WATHWOODCAVIESCARE2

CAVY HABITS

Below are listed some cavy habits that you will see every day and one less common one.

POPCORNING

Popcorning is a highly amusing past-time that cavies love. Basically it is the cavy equivalent of a cat's 'mad half hour' and involves jumping up in the air, twisting and running around at high speed.Youngsters do it more often than adults and if you watch them they just seem to 'pop' into the air for no reason. Sometimes they go up facing one direction and land facing the opposite. Also they sometimes put their heads between their front paws and wiggle mid flight. I have had a 2 week old baby popcorn nearly a foot in the air and cover a distance of about 2 foot. Popcorning is a very good sight as it means the cavies are happy and healthy. You will never see a sick, depressed cavy popcorn. My cavies have a popcorning session when it is feed time or especially if I put a pile of fresh hay in their cages.
As said above, popcorning is highly amusing to watch and I would say it is impossible to see a baby cavy popcorn and you not laugh.

RUMBLESTRUTTING

Rumblestrutting is when a cavy makes a deep rumble, similar to a purr, and repeatedly shifts weight between the back legs so their bottoms wiggle. They are sort of pacing on the spot. It is usually a sign of dominance and boars usually do it to show that they are the boss. Sows will also do it to each other especially if they are in a group. It is also involved in courtship and boars again, do it to a sow as though to say "you are my mate and I am going to mate with you". I have seen sows look at boars rumblestrutting with a puzzled look on their faces as though he had lost his marbles.

THE 'SONG'

This strange phenomenon is not yet fully understood and has to be witnessed to be appreciated.
The cavy doing it will start panting in short, sharp breaths sort of like a 'ha, ha, ha, it will be sitting high on its haunches with its head held up. After a while it will start chirping while continuing with the panting. It sounds very much like a little bird cheeping and if you didn't know it was your cavy you could easily mistake it for such. The cavy singing stares straight ahead as though in a trance and other cavies nearby stop what they are doing and remain motionless. It is reported that this behaviour is only exhibited by sows as no one has witnessed a boar do it.. It was first assumed that it was caused by stress but it can happen when all is quiet and well. I have only had one 'singer' so far. She was called Sally and she was a peruvian. It happened one night when I was feeding them all and when I had put food in the cage where Sally lived, she suddenly started panting. It looked like exhaustion at first because I have seen sows pant in this way just after giving birth. Then she started chirping. It is a very strange thing, the whole atmosphere seems to change. All the other cavies stopped what they were doing and just sat there. I was watching her while she was doing it but I looked away at one point and she stopped and looked at me. When I looked back at her she carried on where she left off. I did this twice more and each time she stopped and looked at me until I looked back then she carried on. If she could speak she would probably have said "I'm singing for you here, you could at least pay attention". When she had stopped, her two young daughters went up to her to see if she was ok and then that was it, she went to get her supper.

UPDATE
Since the above text was written, I have had a few more 'singers' and have even had a boar who did it.

On the next page are photos from in the shed.