GUINEA PIG BEHAVIOR
Guinea pigs are social animals that gather together in herds for survival. The goal of this section is to describe life in the guinea pig herd, so that you can understand some of the behaviors you observe. Much of this section is based on observation, as well as information found in Behrend's book.
Herd Life
In the wild, guinea pigs gather together into herds for survival, and these herd instincts are still a part of the domesticated guinea pig's life. In their herds, guinea pigs observe a very strict dominance ranking: a single, dominant male serves as the head of a harem of females.
Male dominance
There can be only one sexually mature male in a guinea pig herd, and sexual behavior from young males is not tolerated. As the young males attain sexual maturity, dominance battles can result between the lead male and any challengers, or even amongst the younger males. The males threaten each other by hissing, rattling their teeth and stiffening their bodies. They may try to circle each other, attempting to get access to the other males' back. They will then bite at each other, trying to do so on the chest or the back of the neck. This fighting will continue until the weaker male submits, and is driven from the herd. In the wild, the young males will often pick out a female and start their own family in a new location.
In the cage, there is no escape for the losers in a dominance fight, and they must be removed or they will die from starvation and exhaustion, as the alpha male drives them from food, water and sleeping spots. To prevent dominance battles from injuring your guinea pigs, it is important to separate the males from the herd when they attain sexually maturity, between four and seven weeks of age.
As pets, two or more males can live together, provided they are given sufficient room and are never in contact with a female. It is the sexual behavior of males that induces dominance fighting, and the introduction of a female to a pair of males can permanently sever their friendly relations. Some males actually have to be neutered to live together because they engage in sexual behavior without the presence of a female. Neutering does not lower aggressiveness, but it does eliminate sexual drive. However, even a neutered male will instinctually engage in sexual behavior if put in the company of a female. In short if you have males together, neutered or not, don't try to introduce a female to them.
Female rank
In the guinea pig herd, the females also battle for rank. They will engage in dominance battles with each other, as the males do, but will not usually drive the weaker from the herd. Their goal is to obtain the highest ranking among their peers, which essentially earns the right to go wherever they please, whenever they please. The lower rank females always defer to a female of higher rank, except when they are challenging a higher-rank female's position.
Occasionally, there will be two females that will not get along, and will constantly fight. In these cases, the male will often times interfere. If fighting continues, they may need to be separated. Also, a higher rank female may constantly harass a lower rank female, leading to high stress levels in the cage and very nervous guinea pigs. In these cases, it may also be necessary to separate the females in question.
Young
The young guinea pigs in the herd nurse not only from their mothers, but also from any other lactating sows. If a guinea pig gets separated from the herd, or feels abandoned, it will squeal loudly until one of the adults comes over to reassure it and lead it back to the family.
Communication And Body Language
Guinea pigs communicate with both sound and body language. When walking around together in the cage, or on the floor, they will often times squeak and grunt as they move about, which is a sign of general contentment. If a guinea pig, particularly a baby, gets lonely, it will squeal loudly, asking for reassurance. Guinea pigs that are housed alone will often make this sound, requesting human contact from their owners. The guinea pig will also squeal loudly when it suspects that food is on the way. This begging for food is reserved exclusively for humans.
Guinea pigs also squeal when they feel that they are in danger, which acts as a warning to others in the herd. This squeal is typically more panicked than the squeals for attention or food, and several squeals may be emitted in rapid succession.
When you pet a guinea pig, you will often times begin to hear it squeak or grunt, or even coo softly. These are sounds of contentment and pleasure, and are one of the main reasons why guinea pigs are so adorable as pets. If, however, you touch an area that they don't like (such as the sides of the tummy in a pregnant female, or the very bottom of any cavy), you might hear a rumbling sound, which serves as a warning. This rumbling is also made by guinea pigs when they hear sounds that they do not like (such as your upstairs neighbors banging on the floor, or a sharp snare drum on the radio), or when they want to warn others when something "isn't quite right".
When two females meet, the lower rank one might address the other with a rumbling rattle that sounds like the male arousal sound. The lower rank female will lower her head, thus asking for a truce from the more dominant sow. Sometimes, the dominant sow may feel threatened by this act, and will respond with angry chattering. In both male and female guinea pigs, this teeth chattering is the precursor to a fight, and nasty bites can follow if no one backs down.
The low, constant, rumbling rattle that a male makes when aroused is definitely a sexual behavior, but some males and females will often engage in mounting activities as an expression of dominance. Females may mount females of a lower rank, or even the male. Of course, when a sow is in heat, she will make this same purring to signal the male that she is ready for mating.
When your guinea pigs are in high spirits, you may see them leap straight up into the air while curving their backs, or run across the floor and make several shorter leaps in rapid succession. This jumping, commonly referred to as "popcorn jumping", or just "popcorning", is the sign of a healthy and happy guinea pig, and is one of the real gems in guinea pig behavior.
The following tables are excerpts from Behrend's book, with a few additions, and describe many of the sounds and some of the body language that guinea pigs use.
Body Language
Body Language |
Meaning |
Touching noses |
Sniffing contact |
Rising up with legs stiffened |
Threatening |
Shows teeth with mouth open |
Used by females to deter advances from a male, and by both sexes as a threatening posture |
Stretches |
Comfort, relaxation |
"Popcorns" |
High spirits |
Stretches head forward |
Watchfulness |
Sound |
Meaning |
Grunts, gurgles, squeaks |
Contentment, comfort, contact with other guinea pigs through sound |
Squeals, shrieks |
Warning, young's cry of loneliness, pain, fear |
Squeals, "wheeting" |
Begging for food (reserved for humans) |
Cooing |
Reassurance, usually uttered to young |
Rumbles |
Warning, dislike of an action or sound |
Hisses, teeth clacking |
Aggression, threatening opponent, warning |
Rattling, rumbling |
Arousal sounds (male and female), lower rank female greeting a higher rank female |
Senses and Intelligence
It has often times been said by persons not familiar with guinea pigs that they are not very bright, or are boring animals. While it is true that they are not rocket scientists, guinea pigs are in fact quite alert, very trainable and respond well to sounds and smells. The fact that they don't seem to behave intelligently as animals such as rats, stems mostly from human expectations.
Guinea pigs are herbivores. The intelligence needed by hunting animals and scavengers is not a part of their programming: after all, it doesn't take tremendous hunting skills to be able to sneak up on a blade of grass. What naturally engages a guinea pig's intelligence in the wild isn't normally called upon in their life as a pet. In nature, the guinea pig survives through the use of effective herd communication, establishment of well known trails and rapid reproduction. They have a varied vocabulary, a cautious curiosity and the ability to learn the many paths between their lairs and their feeding grounds.
Of all these defense mechanisms, the practice of establishing well-traveled and well-known routes to and from their lair is arguably the most important. The guinea pig learns these trails so well that they can dart almost effortlessly through them, typically faster than their predators can follow. By ducking through thick brushes and around sharp turns quickly, they can evade even the most determined pursuers.
When danger is suspected, the guinea pig will also warn the other members of the herd so that they can protect themselves. Typically, this leads to the "scatter response", whose intention is to split the herd up so that one predator can not make a meal of the entire family. When guinea pigs feed, one animal will always assume the duty of a "lookout"
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