Guinea pigs very rarely bite. When they are frightened, they prefer to run and hide, instead of fighting, so children and adults can safely handle them without fear. Still it is all the time a good idea when handling any small pet to wash your hands thoroughly before you pick them up, especially if you have been dealing with food. If your fingers smell like food, then the guinea pigs may mistakenly be biting you.
Baby guinea pigs do have a tendency to nibble on fingers because, just like any young animal, they learn about their environment by exploring it with their mouths. Eventually, they will outgrow this.
On opening you may find a guinea pig that does bite. This is relatively rare, but it does happen sometimes. When it does, you don't need to give up on the guinea pig, he can be helped.
Usually, there are two reasons why an animal bites:
1. They are afraid of you
or
2. They feel they are more dominate than you.
Before you help your guinea pig with its problem, you need to settle which of these is the case for your pet.
A guinea pig who bites out of fear is regularly very timid and may try to avoid you, even in the cage. He may curl up into the corners so that you can't find him. When you touch him, the guinea pig may start shivering or shaking because he is afraid. In these cases, the guinea pig is so scared that he feels he has to fight back in order to defend himself. To stop this behavior, you must start slowly.
Don't pick up the animal, but instead start by reaching into the cage and stroking its head briefly. Then, gently increase your contact with the guinea pig until it feels comfortable with you handling him. It may take awhile and it may require a great deal of patience, but the payoff will be a closer association in the middle of the two of you and a happier guinea pig.
There are also two ways you don't want to handle whether of these situations. First, never make sounds like an injured guinea pig if he bites you. Some citizen foolishly believe that the guinea pig will feel so bad for causing you pain that he'll immediately stop, but that's not how the animal thinks. Instead, they feel more dominate since a whining guinea pig is regularly the weaker one, and your problems will only get worse. Other thing not to do is to yell or hit your guinea pig.
Because biting is a rare possibility, it is regularly good for an adult to handle the animal for the first few days to make sure that this type of behavior isn't going to be a problem.
Guinea Pig Bites - Is Biting A Problem?
As baby guinea pigs are very tiny it a good idea to take extra precautions to help ensure their security in their cage. consider their tiny heads could come to be stuck in the middle of the bars and possibility of strangulation. A way of preventing this is to line the cage walls with coroplast or cardboard from the floor level up to approximately one foot. If you are using a cage made from a grid, you could duplicate the walls and in in the middle of place coroplast or cardboard to create a "wall". When the babies are four to six months old, you can take off the layer as they will have grown sufficient to not get stuck.
When the babies are born and the mother has had a opening to clean them and time to bond, it is fairly safe to touch the babies. Your scent on the babies shouldn't cause the mother to abandon her pups. This would be a good time to start monitoring their weight. By tracking and monitoring their weight gives you an comprehension to their health. If the baby isn't growing at the same rate as the others you will see this in the weight and can intervene to support and provide health care.
Sometimes a pups growth is slower as they are not receiving sufficient of their mothers milk. You can intervene and place the pup alone with it's mother for feeding. If their weight continues to fluctuate, for whether the babies or the mother, it's best to sense your Veterinarian right away.
Provide a alfalfa rich (with sufficient levels of Vitamin C) in a pellet form as they are useful to the babies growing requirements and very helpful for a pregnant guinea pig. As guinea pigs are plant based eaters avoid food sources that consist of animal products, sugars, seeds/nuts and fats. Also provide a fresh clean water source and timothy hay.
Baby Guinea Pigs CareElectronic Poster: Series -- Animal Expert Tube. Duration : 2.27 Mins.
