Behavior Guinea Pig Biting/Drawing Blood

[yayoiharuko]

Good Afternoon,
I feel that first off I should mention that I'm fairly new to the guinea pig scene.. I once had a guinea pig as a child but that was it.
I figure I should get straight to the point here.
I have two guinea pigs. I pick them up every day twice a day to put them in their play pen, and put them back in their home after a while. I give them both pieces of carrots to encourage them to trust me while I hold them and maybe get them to bite me less but.. I don't think it's working.
I should mention that Oliver bites me very gently when he is aggrivated and rarely bites too hard. Blue will draw blood. I'm very careful about how I pick them up.
I've had them both since december of 2017.
By the way, it's nice to meet you all!

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[bpatters]

The only way they have to figure out what's edible and what's not is to taste it. But never let them nibble or bite you -- that's just teaching them bad habits that you'll have to undo later, and that's not fair to them.

If Blue bites too hard, tell him"NO," sharply, take away whatever treat you're trying to feed him, and ignore him for a few minutes. He should eventually respond to the sharp tone of your voice.

Here's some reading material for new pig owners:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/107827-What-NOT-to-do-for-your-guinea-pigs!

 

[yayoiharuko]

The only way they have to figure out what's edible and what's not is to taste it. But never let them nibble or bite you -- that's just teaching them bad habits that you'll have to undo later, and that's not fair to them.

If Blue bites too hard, tell him"NO," sharply, take away whatever treat you're trying to feed him, and ignore him for a few minutes. He should eventually respond to the sharp tone of your voice.

Here's some reading material for new pig owners:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/107827-What-NOT-to-do-for-your-guinea-pigs!

Thank you for your post!
I did try what you recommended today with Blue. However, I'm not sure it worked very well in my case. I would say no and he might pause for a second but then he got progressively worse and.. well.. to be blunt, he urinated on me.. twice. And continued to try to bite me. I did make sure he did his business before I picked him up.



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[bpatters]

Umm.... You need to learn some more about guinea pigs. They WILL pee on you. But they often nibble at you to try to tell you that they want to go back to their cage. So he may have been asking to go back and you didn't know how to read his signals.

And for pete's sake, you can't teach him anything in one day. It will take days and weeks of patient work with him for him to understand what you want. If you wanted a pet that had instant understanding about what you wanted from it, you should have picked something other than a guinea pig.

 

[yayoiharuko]

Umm.... You need to learn some more about guinea pigs. They WILL pee on you. But they often nibble at you to try to tell you that they want to go back to their cage. So he may have been asking to go back and you didn't know how to read his signals.

And for pete's sake, you can't teach him anything in one day. It will take days and weeks of patient work with him for him to understand what you want. If you wanted a pet that had instant understanding about what you wanted from it, you should have picked something other than a guinea pig.

OK then..
I'll take that as my cue to leave.
I'm sorry if I joined a website to learn more about guinea pigs and ask questions so that I might be a better mother to them. I think I realize that they will pee on me. Your rude comments really were not necessary. I see now that I am not welcome here.

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