How to Bond with Your Guinea Pig Fast

Bonding with your guinea pig, or getting your piggy to be comfortable around you and love you, takes time. However, here are some tried-and-true methods I use and will also work on your guinea pigs as well to make your piggy love you.

You may be here because you saw no signs to my previous post and video, 10 signs your guinea pig truly loves you. Or your guinea pig is very shy and won’t come out of its hide. No worries! This article will help you bond with your guinea pig 🙂

How to bond with your guinea pig – the easy way

You shouldn’t need to break tons of sweat trying to get your guinea pig to love you, guinea pigs have emotions too and like humans, you can’t force them to love you and be super comfortable around you. These things take time and patience.

That being said, just you being here to learn how you can deepen your relationship and build the trust with your guinea pig shows that you are a good guinea pig parent:)

Without any further ado, here are some ways to bond with your guinea pig, and fall in love with your piggy even more.

1. Hand feed your vegatables

Why should you hand feed vegetables one by one to your guinea pigs when you can simply just dump them in a food bowl for them?

Well, think of befriending someone by giving gifts to them, giving them in person will bring both of you closer together. Same thing for guinea pigs.

Because even shy guinea pigs can’t resist a fresh, tasty treat 🙂

Vegetables and fruits are guinea pigs’ stress and boredom killers, happy meals, and precious treasures.

– I C Cinnamon

I highly recommend splitting the vegetables into small pieces that take your piggies around 5 secinds to finish at a time, because this will keep your guinea pigs closer to you when they’re eating, instead of running away every time.

Moreover, call their name when you’re about to give them treats, that way you’re also training them to come to you when you say their name.

Try to hand-feed vegetables more often (I always hand-feed treats and vegetables to my guinea pigs, they love it.). This is important because your guinea pigs will be even more comfortable around you and will come to you intuitively.

If you want to step up the ladder, try spooning some 2-ingredient homemade ice cream for guinea pigs to your piggies! They are healthy, low in calcium and high in vitamin c. It’s super easy to make, try it out!

Pro Tip: get down to your guinea pigs level and speak gently. Don’t put your face too close to them though, it’ll scare your piggies!

2. Cuddles!

Most guinea pigs love cuddles, especially lazy piggies:). Having cuddles is a fantastic way to bond with your guinea pig, just feel their small potato shaped body, chubby cheeks and sparkling eyes. The definition of cute :).

Guinea pigs are very social animals and love human interaction. They like being pet, especially when the top of their head and back are being gently stroked.

Here are 3 steps to do that:

1. sit on your lap at ground level, and use a small number of treats (very important! Or else they will only snatch the treat away and run off) to lure your piggy onto your lap. This will take a few tries, and make sure you speak in a calm voice and your body isn’t moving a lot.
2. Once your guinea pig is on your lap, all you have to do is keep feeding vegetables little by little, until it’s comfortable on your lap.
3. After that, you can try gently petting it and feeding less and fewer treats, occasionally giving them veggies. Soon your piggies will learn to love cuddles and your petting.

Happy cuddling!

3. Train your Guinea Pig Tricks

When Popcorn was a solo piggy, keeping him entertained and happy is one of the most important tasks.

Therefore, training tricks is one of the best fun ways to keep him active, engaged and even smarter!

Here, I will show you how to teach your guinea pig to jump through a hoop. If you want me to write an article about how to teach your guinea pigs to do tricks such as high five and put the ball into a bowl, please tell me in the comments below!

1. First, get a piece of hard cardboard. Then, cut a jumping hoop that is the shape of a hula hoop (maybe thicker) and the size that your guinea pig can easily jump through.
2. Now grab some treats and split them into smaller pieces (my favourite is lettuce) and put them where you can easily access it.
3. After that, hold one side of the hoop and places it near your guinea pig on ground level.
4. using the treat, gently lure your guinea pig to step through the hoop, and reward.
5. do this a couple more times until your guinea pig is comfortable stepping through the hoop.
6. gradually lift the hoop slightly above ground level and encourage your guinea pig to jump through it, using the same technique above.
7. If your piggy has trouble jumping through the hoop or jumping higher, go back to the step you were before, or lower the hoop until your guinea pig is comfortable.

Well, there you go!

Here’s some toys I use to train Popcorn or just to keep him entertained when he’s bored and I’m not around.

Training guinea pig tricks is one of my favourite ways to bond with Popcorn. Don’t underestimate these little potato-shaped furballs, because fun fact, they are SMARTER than RABBITS!

Be Patient

The most crucial tip of all, because all the previous tips are ways to enhance the bond between you and your guinea pig, but to deepen that relationship and unlock the feeling of safety and trust.

I thought the bond between me and Popcorn was deep until he started licking my hand when he was in the vet’s office, or when he slept with his eyes closed on my lap. Or when he will let me hold him like a baby being burped, because he trust me.

These things take time, do push it. The time it takes for you and your guinea pig to bond is different, and they all have different ways to show love as well, like humans. For example, Popcorn also shows his love by peeing on my arm X).

So in conclusion, don’t stress, take it slow, and your guinea pig will love you like you do.

Conclusion and Video

Lastly, please comment down below how these tricks worked for you and don’t forget to subscribe to the I C Cinnamon mailing list for more guinea pig resources, shocking facts and healthy recipes!