Tag Archives: climbing

can guinea pigs climb trees

Can Guinea Pigs Climb Trees?

Guinea pigs love to explore new places.

You may see them exploring all kinds of places that you may have set out for them in their cages and runs.

As prey animals, they are always on the lookout for places to hide especially in the wild when they are always being hunted by predators.

Guinea pigs are terrific prey animals

Guinea pigs use all kinds of methods to evade predators such as burrowing underground so that they are not seen.

  1. They can move around easily in the cover of darkness so that they are not as seen as easily as when they do so in the daytime.
  2.  They run incredibly quickly so as to evade predators who may not be able to run quickly.

However, there are some things which they are unable to.

Guinea pigs are not climbers

One of these things is that they are not able to climb at all. This is because;

  • They do not have the ability to pull themselves up with their legs and claws.
  • Their legs are too weak for that and will not hold them up.
  • Their bodies are also too heavy for them.

So they cannot climb places such as trees to get away from predators.

They just don’t have the strength to do it.

The best they can do is to stand up on their hind legs and their front legs resting on a vertical surface but they are unable to go any further.

They could use a step to push themselves up if the step was shallow enough for them to get onto.

They could also use rocks to clamber up which were at a sufficient angle.

But they can’t climb vertical surfaces such as trees or walls or anything else such as this.

So unlike some of their rodent cousins such as mice, rats and hamsters and gerbil, they are unable to climb up places.

Guinea pigs can’t climb trees unfortunately

This means that trees are unable to be climbed by guinea pigs.

So if you have one inside their run, do not worry they won’t be climbing it anytime soon.

Guinea pigs are strictly ground animals.

The proper term for this is terrestrial animals which mean to live only on land.

They are not even subterranean animals as they don’t live totally underground like moles do, just build their homes underground.

If they lived in trees they would be called arboreal creatures which are the term given to those creatures that live in trees like squirrels.

Even when it comes collecting food they are reliant on it dropping to the ground in order to get it as they are keen gatherers.

So don’t worry about guinea pigs climbing anywhere, they are quite happy on the roaming the ground.

guinea pig care

Can Guinea Pigs Climb Walls?

Guinea pigs are known for many things, running quickly, squeaking loudly, eating a lot to name but a few things, but can guinea pigs climb walls at all?

The thing with piggies is that one of the things that they can’t do is climb very well especially shear face walls.

If you’ve ever seen a guinea pig try and climb something. They need their hind legs to push them up and get a grip of of the thing they’re trying to climb.

They just aren’t built to do this like animals such as squirrels, rats and others.

So the good news is that if you have a wall around the cage or a wall at home and you let your guinea pigs run around, they won’t be able to clamber up the wall face at all. This includes types of surface with something to grip

If they try, they just can’t get a grip of the surface and so tend to give up. If the surface is at an angle of say 45 degrees then they might manage that but not a wall of 90 degrees.

This is why a lot of guinea pig cages have shallow walls around the without a roof on as they just can’t get out if them.

So if you are wondering if your guinea pig could scale a wall that is bigger than them, then fear not, they are not climbers at all.