Why is a guinea pig chirping?
Are there particular reasons for guinea pigs to make such a noise?
Guinea pigs cannot speak with us in our language so guinea pig owners must listen to their pet’s sounds and learn to understand them.
Usually, if it notices something while we are asleep and feel frightened, there are chances that the guinea pig starts chirping.
The other reason is that it might need something like food or water.
There is also another possibility that guinea pig chirps only to seek your attention.
Yet, keep in mind that not all guinea pigs act exactly the same.
Why Is My Guinea Pig Chirping?
Let’s try to figure out the reason behind it in the rest of the article.
What Is Chirping?
Chirping is a strange and sometimes annoying sound made by most animals and birds.
Most birds like sparrows, pigeons usually chirp, and commonly guinea pigs tweet in birds in animals.
But most people observed that guinea pig chirps when it gets hurt, needs something, or if its partner is dead.
These sounds may irritate us if we are listening to this sound continuously.
On the other hand, if birds are chirping early in the morning, you might feel fresh and charged by their sound.
All About Guinea Pigs
A Guinea pig is a rodent, which is a domestic animal belonging to the Caviidae family.
It is small and has big heads and four little feet, it has fur on its body, but its feet do not have hair.
The guinea pig’s average weight is about 500 to 1500 grams, and its body is about 20 to 40 cm long.
Guinea pigs are usually brown, black, chocolate-brown, or white.
Sometimes the color mentioned above also mixes in hybrid species.
Guinea pig looks cute but needs to be handled delicately.
How To Take Care of Guinea Pigs?
Whenever we adopt a pet, the only thing that comes into our mind is how to take care of your guinea pig pet.
But when the pets are very delicate, like guinea pigs, it becomes tough to take care of them because of their size and delicacy.
But as an owner, it’s your responsibility to check whether your pet is healthy.
Let us look at a few tips to take care of the guinea pigs.
Diet
It is necessary that while taking care of the diet of the guinea pig, you must feed it high and superior quality food.
Always feed your guinea pig fresh fruits and vegetables.
Although it requires less water but ensures that the water that you are feeding is clean.
If the guinea pig drinks disease-ridden water, your pet guinea pigs can suffer from illness.
For the guinea pig’s growth, fitness, and long life, you must feed 30 to 50 mg of vitamin C daily.
You should never feed the substances or foods like chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol to a guinea pig as these food products contain high fats and can put their health in serious trouble.
Housing
Although the Guinea Pig can sustain and live comfortably in the household room temperature.
But it would be best if you took care that the temperature should not exceed 80 degrees F.
You also make sure that the home of the guinea pig is not getting direct sunlight.
As direct sunlight can harm its delicate skin.
Usually, 36” L*30” W*18” H is the perfect dimension to build the home for this pet.
You must also make sure that this pet cannot escape the house as it is challenging to catch them due to their small physical appearance.
Behaviour Оf Guinea Pig
Guinea Pig is tough to handle without its cage because of its size, and some guinea pigs are very fast.
It’s often possible that it might hide from you the day but seem to you when you reach near its habitat.
Guinea Pig usually lives in a routine.
They have fixed times of eating, sleeping, feeding, resting, and playing.
So give your pet food on time and take the necessary precautions so that their routine won’t disturb you.
It loves to eat food continuously, so make sure that it is not eating any unhealthy foods.
Maintain Their Cage
It would be best if you regularly clean the home of the guinea pig.
Usually, you should clean the house of guinea pigs with the bleach solution.
You should completely dry its cage before you allow the guinea pigs inside.
It’s essential to regularly remove the wet spots on the home of the guinea pig.
It would be best if you also changed the bedding of the cage twice a week.
Always lock your pet’s home so that it won’t abscond anywhere, and if it runs away from home, it’s next to impossible to catch it.
Hygiene Maintenance
Though giving a bath to the guinea pig is not very important.
But when you notice that it smells terrible, you must gently clean the guinea pig’s body with the help of baby wipes.
Remember that the baby wipes you are using to clean the guinea pig should not have any odor.
You can also clean the guinea pig’s fur using a small and tender brush and move the meeting gently on its skins.
It would be best if you always changed the piece of wood that it uses for chewing regularly.
Signs Of A Healthy Pet
You should always expect that the guinea pig that you have adopted should still be active and alert.
Lethargic attitudes of pets, especially guinea pigs, are signs of bad health.
The pet should consume a sufficient amount of food and water regularly for good health.
If a guinea pig is not consuming the food in sufficient amounts or not consuming anything, this pet’s health is not well.
It is essential to notice whether the guinea pig is walking normally or not to get aware of its health.
If you notice that your guinea pig is not walking normally, there is some health problem.
What Are The Serious Signs Of a Guinea Pig’s Bad Health?
If you find that the guinea pig has a drastic hair loss, then its health is not good.
The weight loss in these animals often denotes the signs of bad health.
Excess tooth growth is often considered a sign of bad health in guinea pigs.
Some more signs in guinea pigs like lethargic attitude, eye discharge, distressed breathing, and skin lesions.
If you are noticing in your pet any of the symptoms mentioned earlier, then take it to the doctor immediately.
When To Consult The Doctor
As a living being, it is evident that there will be specific health problems today or tomorrow, such as guinea pig chirping.
But being a caretaker of a pet, a person should be aware of when to take the pet to the doctor.
Hence, talking about guinea pigs, when you notice a low diet and unclean housing in them, you should quickly consult a veterinarian because these are the signs of diarrhea in the pets, which the veterinarian can help to cure.
