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Behavior Drawn Out and VERY Loud Wheeking

FionaOphelia

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I have two girls, Fiona and Ophelia. They are about a year and a half old and have lived together since they were babies.
Ophelia has been making a sound that I can only describe as very very loud and slow, drawn out wheeking. She's typically a very chatty pig, but this is louder than anything I've ever heard. It doesn't necessarily sound bad, but it's certainly alarming.
It doesn't seem to be food related. It typically happens when she's in her pigloo with her sister. It happens whether we are in the room or not, but lately it's been happening in the middle of the night (so loud it wakes us up from two rooms over).
When this happens, my first instinct is to go over to her cage and pick her up. She seems to want to be picked up and doesn't squirm at all. In fact, she's very still. I just give her some pets and put her back and then she seems fine.
My fiancé thinks she's doing it when she wants attention, but I don't know. I noticed the last time that this happened, the two girls were a little rumbly when I put her back, so maybe it has something to do with her being in heat?
I've owned several piggies in the past, but these are my first girls, so I don't know if it's different for them. Has anyone ever experienced this?


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bpatters

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Throw the pigloo out, or cut another hole in it. There should never be a hidey in a guinea pig cage with only one hole.

Obviously, she's in some distress from her sister. Possibly she wants to get out of the igloo and her sister is in the way. And heat could be a contributing factor, but the problem is that she's trapped.
 

FionaOphelia

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Throw the pigloo out, or cut another hole in it. There should never be a hidey in a guinea pig cage with only one hole.

Obviously, she's in some distress from her sister. Possibly she wants to get out of the igloo and her sister is in the way. And heat could be a contributing factor, but the problem is that she's trapped.

Okay, I never knew that about guinea pig hideys. I'll have to try that. Thanks

Do you know of a place that makes them with two openings? Most of the ones I see just have one.


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bpatters

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Pigloos are really a terrible choice for pigs. They sit in their own wastes, and breathe stale air. There are some made with two doors, but if I had my way, it would be illegal to sell the ones with only one door.

You can cut a hole in one with a jigsaw.
 

spy9doc

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Most of you know that I rarely ever buy cage items, preferring to make my own. However, my boys' incessant desire to chew caused me to rethink things.

I was in PetSmart and saw this hidey made of balsa that you put easily together. My husband cut an identical door in the back to match the front and put it together with wood glue......easy peasy. The boys love their new house and can remodel it (read....chew) to their hearts' content.
 

advil zyrtec

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Do you know of a place that makes them with two openings?
I wouldn't waste money on hideys. When I got my piggies I didn't spend a single dollar on piggy hideys. I used my amazon cardboard box and cut hole on both ends. It's super big and my piggies love sleeping under it. I also used a little stepping stool that is clipped to my guineadad fleece pocket. Not only is it my piggies' favorite hidey, it has entrances and exits on all 4 sides of the hidey. You could buy some hideys, but I would feel good about myself saving some money.
Here are pictures of the hideys I use from home:
IMG_3271.jpgIMG_3270.jpgDon't mind my piggies they're eating radicchio so I don't scare them lol
 
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spy9doc

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I wouldn't waste money on hideys. When I got my piggies I didn't spend a single dollar on piggy hideys. I used my amazon cardboard box and cut hole on both ends. It's super big and my piggies love sleeping under it. I also used a little stepping stool that is clipped to my guineadad fleece pocket.

You're late to the party......most of us have tried these ideas. Perhaps they work for you, but in the long run neither fared well in my cage.

My boys are big-time chewers and will demolish almost anything they can. I used to spend lots of time fashioning hideys out of various cardboard boxes. Within five minutes of placing one in the cage, they will begin to remodel it until it won't function any more. I also used a plastic step stool that I thought was safe. The boys managed to chew it to the point that it simply wasn't usable.

One would think that they might chew but not actually "eat" the plastic........not so. I became concerned about the amount of cardboard and plastic that they seemed to ingest and thought it best to buy something that might be less harmful to them.
 

advil zyrtec

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My boys rarely every chew their hideys. I can't find a single tooth mark on my plastic stepping stool, and my cardboard box has been chewed probably less than 3 times and they stopped chewing after a second, so maybe not all pigs are the same.
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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All of my boys LOVED cardboard. That said, they have boxes in their pen which they'll nibble, but they've been in there for quite some time and still very functional. The young fellas will demolish toilet paper tubes, but that's all. Pooper and Punkin are plastic "tasters". They'd never met, but both will "taste" the entrance to their houses just before entering. It's the damndest thing.

None of them actually chew plastic to any extent, so I would have to say that its just up to the individual piggy.
 

spy9doc

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Point taken. After all, I'm the one who always says, "cavies are as individual as we are".
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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Point taken. After all, I'm the one who always says, "cavies are as individual as we are".

They certainly are, and they're a lot more fun that way. Sly used to chew cardboard tubes as well as Pooper, but as he's gotten older and with his teeth issues, he's stopped doing it. He just rolls them around with his nose and follows them around.
 
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