by Jules Roberts

Created on: April 22, 2008   Last Updated: November 15, 2010

Guinea pigs are highly sociable creatures that live in colonies and communicate verbally among each other in their own vast vocabulary of squeaks and squeals. Although they may voice their opinions quite loudly, they are very gentle creatures and aggression from these peaceful animals is rare. Happy and healthy guinea pigs will be tame guinea pigs, so here is some information of how keep happy, healthy, friendly guinea pigs.

1. Let them have time to adjust to you.

If your guinea pig is new to your home then it is probably absolutely terrified. Guinea pigs are very sensitive. Helping guinea pigs to settle in with the minimum amount of stress is the first step towards developing your guinea pigs confidence in you. Guinea pigs feel scared and exposed in new situations. Remember that they are prey animals, and that they have a natural instinct to run and hide when scared. Guinea pigs can see us approaching them from above as well as from their sides, as their eyes are positioned to spot predators. This is why they want to run to a nice safe place if they are suddenly scared. Work with them on this by making sure they have an area they can run and hide out of view in their cage, perhaps including something like a cardboard shoebox they can run into.

Now, although it is exciting to get a cute new guinea pig, you will cause stress to the creature if you over handle it in the first few days. The best way to settle them in is to prepare their cage in advance with their food bowl and water bottle full, a hidey-hole they can run to, and a generous amount of hay. As soon as they arrive home you put them in their cage. Then leave them alone. Do not keep pulling them out of their cage as they may find this traumatic. Give them time to get used to the new smells and sounds around them. Sit near their cage for about five minutes at regular intervals and talk to them so they can get used to your voice.

After about two days you can get them out. They may run up and down frantically to escape you at first (particularly if they haven't been used to regular handling before). Catch them as quickly and safely as you can, placing one of your hands firmly (and gently) around their shoulders, and your other hand underneath their bottom. Keep a good hold of them, as they can wriggle or try to jump from your hands. Sit down with the guinea pig on your lap and offer them a little treat (I would give them a piece of cucumber to start with, as I've never met a guinea pig who doesn't love

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