Mastershroom
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2012
- Posts
- 843
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2012
- Messages
- 843
Hey everyone...I'm looking for a little advice on acclimating my guinea pig to human contact. Long story short, this pig is between 4 and 5 years old and, until a month or so ago, belonged to a friend's family. They just moved out of state, and left the pig to my girlfriend and I. They provided the cage, which is around 35x50 inches, water bottle, plastic igloo, and a bunch of timothy hay and pellets, millet apples and other stuff.
Anyway, she seems terrified of human contact, and nothing we do seems to affect this. At her old home, she lived in a spare bedroom and was generally checked on and fed a few times per day. She's more exposed to interaction in our apartment, as she is in our living room, and usually at least one of us is home. She eats pellets right out of my hand, but the instant I try to pet her, she bolts around the perimeter of her cage in laps or hides in her igloo. Sometimes she will give up after a couple laps around the cage and let me pet her, but I can feel her entire body vibrating or trembling, and she has never been okay with being picked up. Even the process of taking her out for a few minutes to get her cage upstairs to our apartment was a two-person job; she struggled with all of her might and scratched at our arms.
I would like to eventually be able to take her out of her cage and allow her some exercise on the floor, as her cage is relatively small, but she just freaks out way too easily. Hell, the only way I can usually feed her and get her to come out of her igloo is to remove the igloo from her cage entirely.
So, I guess my question is, are there any particular techniques to getting my pig to stop being so afraid of...well, just about everything and everyone?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Brendon
Anyway, she seems terrified of human contact, and nothing we do seems to affect this. At her old home, she lived in a spare bedroom and was generally checked on and fed a few times per day. She's more exposed to interaction in our apartment, as she is in our living room, and usually at least one of us is home. She eats pellets right out of my hand, but the instant I try to pet her, she bolts around the perimeter of her cage in laps or hides in her igloo. Sometimes she will give up after a couple laps around the cage and let me pet her, but I can feel her entire body vibrating or trembling, and she has never been okay with being picked up. Even the process of taking her out for a few minutes to get her cage upstairs to our apartment was a two-person job; she struggled with all of her might and scratched at our arms.
I would like to eventually be able to take her out of her cage and allow her some exercise on the floor, as her cage is relatively small, but she just freaks out way too easily. Hell, the only way I can usually feed her and get her to come out of her igloo is to remove the igloo from her cage entirely.
So, I guess my question is, are there any particular techniques to getting my pig to stop being so afraid of...well, just about everything and everyone?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Brendon