Loud Guinea Pig

Question
A friend of mine breeds guinea pigs, and his female tends to not let her runts eat, and then they weaken and get trampled.  Its very sad.  When this litter was born, I took the runt with me and nursed it myself.  He's been living in a small cage, and sleeping in a pouch on my chest during the day.  I let him visit his family every day, and 4 days of his 9 day life I've brought along a sibling to be a friend.  Although he's still smaller than the others, he's growing and very active.  

The problem is that he doesn't seem to know what guinea pig noises are for.  He makes the high pitched 'begging for food' noise a lot.  A whole lot.  And when he isn't squealing, he's muttering to himself.  None of this would be a big deal if he was destined to live a normal life at my house, but he's on a slightly more public path.  I'm doing research right now on making robotic interfaces that will enable animals to have greater agency in the human world.  (I have trained one pig to push buttons to request specific items, etc).  One of the reasons that I've gotten away with having a guinea pig strapped to my chest every day in school is that this guy is supposed to be the focus of my next project.  He seems very smart as well, so he'd be perfect.  The problem is that he's just to noisy.  He is eating, drinking, he's in good health, he does the same thing when around other pigs, so it doesn't seem like lonlieness.  Do you know why he would be so noisy and how I could limit this behavior?  Some people have suggested that since he's around students and teachers that are talking all day that he thinks its normal, but that sounds a little far fetched.  I'd really appreciate any advice.  Aside from the obvious problems of having a screaming pig around, I always thought that that noise was an unhappy one, so I'd like to solve whatever problem he's having.

Thank you for your help.

Answer
Hello Chris,

If it's his loud wheeking noise, it's not an unhappy noise. Can you get an adult pig for him to hang out with? Alot of things piggies do they learn from adult piggies because they are herd animals. It's very possible he just hasn't properly learned just when he's supposed to make noise. Pairing him up with an older quieter pig may help. As crazy as it may seem, your friends may be right. If he spends most of his life with humans at this age, he's going to learn when to make noise from them and if they are always talking....Well, he will to. It's also possible that's just him. Some piggies are louder than others just because that's who they are. In my experience it's the highly intellegent ones that seem to be the loudest. The only thing that has ever helped to quiet them down is to pair them with and older boar (my loud ones have always been male). It's amazing the affect their new "big brother" can have on them sometimes. Also it may be good to listen for triggers and try to avoid them. Rustling papers and rattling plastic bags seem to start any piggy wheeking. Listen close to what's going on when he starts yelling. It may be there is some noise setting him off. Maturing may quiet him down some too. Pups do tend to make more noise than adults anyway. I wish you luck with your loud little guy and with your project. Hopefully you can get him quieter soon.

-kkat
http://www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs