Do Guinea Pigs Know Their Names? 4 Signs That You Should Know
If you have guinea pigs or any other type of pet, you’ve probably picked up a name for them already. With other pets, you can see them react whenever their name is called, but people wonder if it’s the same for guinea pigs too.
So do guinea pigs know their name? Thankfully, guinea pigs do know their name! If you’ve had your guinea pig for a while and called its name often, it should know its own name and will come to you whenever you call it, even if your guinea pig is far away from you.
But as you might expect, there are a lot more details to it than that. Today, we’ll cover all about guinea pigs and whether they know their name or not, how to tell if they know their name, how to teach them their name, and more. Let’s get straight into it.
Do Guinea Pigs Know Their Name?
As mentioned earlier, guinea pigs do in fact recognize their own name. So if you’ve owned guinea pigs for a decently long time and called them by their name often, they’re most likely used to the name and recognize it.
Among rodents, guinea pigs are actually quite smart. Not only can they recognize their own name, but in general, they’re also good at remembering words. However, it can take some time until they recognize it just by the word.
A lot of the time, your guinea pig can recognize a word or name when you apply body language or a distinct tone to the word when you’re saying it. It’s the same way that you can train your cat or dog to sit on command when you have to repeatedly do the same thing until they understand it.
Likewise, you can even teach them to react to words or train them specifically. But if you just want them to know their name, it should happen automatically after a few weeks or months of having your guinea pig.
Can You Teach Guinea Pigs Names Or Words?
Yes, you can. Guinea pigs can understand humans after being around them for a while, so you can teach them various words and their names. In fact, even if you call their name from a room far away, they can still recognize your voice and the word with enough experience.
This is because guinea pigs have great hearing senses, and they can magnify noises that are far away. You can even train them to understand a variety of different words and their names, but it’s recommended to teach small and easy words that are distinguishable.
But if they’re stressed out, it might be difficult for them to get close to their owner. You can check out this article to know more about the behaviors and whether your guinea pig is happy or not.
Signs That Your Guinea Pigs Actually Know Their Names
Guinea pigs react more to words or recognize their own name properly after precisely knowing their owner. So here are a few signs your guinea pig actually understands their name and recognizes you as their owner —
- They run to you or come near you whenever you see them.
- Whenever you’re talking, they tend to listen and have their attention fully on you.
- They make noises or make a squeaking sound whenever they hear you talk to them or call their name.
- Whenever you call their name directly, they turn in your direction and pay attention or squeak.
Overall, these are the most common signs that your guinea pig knows their name. They’ll generally know it whenever they’re familiar with their owner. Thus, they can understand their name through the body movement you make whenever you call them and you’re near them.
How To Teach A Guinea Pig To Recognize Words And Their Name
Guinea pigs will automatically recognize their own name after they’re familiar with their owners. Although it can take some time, with enough patience, they’ll learn their name on their own and you won’t need to teach them. But to make things faster, you could consider giving treats.
So every time you call their name and they react, you give them a treat. This way, you can teach them not only their name but different small words too such as “sleep” to indicate them for sleeping or “up” for making them go up to a couch or your hand.
Overall, words like “No”, “Come here” “Up” or “Down” for getting them up or down from a bed, sofa, or your hand, “ and “Bed” for making them move to their cage to sleep are simple enough for them to learn. Generally, you should avoid any phrase with more than three words when teaching them.
But if you want to know more about some easy-to-learn tricks, you can check out this article.
Accordingly, with enough patience, they can learn different words and their name, and you can give them treats whenever they get the words right. You should make sure to talk to them in a gentle voice too, so they won’t get scared.
If you want a visual representation, you can check out this YouTube video by Little Adventures.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have confusion about other related topics, you can have the most frequently asked questions we get —
Q: Do guinea pigs remember their names?
Yes. Generally, they will always remember their name if you interact with them at least a couple of times per week, and it’s very rare for them to forget their own name. However, they might forget a few words you taught them.
Q: How often should I give my guinea pig treats to teach them their name?
Give them treats every time for a few weeks to teach them their name. Naturally, teaching the name can take patience since you need to have a treat in your hand first. Then say their name out loud, and extend your hand with the treat. And after a while of doing this, they’ll learn their name.
Conclusion
The answer to the question “do guinea pigs know their name” is yes, and the great part is that you won’t even need to teach them their name most of the time. If you’ve had the guinea pig for a while and interacted with them a lot and called their name, they should know their name automatically.
But if not, you can always teach them manually by giving them treats. As a final note, we highly recommend you actually pick a simple enough name for them to understand. If the name is too complicated, it might be difficult to recognize.
Make sure you’re using a gentle voice and that they aren’t distracted by their surroundings too for making the learning process faster. With that said, good luck, and cheers!