6 Reasons Why Your Guinea Pig Might Be Biting

A young girl contacted us to ask why her guinea pig is always nibbling or biting the hands of whoever holds her. It's very unusual for guinea pigs to bite, especially so persistently, but it does happen. It's even more unusual for them to bite so hard that it draws blood.

Beyond the #1 reason ("Put me down...I gotta pee!"), the most common reasons for nibbling or biting (in no particular order) are listed below.

Mistaken Identity
Your hands smell like their food pellets, hay, veggies, fruit, fresh grass, or something else that just smells yummy. A guinea pig will quickly stop nibbling when s/he realizes it's your finger s/he is chewing on.

Noise Pollution
Noise or other commotion in the immediate area is frightening them. This commotion could be anything -- a thunderstorm, a vacuum cleaner, a loud TV or stereo, folks getting rambunctious with the family Wii. If something is frightening a guinea pig and it doesn't feel secure in your arms, it will...ahem...persuade you to put it back in its cage so it can burrow into a hideout house (where it does feel safe).

Reckless Handling
The guinea pig feels like it's being mishandled. Guinea pigs want to feel secure and well-supported. If a guinea pig feels like its feet are hanging in mid-air, or like your shoulder is too high of a perch, or that it's being jostled too much, it will let you know. Some guinea pigs don't like to be carried while you walk around the house or go up and down stairs, and will demonstrate their objections by biting you. No guinea pig likes to get caught in a "tug of war" between two people who want to hold him/her. And they have no tolerance for getting passed from person to person to person in a short stretch of time.

Fear
They're afraid of the person holding them. Guinea pigs will become permanently fearful of a person who has been angry or abusive toward them, or a person who has consistently mishandled them. If a pig's history is unknown to you (e.g., you got them from a shelter or found them abandoned outdoors), you may have to deal with the consequences wrought by whatever human(s) preceded you. A guinea pig that was abused by, say, little boys may always have a generalized fear of little boys. Love and patience from you may help lessen the fear, but may never fully overcome it.

Pain & Discomfort
A guinea pig that's feeling sore in one spot, or in pain all over, won't want to be held. Sources of pain or discomfort can include: bruising, strains, or sprains caused by rambunctious play; getting nipped by a cage mate; skin irritation that's painful to the touch; and arthritis. It should also be noted that sick pigs don't want to be handled much either.

Moodiness
As social and cuddly as they are, sometimes guinea pigs just want to be left alone. Maybe it's feeding time and they want to focus on the lettuce leaf you just gave them. Maybe it's their usual nap time. Maybe their cage mate has been crowding them with too much attention and they just want some space from everyone. Maybe they were in the middle of a good game with a cage mate. And maybe they just don't feel like being social, for no particular reason. Humans have days like that...so do guinea pigs (though a lot less often).

Bottom line: listen to and respect what your guinea pig is telling you. He's hoping you'll hear him sooner rather than later.

Comments

[katja is ma name and IF u like it]

hey thnx for the tips i think my guinea pig had bite me sometimes because of the last reasobn wich helped me out finding what was wrong. thnx again its realy great help :)

[Whitney]

Hey Ann--

Thanks for stopping by and sharing. Like PASmith, you've helped to show it's possible to learn what your guinea pigs are "saying" if you take the time and make the effort to "listen."

Whitney

[Whitney]

Hey PASmith--

I know what you're talking about. It's somewhere between grazing and scraping their teeth across your skin. Mine only ever do that.

Some foster pigs who are currently keeping me on my toes haven't yet learned that behavior; they're still nipping a bit, which suggests to me they weren't handled much by their previous owner. Hopefully they'll learn soon.

Yes, the piggies do a great job with "talking" to their humans, don't they? Now, we just need to help (some) humans do a better job with listening!

[Ann]

We have one piggy who bites our fingers when she wants to go back to her cage, for whatever reason, but usually because she's been sitting for a time and needs to use the potty. Her bites will get more emphatic if we ignore her. Our other two Abby girls bite our shirts very emphatically when they are trying to tell us they have had enough and want to go back. Sometimes it's because they are ready to pee, but one little girl just doesn't care to be held for long. None of them bites to draw blood, but to communicate their needs or desires to us. Our boy (Minerva's brother, Gizmo) will sit forever, never let us know that he's had enough, pee whenever, whereever! I've wondered if girls are more polite, and maybe Abby girls in particular?

I agree with the previous poster. Their bites are really nips, unless you ignore them--then they become more urgent and less possible to ignore--but never to break skin, just to let their needs be known.

It may very well be that a nipper needs to pee. Also, be patient--Dart has gotten better about nipping as she's learned to love sitting in our laps--she did NOT like to be held when we first adopted her. Tessie has never learned to like sitting in our laps for longer than about five minutes or so.

[pasmith]

I'm always amazed at how controlled our girls are when they "nip." Because they really don't exert any pressure at all, they just kind of touch skin with their teeth. That's their way of telling us they're unhappy, and we respect that. Everyone is happy that way. :)

We also have one licker... sometimes she gets carried away with her licking and nips a tiny bit but then she kind of yanks her head back, realizing what she's done, and gives a sheepish look.

I hate to even use the word 'nip' because these actions are so light that they don't even come close to hurting in the least.

It's amazing how good a job these sweet creatures do of communicating with their humans. :)