Why your new guinea pig is nervous

Guinea pigs are prey animals, built to assume that anything larger is a threat. Their eyes sit on the sides of a wide head, giving them near-panoramic vision, and anything moving towards them from above reads as a bird of prey. Add a rescue background — little handling, rough handling, a noisy household, a long journey in a carrier — and it is entirely reasonable that your new guinea pig flattens itself into a hidey whenever you walk in. Freezing, stampeding, hiding and chattering teeth are survival reflexes, not a verdict on you. Understanding that is the first step to changing it.

Set up a safe base before you try to make friends

Confidence grows far faster in an enclosure that feels secure. Before you begin any taming, check the basics:

• Position the cage against a wall in a quiet room, away from doorways, washing machines and loud televisions.
• Offer at least two hides — a fleece tunnel, a cardboard box with two doorways, a covered bed. Two exits mean your guinea pig never feels cornered.
• Drape a towel over part of the roof to create a shaded cave to retreat into.
• Use soft fleece or dust-extracted bedding, deep enough to burrow in.
• Keep your guinea pig with a companion if at all possible. They are herd animals, and a lone guinea pig is almost always more anxious.
• Leave the first few days alone: no passing the guinea pig round, minimal handling, food and water only.

Practise being pleasantly boring

Aim for two ten-minute sessions a day, at the same times. Sit on the floor so you are at cage level rather than looming overhead. Take a book or a cup of tea, and speak softly using the same few phrases each time. Avoid staring — predators stare; instead glance sideways and blink slowly. Skip strong perfume, and wash your hands so that you smell neutral.

Then do nothing at all. Let your guinea pig come out and investigate at its own pace. If it bolts, stay still, wait half a minute, and carry on as though nothing happened. Every calm, uneventful session teaches the same lesson: this large creature is dull, predictable and safe.

Food is the fastest route to trust

Guinea pigs are ruled by their stomachs, which makes food your best tool. Good hand-feeding treats include:

• a thin sliver of red pepper — usually the favourite, and rich in vitamin C
• a sprig of coriander or flat-leaf parsley
• a small slice of cucumber
• a piece of romaine lettuce
• a single blueberry or a quarter of a strawberry, now and then

Avoid iceberg lettuce, muesli-style mixes, dairy, meat and anything sugary. Offer treats at the edge of the enclosure, holding them still between finger and thumb or flat on your palm, at arm's length. Do not wave food about or push it at a nose — let your guinea pig stretch, sniff and take it. If it will not come, drop the treat just inside and walk away; your hand still becomes the thing good things come from.

One useful rule: reserve a single hand for treats and never use it to pick your guinea pig up. Keep the grabbing hand out of sight while trust is still being built.

Read the signals and adjust your pace

Retreat a step whenever you see freezing, a stampede to the hidey, chattering teeth, a low rumbling, or hiding that continues long after you have left the room. Go back to quiet sitting and try again tomorrow.

Progress looks like coming to the front of the cage when you appear, sniffing your fingers, taking food from your hand, staying out while you sit nearby, lying stretched out, or popcorning — a happy little jump and twist. Slow blinks and a half-closed eye are good signs too.

One caution: in a new arrival, nervousness that seems extreme can be illness. A guinea pig that stops eating, dribbles, or produces no droppings needs a vet the same day, because gut stasis is an emergency.

Move on gently, and think in weeks

Once food is taken reliably, add short bursts of lap time. Scoop your guinea pig up in a fleece tunnel, or with both hands supporting chest and rump, keep it low and close to your body, and sit on the floor. Five minutes on a towel on your lap with a sprig of parsley is plenty at first — and always end while things are still going well.

Weigh weekly, keep feeding and cleaning to a routine, and resist comparing your guinea pig with anyone else's. Some rescue guinea pigs are climbing into laps within a fortnight; others need three or four months of patient, unremarkable afternoons. Both are entirely normal, and the slow ones often turn out to be the friendliest of all.