We brought 2 guinea pigs 4 days ago and as we have never owned them before I would appreciate some advice on what certain behaviour might mean. They are both males (we were told by the pet shop that males tend to be calmer than females, which we were keen on as we have a 2 year old) and they are still quite skittish. I have spent a lot of time chatting to them, sitting in front of the hutch and walking past to try and get them used to my voice and general ‘sounds’.

After a couple of days I did try to pick them up but they both ran off and I just couldn’t get hold of them so I left them as I didn’t want to stress them out. I have since tried every day with no more success. I am not sure if I should persevere with this now (as obviously I want them used to being handled) or if it’s best to leave it for a bit.

I have also noticed that they squeak quite a lot, particularly when I open the cage. I have googled and it seems this can mean anything, but I wondered if anyone thought it could be that I am scaring them somehow or if they are actually quite pleased to see me! They always shoot off around the corner out of sight but very quickly come back out again. I have also tried hand feeding them to get them used to me but this doesn’t seem to be working either so far.

Can anyone offer any advice as to whether all this is completely normal and whether they are likely to be happy or not? I am not desperate to handle them but equally I want them to be used to it quite early on (especially with a child who obviously wants to stroke them!) Although I have let my daughter near the cage etc I have made sure that she doesn’t stick her hand in or anything as we will supervise her when she does touch or stroke them.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Firstly - the two year old should not be handling them (now or in the future), they can suffer easily from breaks. You may also find 2 males will fight as they get older, only time will tell.

Guineas are naturally nervous, you've only had them a few days, you should be allowing them to settle before attempting to handle them. But generally they will always be skittish, there are always exceptions but as a rule they are not pets that are there to be cuddled.

Hi! All
Well in answer to your question Longime Lurker and I had two guinea pigs who were both males and it is there natural instinct to run and hide as having red about guinea pigs myself I have seen that in the wild they are prey animals, everytime I got mine out of the hutch they ran around and I spent a bit of time trying to catch them.

The thing is that obviously you have to take them out when you clean them out so you have to catch them, I find it is a case of persevering and talking to them and just putting your hand in thus laying it flat in the cage and one of them might even put there paw on it. Alright so as soon as you try to pick them up again they will still run off but the trick is to be determined to pick them up while at the same time being gentle.

I find it a good idea to slowly follow them around with your hand and as soon as you have the opportunity to put one hand underneath and another over the top and pick them up, you have to do two things at once. What I mean by that is you have to pick them up in a way they can not get away but be gentle at the same time.

As for the squeaking and they do it when they hear a bag rustling or they hear food being prepared in the kitchen or in the case of cleaning them out and trying to catch them they will do it to support one another, having had two what I did at a later date was to get a box from my local put shop/supplier. The pet transporter type but I did not use it for that but instead had the lids folded down and the bottom taped up and I used to put them both in it and use it as a way to carry them into the conservatory when I lifted them out and sat them both on my lap.

Believe me they are the nicest of pets to have and it is so good when you can stroke them on your lap or carry them round individualy and show them around the bedroom/house, another thing I found is that I was unable to feed them food from my hand in the hutch but when I put the food in the dish at night if I put one hand on just the very edge of the dish and they should be confident enough to come up and eat from it with your hand/fingers on the very edge of the dish.

Good luck and I hope you get on alright and have many happy times with them.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I didn't mean that I intend to let my daughter handle/cuddle them, just that if we are holding them I want her to be able to lightly stroke them and get used to them, especially as she gets older she will be able to do more with them. The guinea pigs do bicker sometimes but I am not too concerned by this at this stage as it seems to be more when they bump into each other and it is not what I would consider fighting and this does seem to be calming down, probably as they are getting more settled in their new surroundings.

I use something like that this for getting mine out. Their instinct is to hide in something so if they hide in this, you can just lift it out in the sack.

http://www.cosycavies.co.uk/products/snuggle-sacs/

Mine squeaks as soon as I come down the stairs in the morning and as soon as I get through the door at night as it's food time! When I say food time, I mean veggie time, there's always an unlimited supply of hay on offer.

Good luck with them, they are funny little characters. Mine will take food from my hand, just give them some time.

Thanks for the useful reply, it's very informative. I have tried holding a piece of longer food (like pepper sticks etc) and resting my hand on the floor of the hutch in the hope it will get them more used to human contact (without me actually having to try and touch them) as I thought even if they stand on my hand for a second it might just enforce that human contact a bit.

Hopefully they just need a bit more time to settle and will be fine.

The more I hear this the more I think that the squeaking (in our case at least) is definitely not a bad thing, I was worried at first that they were frightened or something but just seem to do it when I appear by the hutch or say hello to them in the morning etc so I wonder if they are just being sociable. Although I always make them aware that I am there before I open the cage one time one of them was too busy eating to notice me and when he did he dived around the corner, but very quickly stuck his head out again so I don't think he was scared, particularly has he didn't make any noise.

It does sound like I just need to give them a bit more time to get used to us all, which is absolutely fine. It's just obviously the hutch will need cleaning soon and I will need to move them so I wanted to get them as comfortable with me as possible before I do this.

I like to think that they associate you going to the hutch as feeding time so they think it's feeding time as you're at the hutch and therefore start squeaking. It sounds normal behaviour to me.

Whilst I'm doing my tea, I will give mine a little something, like a tiny bit of carrot or whatever and now every night when I'm doing tea, the squeaking starts as it's now expected every night to have an extra little treat!

I'm sure others who have more experience will be along soon, but as you've said, the key is to give them time to settle in and get used to things.

I wasn't confident with mine in the early days and it did take some time to get used handling them, but I found the sack very useful.

I used to show rabbits and bred rabbits and guinea pigs for years..your 2 year old will be fine with them..sit her down on the floor with her legs out in front of her and put the guinea pig on her knees..teach her how to stroke gently..she will learn..just dont leave her with them which I am sure you wouldnt do anyway..my 3 children were brought up around small animals and were always incredibly gentle..they used to spend hours sat in a rabbit run surrounded....guinea pig is a good choice,rabbits are a little more scatty with stronger back legs..your guinea pigs behaviour does sound normal..they will get used to you with gentle handling and lots of veggy treats..try giving your daughter some cabbage to hold whilst they take it..

we have 2 that are coming up to 3 years old.
Summer they live in a hutch in the garden, winters they come into the house into a cage in the living room.

They definitely get tamer and more used to you when they are indoors and around you - but how skittish they are and how keen they are to come up to you will vary a lot depending on their character.

One of ours (Tuvok) is a lovely little thing - will come up to the bars and eat out of your hand, will sit there and let you pick him up - the other one, Neelix is and always has been a grumpy little thing and interacts very little with us despite all we've tried.

Neelix has got a tiny bit better this year I think - he'll pop his head out, grab something from my hand and disappear into the house again - but more often than not he'll just steel whatever Tuvok's got.

They are funny little things though - they've can hear when we chop veg in the kitchen and squeak their little heads off for some carrots

I had two boys before and they were very friendly and easy to pick up. Ive had my two girls for over a year now and they still hate it, so as others have said it depends on the pigs. They are noisy wee things anyway so it sounds like you're doing everything right. Good luck, you'll have great fun with them.