stickes, and learn and read thoroughly as well. If you read over first, most of your questions will probably be answered. You can also search for things if you are wondering anything, otherwise if there is something specific we will be more than glad to help!

Thanks!!! I really appreciate all the help, I just have two questions:
Is it ok if I leave the room just so she has some alone time?

Do they like to sleep in the dark?? I leave a night light by her cage on everynight?

She should be okay with some alone time, I mean most of us on here leave and go to work for 8 hours while the piggies are alone and they are fine. Lucky for me, I work at home so I can spend all my time with my boys.

There is nothing wrong with leaving her alone. It would be different though, if you left her in a room all alone isolated for a huge part of the day, only coming to see her to give her food and whatnot. But I don't think that's the case you are talking about anyways.

Guinea pigs are naturally prey animals, so it is in their instinct to sleep randomly, for only about 10 minutes at a time. They actually sleep with their eyes open too, but there are some pigs who do sleep with their eyes close. They say they sleep with them closed when they feel safe and trusting enough of their surroundings. But I don't think it would be necessary for the night light. They can get arround in the dark pretty well.

ok thanks for the info. It helped alot.
oh yea one last question how can I get my guinea pig to trust me a little but more??? Would you say just time, patience and affection?

Anytime!

And yes, it will take lots of patience, but things you can do are to try and hand feed them their veggies, talk to them in a quieter, higher pitched voice and they will eventualy get used to you. Also, let them come to you, instead of chasing them around the cage to trying and pet them. Always make slower movements too.

My pig Chauncey used to be terribely shy, would never let you get near him, always hiding, but after doing all of what I just told you one day he randomly became more outgoing. It was amazing, but it does take time.

Wow that makes perfect sense I've been doing that moving slowly part and talking in a low but kinda high voice. and I have been feeding her form the hand but she kinda started biting my hand thinking there was a carrot there, so i kinda stopped but i'm giving it to her with my hand but i'm holding it differently this time, and it looks like it's taking effect.

Oh ok, so just gotta' work on the being patient part. How long did it take for her to get use to you? weeks? months?

Good job! Just keep it up!

It took Chauncey several months actually, but every pig is different. One day he just started not running away and would actually COME when I stuck my finger by my cage.

Some pigs take way less time, like my other pig Brobee who was terribely shy and usually didnt make even a squeak but now there is this side to him I've never seen and he is a very squeaky pig lol. I've had him for not even a month and he's already starting to come around.

Oh ok I understand. Everytime I put timothy hay in her cage she goes around the other way and comes up where my finger is and she starts smelling my hand, but I think she doesn't know it's me because for the first couple of times she suddenly just looks up and runs away.

Oh really? Well I think to that extent it's pretty normal. It's great she is coming to your hand though! My piggies would of had a heart attack before they would do that. Grimace, the outgoing pig, he's pretty extremely outgoing, but when I set hay in the cage he rounds around nuts, probably cause he's excited about getting more hay. Since they are pray animals, they will have their times where they run away.

OK so I guess i'm going towards the right direction. Oh and yea I read about that in a book about guinea pigs; they were prey animals in the wild. thanks for the info. Oh and is that your guinea pig on your avatar?

You're welcome!

Yep, that would be Grimace.

awesome!! He's too cool!