Behavior Sudden chewing and bad behavior when I'm not home

[Mortiaryfaerie]

Ever since i started bsck to school in august my guinea pigs are being ultra destructive. They completely destroyed their hay dispenser, crinkle tunnel, and pigloo , chewed up the choroplast and fleece of their cage. Anything that's within their reach they destroy. Theyre also getting nippy towards me and nasty towards each other. I even caught one of them stamding on top of the pigloo pulling the wire from my fiance's Xbox controller into their cage. None of thrm were really chewers before this, they just srarted doing this. Are they just acting this way because I'm not home to stop them anymore, or is it a spiteful thing because they're not getting as much treats and attention? And how can I get them to cut it out?

 

[bpatters]

Chewing is often a sign of pain. Given that their behavior has gone downhill all of a sudden, I'd treat them for mites. See https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/111160-How-to-treat-for-mites-and-lice for how to do it.

 

[Mortiaryfaerie]

I took them to the vet last month (about two weeks after this started) because I thought it was mites too, but she said thry were all in perfect health. She gave me ivermectin anyway just incase but it hasn't changed. Also wgen they chew on items its ONLY done when noones home. Even if I wall in onnthem misbehaving they'll immediately stop it then

 

[Mortiaryfaerie]

Also, I used to be home quite literally all the time. I'd be outbfor MAYBE a total of 2 hrs every other day so I was always around to stop them when they start acting up. Which is what made me think they're just being bad just because they can

 

[miniver]

From your profile it looks like you have 6 guinea pigs in a 2x4 c&c. Four of them are 1 year old or less. If that's still true I think you're issue is puberty for some of them and a cage that is way to small for all of them.

 

[bpatters]

Ditto on the cage being too small. The minimum recommended size for six pigs is a 2x8. You're lucky you don't have injured guinea pigs.

 

[Mortiaryfaerie]

I haven't updated my profile in an obscenely long time, its 2x5 with a 3x2 top level. We had to make it smaller (it ws 4x5) because our landlord is horrible and basically said split the cage in half or get evicted

 

[miniver]

Glad to hear you did the upgrade. Sorry to hear about the problem with the landlord.
If you have ruled out a medical condition, then my best guess is still puberty and/or cage layout.
One of my sows attacks the water bottle until it's drained dry when she is in a smaller cage. They also chew the cage wall in their travel cage.

 

[Mortiaryfaerie]

We're hopefully (knock on wood) moving into our own house in April, so well extend their cage back out then. I'm guessing they've been wanting to act this way since we had to change their cage (mid August) but just never got to do it since I'd stop them when im at home

 

[Mortiaryfaerie]

Updating with good news about the cage! I found a loophole in our leasing contract (because I'm nothing if not stubborn and determined) that allows us to make the cage one grid (so about a foot and a half ish) wider so long as we take one off the length. So instead of 5x2 it'll be 4x3 with a 2x3 loft. Still not as big as I'd like it to be, but an improvement atleast.

 

[miniver]

Double bonus. Your piggies get a bigger cage and you now have an excuse to redecorate and rearrange. You can never have too many reasons to redecorate!