Providing your guinea pig with toys helps to keep them exercised and entertained. However, with so many toys out there on the market, it can be difficult to know which type of toys to go for!
Luckily, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to provide enrichment for your pet. Simple homemade toys are often some of the best!
Keep reading on to find out which type of toys we recommend for your guinea pig and why they will love them.
Why Do Guinea Pigs Need Toys?
It is a common misconception that guinea pigs don’t need toys. However, without mental stimulation and toys to play with, you will find that your guinea pig becomes bored, especially if they are home alone all day.
A bored guinea pig can easily become a depressed guinea pig, drastically reducing their quality of life. Giving them some toys to play with to keep their brain engaged and to occupy time will ensure they live a very happy and healthy life.
What’s more, guinea pigs need a lot of exercise! While they’re only small animals, they need to burn off energy and keep active, just like they would in the wild. Certain toys, such as tunnels and mazes, will keep them moving when they’re stuck in their hutch.
Of course, when you’re home and able to supervise them, we advocate for you letting your guinea pigs out of their hutch for a proper run around to stretch their little legs and socialise with their rodent friends. To ensure their safety, you can use some type of enclosure, such as a puppy pen.
Types Of Toys For Guinea Pigs
There are a number of different types of toys your guinea pig may want to play with. You might need to try a few of these toys before you find one that your pig really loves. Take a look at some of the most popular toys below.
Tunnels
Guinea pigs are naturally burrowing animals, so they will love a tunnel to play with. This will help mimic their wild behavior!
You can either make tunnel toys at home, or buy from a pet store or online. A cardboard tube works well as a DIY tunnel, or you could buy a wicker, grass or wood tunnel that your guinea will also like to gnaw on.
Chew Toys
It’s no secret that guinea pigs like to chew. Chewing is a way for guinea’s to prevent boredom, and also helps to keep their teeth in check and filed down.
There are lots of chew toys out there for you to try. You can use homemade ones out of paper, cardboard and hay, or buy grass balls that your pig can roll around their hutch and munch on when they like.
Chew sticks are another good option — just make sure you choose high-quality wood sticks that are specially formulated for guinea pigs.
Cardboard Toys
Cardboard and paper toys are not only the cheapest toys for your guinea pig, but they’re also some of the most fun! Simple to make at home, you can be as creative as you like and create hours of entertainment for your guinea.
One of the easiest toys that your guinea pig will love is some simple crumpled up and shredded paper! Crumple up some paper and place it inside your pet’s hutch, and they can take their time ripping it, digging through it and enjoying the noise it makes!
You can also give your guinea old cardboard boxes, such as shoe boxes. They can use the boxes as hideouts, and also nibble on them for a tasty snack.
Cardboard tubes make great tunnel toys or places to hide, and you can add hay inside for them to burrow through and munch on. Getting more creative, you could use multiple tubes and boxes to create a cardboard maze for your guinea pig. Use treats to reward them for getting to the end!
Treat Toys
Treat toys are toys in which you hide treats for your guinea pig to find! Usually ball shaped toys, your pig will have loads of fun trying to work out how to get the treat to fall out.
These toys help to mentally stimulate your guide a pig and prevent them from getting bored, as they provide your furry friend with a little puzzle to solve for a tasty prize!
Forage Toys
Foraging is another behavior engrained into your guinea pig. With foraging toys, much like treat toys, you can hide treats within the toy and they will have to forage to get it out!
You can make foraging toys easily at home with cardboard tubes and hay. Put the hay inside the tube, and then hide the treats inside the hay!
To make it more complicated and to keep your guinea entertained, you can even make a maze or obstacle course with added treats to forage for. This can keep your pig mentally stimulated for hours, and you can always add more twists and turns and reuse the maze over and over.
Snuffle and foraging mats are another great option for your guinea pig. Usual made of out a material like fleece, these mats have places to hide treats for your pet to seek out.
Toys To Avoid
While there are some excellent toys out there for your guinea pig, there are also some toys which you should avoid.
Climbing and platform toys are not suitable for guinea pigs. While climbing toys are popular with other small animal owners, such as rabbit owners, guinea pigs are too small for these type of toys and the climbing motion can actually harm their bodies.
If you want to add some platforms to your guinea pig’s space, make sure to include lots of ramps with a gentle incline. Ensure these ramps are not too steep, otherwise your pig may be seriously injured.
Another type of toy to stay away from are wheel and ball toys, normally popular with hamster owners. Unfortunately, guinea pigs have a very delicate bone structure, and they are not built to use these types of toys. In fact, wheel and ball toys can cause fatalities in guinea pigs.
If you are looking for a way to exercise your guinea pig without a typical exercise toy, offering them a large space to run around in and lots of suitable toys from our list above is the best way to keep them moving. As long as your guinea isn’t cooped up in a small space with no room to move all day long, they’ll have plenty of resources to exercise and keep active!
