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Ive had my guinea pig for a week but she is incredibly frightened of me. She runs away from me and makes it really hard to pick her up. She has been out of her cage a couple of times for cuddles (when I can catch her) but yesterday when i had her out she ran under the couch and hid there for over an hour. In the end I had to lift the couch up and catch her. I put her straight back in her cage because I thought it was the best thing to do as it would have been very frightening for her. However I fear its caused her to be even more frightened of me now. What should I do to make her feel safe and trust me?
Well this is very late but better late than never.
You probably know this by now but you were the problem here. You kept chasing the pig and getting in its face before it had time to become accustomed to you, then you scared the begeebers out of it with the sofa escapade in your desire to make it cuddle with you when it didn’t want to.
I know how exciting it is to get a new pet and how disappointing it is when the pet doesn’t want to cuddle with you right away, but you really do have to show some respect for the animal’s space and restrain yourself.
Your animal didn’t take to you as quickly as it could have because you were too intent on forcing it because you wanted to cuddle NOW NOW NOW and the pig wasn’t comfortable so in the beginning it disliked you because it saw you as that annoying person who kept handling it.
It is always better to just let the animal be and have it come to you on its own terms.
Give animals their space and eventually they will become accustomed to you and trust you and then they will come to you.Don’t worry – some pigs are just like that. I have 3 guinea pigs: One runs away, one runs to me and the other one isn’t bothered. I’ve had them for all for years, it’s just their personality. What helped me bond with them though was feeding them by hand. That means they trusted me and would come to me to see if I had any food. It just breaks the barrier. Remember guinea pigs are stubborn things 😉 Good luck 🙂
An excellent point, Iloveanimals.
As with all species, pigs have differing personalities.
This pig could easily be a ‘non-cuddler’ who was unfortunately acquired by someone desperate for something to cuddle.
These mis-matches do sometimes occur between pets and their owners, typically in this scenario; a non-cuddly pet is paired with an owner who can’t keep their hands off the animal.
This is unfortunate but as with humans, we must accept our pets for who they are or, if we cannot make it work, re-home them to a place where they are a fit.
It is a testimony to the tried-and-true method of spending time with the pet before making the commitment to it, to be sure you are well suited to each other.Thank you everyone for your help and advice. It turned out the incident didn’t cause any damage and my pig is very happy and healthy. I realised soon after this happened that I should back off a bit and I let her come to me in her own time.
I have realised too, that she is not a cuddly guinea pig and as a result of this, I ensure that I only pick her up and cuddle her when it suits her. When this happens, I wrap her in a towel to make her feel safe and sit on the couch with her in my lap – most of the time I give her a carrot to nibble on as well. She seems to love this and is very calm and affectionate during these times.
I have now bought another guinea pig which helps keep her company, as I cannot spend much time with her as she doesn’t particularly like it. Everything is working out really well.
Thanks again to everyone 🙂Great news. Glad this all worked out and everyone is happy.
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