Guinea Garden Sanctuary

08/12/2025

Taylor proudly showed me her latest drawing today… and I swear it looks exactly like a guinea pig.
She insists it’s not — but the fluffy cheeks, round body and tiny feet say otherwise. 🤣💚

Honestly, it made me smile. When your child’s “mystery creature” accidentally turns into the perfect little piggy shape, you just know you’ve raised them in a home full of hay, herbs and small-animal chaos.
Wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you fancy seeing actual piggies instead of accidental artistic ones, you know where to go:
https://www.guineagourmettreats.co.uk

08/12/2025

Chasing, rumbling, hu***ng, nose-offs… all normal communication.
If there’s no teeth-chattering standoffs, no lunging, no puffed-up bodies squared to fight — then it’s just hierarchy, not hostility.
Don’t separate too early. You risk breaking natural bonding.

06/12/2025

A lot of rabbits and guinea pigs get labelled as “moody,” “grumpy,” or “a bit unpredictable,” when the truth is… hormones can completely reshape how they feel and behave.

Hormonal discomfort can make even the gentlest animals:

territorial

easily overstimulated

reactive to handling

clingy one minute and fed up the next

foot-stampers, thumpers, grumblers, or avoiders

And here’s the important bit:
They can look fine.
They’ll still eat, drink, explore — because prey animals mask stress incredibly well.

But their body language tells you the real story.

Once neutered and everything settles internally, you usually see:

softer communication

calmer responses

more predictable moods

better tolerance of touch

smoother bonding with companions

a general “at ease” feeling they didn’t have before

Neutering isn’t just about preventing litters — it’s about giving them comfort, stability, and a body that isn’t constantly pushed around by hormones.

When that hormonal fog lifts, the real personality appears.
And it’s nearly always sweeter, calmer, and far more relaxed. 💗🐾

04/12/2025

Forage is honestly one of the best confidence-building tools you can use with nervous guinea pigs.

Benji is still incredibly scared of my presence — I barely move and he’s gone. But fresh forage changes everything.
It gives him something positive to focus on, something safe, something natural… and it gently encourages him to brave coming out even with me nearby.

You can see here he’s edging forward, keeping a bit of distance, but still choosing to stay out because the reward outweighs the fear.

This is why I say forage isn’t just food — it’s enrichment, therapy, and communication all in one.
With pigs like Benji, these moments matter.

03/12/2025

A pig who hides constantly isn’t “shy,” they’re uncomfortable.
Confidence comes when needs are met: safety, space, predictable routine, companionship, and choice.
Shy pigs blossom when the environment is right.

02/12/2025

Benji and Rex sharing a leaf tonight… and this is exactly why I love forage and scatter feeding.

These two are the boys who show the most dominance — the rumble strutting, the chinning, the teeth chattering… all the dramatic “I’m in charge” behaviours that people assume mean they don’t get along.

But scatter feeding lets you see what’s really happening underneath the noise.

They’re comfortable.
They trust each other.
They’re relaxed enough to literally eat from the same leaf.

Forage brings out natural behaviours — and when you watch those quiet moments between the lines, you see the truth: communication, not conflict.
Dominance doesn’t mean dislike.
These two are proof of it. 💚

01/12/2025

Fresh dead nettle from the garden for Benji and Max 🌿
Simple, natural enrichment — and one of their faves.

01/12/2025

Understanding “Happy” vs “Coping” Piggies

Eating and drinking doesn’t always mean a pig is happy. Some piggies simply cope.
True happiness shows in confidence, posture, movement, curiosity and rest patterns.
If your pig hides for long periods when no one is around — that’s not a “quiet pig,” that’s a worried one.

28/11/2025

When Benji was surrendered to me, I was told he “didn’t get on” with his previous mate who’d sadly passed.
The assumption was that he preferred being alone — that he fought, didn’t socialise, and simply wasn’t a pig who wanted company.

To the untrained eye, that made sense.
He was eating.
He was drinking.
On paper, he looked “fine.”

But when he arrived, it took me minutes to see the reality behind that surface-level behaviour.

🌿 What I actually saw

Yes, he ate and drank — but that’s survival, not contentment.

He spent far too much time hiding, even when he thought no one was watching.

He wasn’t forming the human bond that lone pigs need if they’re going to stay mentally well.

His posture, freezing, and avoidance all pointed toward a pig who had simply shut down and learned to cope, not a pig who was happy alone.

🌿 Why this matters

Guinea pigs are prey animals, and prey animals are excellent at masking distress.
They don’t stop eating until they’re very unwell.
They don’t scream for companionship.
They quietly endure — and to anyone who doesn’t understand piggy behaviour, that can look like “he’s alright on his own.”

But eating and drinking aren’t indicators of happiness.
Behaviour is.

🌿 The truth about Benji

Benji wasn’t a pig who “didn’t get along.”
He was a pig who needed the right companions and someone who could read what he was communicating.
And the moment he had that, you can see the shift — the confidence, the comfort, the relaxation with the new boys.

🌿 The message

Learning what guinea pig behaviour really means is essential.

A pig hiding isn’t “quiet,” he’s uncomfortable.

A pig eating isn’t automatically “happy,” he’s functioning.

A pig who seems like a “fighter” might just be misunderstood — or paired poorly.

Benji wasn’t the problem.
Misinterpretation was.

And now he gets to live the life he should have been living from the start. 💚

26/11/2025

Why Understanding Guinea Pig Communication Matters 🐹💬

I wanted to share a little insight from the trio who joined me recently — Benji, Max and Rex — because their behaviour is the perfect example of why you really need to understand how guinea pigs communicate before assuming who “gets on” and who doesn’t.

To most people watching them for the first time:

Benji and Rex look like the “problem.”
They’re the ones rumbling, chasing, hu***ng… all the big, dramatic dominance behaviours that look aggressive if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

Max looks like the chilled, easy-going one.
Calm, quiet, unbothered… the “good” pig to the untrained eye.

But here’s the real dynamic:

🌿 What’s actually happening

Benji and Rex communicate constantly.
They’re expressive, they negotiate hierarchy in the open, and because of that…
they’re the closest two in the group.
They’re always lying together, always choosing each other.

Max prefers his own space.
He’s not communicating; he’s correcting.
Max is the one who kicks out, warns them off, and says “enough.”
And those corrections are the behaviours that can escalate if ignored.

🌿 The misconception

People assume the noisy pigs are the troublemakers.
In reality, the pigs who look calm are sometimes the ones you monitor most closely, because if their space or boundaries are ignored, they’re the ones likely to step it up into a fight.

Benji and Rex?
They hash things out the healthy way. They rumble, sort the order, communicate… then go back to being best mates.

Max?
He’s wonderful — but his boundaries are firm, and if the boys don’t listen, that’s where things can kick off.

🌿 The point

Behaviour isn’t just about what you see.
It’s about understanding the intention behind it.

Dominance isn’t aggression.
Communication isn’t conflict.
And the quiet pig isn’t always the “good” pig.

This is why experience in boar bonding, socialisation and reading behaviour matters so much — because once you know what you’re looking at, the whole dynamic becomes clear.

And this trio’s dynamic is absolutely spot on. 💚

25/11/2025

Gentle hand-feeding builds confidence in nervous guinea pigs and rabbits. Rescues often start bonding with tiny sprigs of linden or rose petals — proof that the way to trust really is through the stomach.

23/11/2025

https://youtube.com/shorts/o4Q-OC8H5Sk?si=z9Un3NBZR8mFJWh5

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