[Gpdd] Behavior - how smart are they?

[Mikey]

Hi All,
hope everyone and every pig is doing okay. Healing wheeks to all the piggies
that are not feeling well.

Does your gp know any words or phrases and how do they react?
My girls Lot and guiny both know their names. If my boyfriend calls my lotje
and call: ' Lotje, kom eens hier' (which means ' lotje, come here' in dutch)
she will usually come and wheek happily in the process of walking towards
them. then when she reaches my boyfriend she will realise that he might pet
her and she doesn't like that so she will run away again.
They also know the word "uh!" it will stop them in their tracks, or when
walking towards the forbidden part of the house make them turn around and
run back to places where they are allowed. looking very guilty...
I also taught this to my late boar winky, he would know that he was doing
something wrong, where as Dobby my brothers boar did not understand.
They also know the word "eten" which in dutch meabs "food" or "eating". One
time my lotje was eating and my boyfriend asked her wether she was eating,
and she abruptly turned her head towards him, looking very hopeful that she
might get some more veggies!
We are trying to teach them to recognise the word "spelen" which means
'play' =floor time, but they don't know it yet.
Also when we say 'muisjes' (which is actually ' mice' a term we used when
they were still very young and small, mouse-sized which we never stopped
using) they know we are talking about them.
One time i told my guiny to get back in her house (which was in the cage)
and she just turned around and darted to the cage jumped in and got into the
house while lot was sitting in there already and it really small it isn't
really fit for two piggies to be inthere together. I was amazed and still
wondering wether she understood what i said or whether it was just a
coincidence.

Do you or they have a certain routine and what happens if you don't follow
it? They just know that in the morning when we enter the livingroom, that
they will get some food. and will act like getting it soon. At my sisters'
place they always get two pieces, one from me and one from my sister, they
know it two because if they only had one they will wheek for more.
When travel with my pigs, Guiny knows that when i'm eating my sandwiches or
rolls they she will get a piece from me if she comes to get it. It is
actually quite funny she still remembered it, i used to do that over half a
year ago when i travelled with them. Guiny would always come and get a piece
by standing near the fence of the cage looking at me wether she can have a
piece. She is quite fond of bread, does any of your gp's love bread? Now i
travel with them again, i wasn't able to do it for half a year because i was
in Czech republic and they were at my sisters place. and now when i started
to eat my sandwich she came to me and asked for it again!!
they also know that when we put the top of the cage back on again that they
will get their waterbottle again, and will be waiting at that spot for the
bottle to come back ;)

Do they pout? How do they punish you?
When i just have cut their nails they will pout and not pay attention to me.
Also when i try to grab Lot but she doesn't want to be grabbed which is
normal because she does not liked to be touched. guiny will bite me as a
warning. They will also chatter their teeth at us when we try to catch them
to get back in the cage but they don't want to. Lot will scratch me when she
doesn't want to be picked up

How do they reward you?
For me it feels like a reward if Lotje who does not like to be touched lets
me pet her and she will just stay there, maybe even enjoying it. maybe
sometimes popcorning of loud wheeking when they get something good.

Can they climb stairs and is there a reason?
they don't climb stairs since we don't have any within our flat. But however
they will search for us when we are in an other room than they are, it
thought that was so cute, a little gp peeping around the door looking for
us. they had to walk to the other side of the apartment to find us.

Do they know different colors?
don't know, never seen them make any distinction.

Is there a favorite place they like to sleep or eat?
They both like to sleep in their house or in the hammock when its in the
cage, Suus likes to sleep in her fleece hat (that is a hat human-sized). My
guiny has to have something above her little head when eating. she will nog
eat from my hand, and will take the food with her in her house, under the
hammock or under a chair or table.
My lotje is very much bonded to my boyfriend she will do a lot more for him
(like coming to him when he calls her), that she will do for me!

Do they move their furniture?
occasionally they move their house especially when there's only one in the
cage, because then there is a lot of room for moving.

Do they like the Vet?
Lot did not like, but was also not very unhappy about it. Guiny luckily has
never been there being one and a half year old.
Winky did not really mind going their but would wheek loudly when they would
cut his nails or when he would get antibiotics or axtra vitamin c with a
syringe.
my vet told me he had a good set of lungs because of the loud wheeks he
made!

Are there noises they like or hate? What happens then?
They don't like coughing, they will run and hide. usually also
rumblestutting
Winky absolutely hated the sound of birds he was terrified of them and would
rumblestut.
Winky would know the sound of the fridge opening and wait for his food to
arrive. he was in the same room then the fridge since i only had one room at
that time. he could make a difference between different bag and would
popcorn when i gave him new hay.
They all knew and know the sound of their pellets. I scoop them out of a
bigger box with a smaller cup, and shake the cup. they know pellets are on
the way.
they all know the difference between the sounds that plastic bags make. they
know exactly in which bags the veggies are.
Winky once started wheeking which in the train the trolley with food came,
which had a bell. Everyone in the train looked at me and was surprised of
the sound he would me (they did not all know i had a gp in the cage)

How do they react with other piggies or other animals?
Depends on how the other pig reacts. We had my niece her piggie staying over
for a couple of days. she (this pig) had never seen other piggies in her
live and acted mean with chattering of the teeth and biting. My girls would
respond to that to her. Now we got this new piggie suus, who is like 5 weeks
old. They seem to put up with her. No biting or anything (allthough lot
tried, but she does not like to be touched). Guiny even thought it was okay
when Suus tried to find her nipples wanting to drink. but she did look
really surprised at what Suus did. I did take them some time to understand
that the little thing was also a guinea pig.
Winky never showed any interest in my friends rats. the rats however were
very interested. he hated birds, just the sound of them would make him run
and hide and rumblestrut.

they learned to pee on a paper instead of on the floor (at least most of the
times), also there are some thinks they like to pee on, whereas they don't
like to pee on other things. They also seem to be getting used to pooping in
their houses and usually not in the rest of the house.
My Winky once got a flowerpot from me to play in, but instead of a toy he
used it as his pigloo!

Sorry its soooooo long, just wanted to share all these things. As someone
already said, we all love talking about our piggies!!
Mikey, and the girls Lot and Guiny


--
pandameisje at gmail.com
m.staaks at obeindhoven.nl
pandameisje at hotmail.com
m.p.staaks at st.hanze.nl
Blog: http://emxn.com/mikey
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