Why is my guinea pig biting me hard ?
You have a guinea pig, it is very cute, you adore it but as soon as you want to take it to caress it , he just bites you hard and you really do not know neither why, nor how to train your guinea pig so that it does not bite you any more!
For what reason can a guinea pig bite you ?
Your guinea pig may bite you by accident, or to try to get some salt on your fingers or just out of curiosity and to see if you are not edible.
Guinea pigs can also bite fingers that always carry the scent of another pet such as a cat or dog, so wash your hands before approaching your guinea pig.
But I will now give you some serious reasons why your guinea pig may bite you hard or another member of your family, here they are:
The main reason why your guinea pig bites you is that he is in a defensive position, he will bite you if you bother him, he will bite you if you bother him, you wake him up when he is sleeping, you try to force him out of his shelter, you hurt him when you take him awkwardly, you may not have socialized him yet and he doesn’t trust you yet, he is still afraid of you and he sees you as a potential predator!!
The second reason why guinea pigs use their teeth to bite is when you eat a fruit for example or you grab a vegetable that the guinea pig loves to eat and you don’t wash your hands, the guinea pig bites you simply because of the smell.
Another common reason that causes guinea pig bites hard is stress , sometimes , they could even fight each other to death ) and bad mood, hey yes, your guinea pig can also wake up in the morning and not feel happy !
A guinea pig is a very sensitive animal and has its moods too, so learn to recognize when your guinea pig is in a bad mood in order not to solicit it and give it a reason to bite you.
The last two reasons that can push your guinea pig to bite you is if you intervene at the time of an altercation between your guinea pigs is you put the hand between them to separate them, one of them will perhaps bite you.
And the last reason is that your guinea pig is sick it feels a pain and you did not pay attention to it and for it to express its sorrow it will actually bite you.
If he has an infection like scabies for example, and if you take him in your arms you will hurt him and he will bite you just to put him on the floor so that he doesn’t feel the pain anymore, so take him to see a veterinarian and ask him for advice.
Guinea pigs can also bite if they get bored:
If you notice that your guinea pig bites the bars of its cage, its rack or its shelter, know that it can also bite you .
The reason for this is usually boredom, your guinea pig is bored, he feels lonely because they are very sociable animals and they normally live in groups, bring a cage mate for your guinea pig and he will not bite you anymore, on the contrary he will reward you by licking your fingers and biting you just a little to express his love in fact.
How to train a guinea pig not to bite anymore?
It is in fact necessary to train your guinea pig not to bite humans, its bite is very painful and if you have children, this training is all the more urgent for your guinea pig, how to make so that this small rodent stops biting you as soon as he wants, do not forget that he could even transmit a disease to you by biting you, like the zoonosis.
The training technique that I am going to propose to you works very well but it is based on the reprimand and not on the reward,
The trick is that you’re going to take a bunch of keys, more than 5 so that they make noise when you vibrate them and that’s what you’re going to do every time your guinea pig bites you.
Guinea pigs hate the sound of keys, and your guinea pig will quickly bite you to that sound and it will eventually stop biting you.
This technique works to teach the guinea pig not to bite you hard anymore, the sound of the keys may be like a rattlesnake or an eagle … it actually scares the guinea pig and it stops biting you so that it doesn’t hear the sound anymore.
My guinea pig bites my children and not me, why ?
If your guinea pig bites your children, it’s because you didn’t teach them the best way to grab and take the guinea pig , and by doing that , they will gain its confidence and love and he absolutely will never bite them after that anymore.. Children are not skilled with their hands and they can easily hurt the guinea pig when they pick it up (guinea pigs are known for jumping from hands and out of beds … ) , such as twisting its leg or pulling it by its fur, which will cause the guinea pig to defend itself by biting your children to release it. So teach your children and other family members the proper way to pick up and play with or stroke a guinea pig.
Let’s summarize
A guinea pig that bites must be trained not to do it again or it could hurt your children and this will also prevent you from enjoying your pet.
Do not hesitate to try this technique, it will normally help you dissuade your guinea pig from biting your fingers.
Some guinea pig owners say that their guinea pigs stop biting them after they have been spayed or neutered, in fact some male guinea pigs bite just to assert their dominance, it is up to you to decide whether you want to spay or not.