It would be best if you regularly took the guinea pig to the doctor for trimming the teeth and the overgrown teeth so that it won’t suffer from malocclusion.
Which Are the Common Sounds Guinea Pigs Make?
Here are the few tips suggested by the animal doctors to understand what the guinea pig tries to say when making certain noises.
Wheeking
Wheeking is a distant whistle-like sound made by the guinea pigs when they are highly excited.
This is the most common sound made by the guinea pigs, usually when they get excited.
In most cases, you will find them wheeking when their owners offer them tasty food or the owner opens the fridge to serve them food.
They often wheek when trying to seek their owner’s attention to get the food or play with them.
We can say that if the guinea pig is wheeking, then it can consider that your pet is in a perfect mood.
Hence, owners should not worry when guinea pigs are wheeking.
Purring
The purring signified each time differently depending upon the sound’s pitch and the guinea pig’s body language.
The guinea pig who is feeling relaxed and comfortable will purr deeply with a comfortable body posture.
Therefore, no need to worry when it is purring deeply with a comfortable posture.
If the guinea pig makes the sound of high pitch purring, then the guinea pig is feeling annoyed.
In extreme cases, it even starts to vibrate.
Suppose your guinea pig is afraid of something, then at that time, it won’t move and start making a sound of short purr.
Rumbling
This is the type of sound you generally get to hear when male and female guinea pigs are kept together.
This sound is more resonant than purring; the adults in them generally make this sound.
This is the sound made by the male and female adult guinea pigs when they are romancing.
Whenever you hear the rumbling sound, no need to worry; you can suppose that the guinea pigs are romancing.
Most of the time, the male guinea pigs make this kind of sound.
But sometimes, if the female is in a romantic mood, she also makes a rumbling sound.
Teeth Chattering
This is the type of sound made by the guinea pigs to express their anger and aggression.
This sound generally sounds like a yawn but be careful when you hear this sound.
Never step towards your pet when it is chattering its teeth because it can even attack you or bite you at that time.
Primarily, keep the kids away from the pet when it is chattering its teeth because the kids can get bitten by the guinea pig very severely.
Hence, we can say that when the guinea pigs are chattering their teeth, it means they are angry, and they want no one to come in front of them.
Therefore, please stay away from your guinea pig for a while and keep your kids away from it as well.
Hissing
This is the sound made by the guinea pig to express its sadness.
This means that when this animal is sad, it starts hissing.
Whenever you find the guinea pig hissing, you can consider that your guinea pig is sad.
As soon as you notice the guinea pig hissing, start playing, try to communicate so that your pet will stop making this noise.
Sometimes in such situations, try to serve some food to these pets to make them happy.
Shrieking
If your guinea pig is making this sound, it means that either the pet is in anxious condition or severe pain.
If you hear this sound, you should always walk towards your pet and check what pain the pet is suffering from!
This sound shows that your guinea pig is in severe pain or trouble.
In such cases, you should take the pet to the doctor to get cured.
Never take this kind of situation for granted when your pet is shrieking.
Whining
This is the type of sound made by the guinea pigs when they want to express dislike.
This means that there might be situations where either you are doing, or the things that the guinea pig is doing are irritating for the guinea pig itself, then most often, they create the whining sound.
This type of sound is not considered a severe kind of trouble, and you can even ignore this sound.
But never ignore this sound when you are serving the food to the pet.
If it is making a whining noise while eating, it does not like the food you served.
Chirping
As we already discussed earlier, this is the bird-like sound made by the guinea pigs.
This is the type of sound that most people least understand.
Usually, at night the guinea pigs start chirping.
The doctors stated that this type of sound is generally made by the guinea pigs when they are in a trance-like state.
Guinea pigs make this sound when they lose their partners.
Hence, as soon as you find your pet chirping, bring a partner so that the guinea pig won’t feel alone.
Understanding The Body Languages Of Guinea Pigs
Whenever we adopt guinea pigs, we find it very difficult to recognize the body language made by them as they are new to us.
Here we will try to analyze the guinea pigs’ body language to understand them better.
Popcorning
Guinea pigs start popcorning when they feel joyful, happy, and excited.
Popcorning is the type of action in which the pets usually jump high as popcorn.
This type of action is usually seen in the young pigs.
The older guinea pigs often rise high but not as high as younger guinea pigs.
Freezing
In this type of body language, the guinea pig usually stands still or stays motionless.
In such cases, either the pet is uncertain about something in the environment, or the guinea pig is scared of something.
Sniffing
They do sniffing to understand the place they are living.
By sniffing, they learn about the place.
The guinea pigs love to sniff through their nose, ears, and backend.
Touching Noses
If you adopt two guinea pigs and if they have good communication between them, then you may notice that they touch each other’s noses.
This is the way to greet each other.
Aggressive Actions
If you find a guinea pig yawning or moving its teeth, it means that the pet is angry, so avoid going in front of it.
Shuffling side to side on stiff legs often resembles that the guinea pig is in the worst mood.
In this scenario, let it alone, and after some time, it will become routine.
Final Thoughts
You should only adopt a pet guinea pig if you and your family are ready to take care of it.
Guinea pig is a susceptible animal, and it needs a lot of care and attention, and sometimes you can face a guinea pig chirping.
If you are willing to care for it, only then adopt it.
After adopting (buying), the guinea pig makes sure that it is comfortable with you and also makes the guinea pig comfortable in your house.
By doing so, you both start liking each other’s company.
Like humans, animals are also fond of care, attention, and love, giving them the same respect, concentration, and love they are craving!
In the meantime, start spending time with your guinea pig.
