Questionhi my female guinea pig of about 1 and a half was a friendly girl,but recently she has started biting.my partner opened the cage to feed her and went for his finger really hard and wouldnt let go.i feed her regularly,please help as i have small children.
manythanks
AnswerI have noticed especially since starting to answer questions that females can get a bit aggressive at around that age.
there are a few tricks that I know people have used to get them to stop but before you try them i recommend doing the following first.
increased floor/run time, let her spend more time out and about either grazing on grass or running about her pen.
increase her cage/hutch space, the minimum recommended cage space is around 2 1/2 feet by 7 1/2 roughly, smaller spaces do tend to make pigs bored and more aggressive, as well as messy. it would be the same for us i suppose being cooped up all day in one fairly small room.
another method the often works well is a male, generly speaking emale guinea pigs tend to be more peaceful and subdued when a male pig is around, so a neutered boar is an option.
if these dont work then there are two tricks i know of,
have her on your knee, when she bites you tap her on her nose, other guinea pigs would retaliate by nipping her on the nose so it sort of re-establishes you as the boss. personally i think this is daft because it means you get bitten alot.
the second method is to say a loud "no" or "ow" etc while she is on your knee, the idea is that the pig will not like the sudden loud noise and so will not bite when it puts two and two together. again like nose tapping i think it is daft because you get bitten.
on the whole the best way to get a guinea pig to stop biting is to improve its temperment, and to do that you have to improve its living conditions.
best of luck
