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Behavior Strange Staring Guinea Pig

pippypoppy2

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I feel a little silly posting this, but here it goes. My guinea pig, Penny, stares at me. This is not the regular checking me out for a moment then going about her day kind of stare. She will sit at the entrance to her wicker house, in her kitchen, or just in the middle of the cage, and stare me down for a full five minutes. She does it enough that I, as a nurse, have started wondering if she's having some type of absence seizure haha. I love her to death, she's a sweetheart, but when she does this it's a little unnerving. Does anyone know what this is or what it means? Anyone else have a staring guinea pig?
 

pigger123

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Guinea pigs usually sleep with their eyes open so it looks like they're staring, could she just be sleeping?
 

Princess_Piggie

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I know exactly what you're talking about. My old boar Honey used to full on stare my mum out (this is like 10 years ago) to the point she felt pretty uncomfortable. It never seemed to be for a particular reason.

I'm not sure how much truth is in the sleeping with eyes open thing, since mine both close their eyes and so did my boars. I could just have the exception to the rule pigs though.
 

pippypoppy2

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Guinea pigs usually sleep with their eyes open so it looks like they're staring, could she just be sleeping?

No, she's definitely not sleeping. I have no idea what's she's doing haha.
 

spudsthepiget

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My mom's pig Chicken is like that. We call him creeping Chicken :p He'll usually sit in the kitchen and watch me or my mom just do mundane things. It's like he knows when someone is trying to take a picture of the cage, because he makes sure to photobomb it with his creeping, too. Come to think of it, one of the first pictures I have of him is him looking at me over the hay box. I don't think it means there's anything wrong with him or Penny; I just take it as they're very curious.
 

pippypoppy2

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I know exactly what you're talking about. My old boar Honey used to full on stare my mum out (this is like 10 years ago) to the point she felt pretty uncomfortable. It never seemed to be for a particular reason.

I'm not sure how much truth is in the sleeping with eyes open thing, since mine both close their eyes and so did my boars. I could just have the exception to the rule pigs though.

Thank you! I don't feel quite so crazy now. Mine sometimes sleep with their eyes half-open, but they always sleep lying down or stretched out. When Penny does this, she's seems very alert, and is often sitting with her front feet up on the step to her little house, looking out.
 

pinky

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She's a prey animal so she's probably just keeping a close eye on you as a protective measure.
 

pippypoppy2

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My mom's pig Chicken is like that. We call him creeping Chicken :p He'll usually sit in the kitchen and watch me or my mom just do mundane things. It's like he knows when someone is trying to take a picture of the cage, because he makes sure to photobomb it with his creeping, too. Come to think of it, one of the first pictures I have of him is him looking at me over the hay box. I don't think it means there's anything wrong with him or Penny; I just take it as they're very curious.

Creeping Chicken hahaha, I love that! That's exactly how I feel about Penny sometimes.
 

Mastershroom

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Little Kwee gets the thousand-yard stare sometimes too. We tell ourselves she's having Vietnam flashbacks :)
 

Princess_Piggie

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Whether or not pigs sleep with their eyes open depends a bit on how comfortable in their environment they are, I think. Towards the beginning of when I owned my boys, their eyes were always open when they slept, and now I see them closed sometimes, but usually they're still half open. Alex is especially creepy because I can see his eyes twitching and he twitches around while sleeping.

When I get too close to the cage, Fuery will stare at me. He's a bit more skittish, so he might be watching me and deciding whether I'm going to come pick him up, which would be his cue to run. I'm not sure what's going through his mind. :p

That definitely makes sense. Mine are pretty comfortable based on the fact that they'll go fast asleep, sprawled out, right out in the centre of the cage in the open. I mean they do sleep in their hidey sometimes, but more often it's in the open.

Haha, Alex sounds like he thinks he's part dog! lol
 

Artista

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She's a prey animal so she's probably just keeping a close eye on you as a protective measure.

This and if I make a move and she is awake, she'll stare at me in anticipation of getting her goodies. She knows the timing of veggies so the stare downs are more frequent at those times.
 

pinky

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Guinea pigs usually sleep with their eyes open so it looks like they're staring, could she just be sleeping?

My guinea pigs don't sleep with their eyes open.
 

pigger123

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I guess some shut their eyes. My Pumpkin almost always keeps her eyes at least partially open to sleep, but I noticed the babies shut their eyes. It probably has to do with the individual pig, and how comfortable they feel in their environment.
 

EllaBellaMuffin

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I feel a little silly posting this, but here it goes. My guinea pig, Penny, stares at me. This is not the regular checking me out for a moment then going about her day kind of stare. She will sit at the entrance to her wicker house, in her kitchen, or just in the middle of the cage, and stare me down for a full five minutes. She does it enough that I, as a nurse, have started wondering if she's having some type of absence seizure haha. I love her to death, she's a sweetheart, but when she does this it's a little unnerving. Does anyone know what this is or what it means? Anyone else have a staring guinea pig?

I know exactly what are you talking about. My piggie Ella is always laying there and just watching me. Watching and judging us LOL
 

chrissypfeil

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It's definitely normal, as most Guinea pigs do a good amount of staring.
 

prettynyguen

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maybe she's waiting to see if you'll bring her treats.

i found this info at guinea lynx:

"Guinea pigs normally keep their eyes open all the time, even when sleeping. A very few may sleep with their eyes fully closed. While guinea pig vision is relatively poor, a guinea pig can distinguish colors. "

their eyes are also on opposite sides of their head, so they have poor depth perception. they mostly rely on sound and smell, but any movement around them would be visually obvious.

you might just be entertaining for her to watch, too.
:)
 

Rywen

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Ferb does the staring thing sometimes when he's eating pellets or hay, it's like he's chomping along and then goes into a lengthy day dream. When he does it eating pellets his front feet are up on the side of the food bowl. At first I thought he was falling asleep while eating but I can't really tell. He sometimes sleeps with his eyes open and sometimes he closes them.
 
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