Guinea pigs cannot climb out of their cages unless they use rocks or ramps to do so. They cannot climb out by themselves because their legs are too short compared to the rest of their bodies. Any incline exceeding 30 degrees will cause them to lose balance.
What You'll Learn
A guinea pig owner’s top priority is the safety and well-being of their pet. To ensure your guinea pig is healthy and happy, you need to create a safe environment in its cage.
However, beyond the four walls of its enclosure, the guinea pig has little defense against the surrounding environment.
A guinea pig that climbs out of its cage would be exposed to the dangers of an unfamiliar environment, as well as the possibility of serious injury from falling from the top of the cage.
To ensure the safety of guinea pigs, every guinea pig owner should know the likelihood of their pet climbing out of the cage.
Are Guinea Pigs Able to Climb?
Although guinea pigs are not the most athletic creatures, they do possess some ability to climb, just not very well. Guinea pigs can climb up inclines and ramps of up to 30 degrees, but are severely limited to anything beyond that.
The guinea pigs lack of climbing prowess is rooted in its physical build. A guinea pig’s front legs aren’t strong enough to pull its weight up steep slopes or walls like its rodent relatives, which usually are strong climbers.
A guinea pig’s lack of strength makes climbing out of a cage a bit too difficult. The steepness of a typical cage wall makes it impossible for the guinea pig to scale it.
Furthermore, guinea pigs have little grip strength in their paws, which prevents them from latching onto any wire walls to help them pull themselves up.
As long as the cage is a normal size (usually two-foot-tall cages are the recommended dimensions), the guinea pig will be completely unable to climb out of the cage without any additional help.
Will Guinea Pigs Attempt to Escape Their Cages?
Despite being unable to escape, guinea pigs do sometimes enjoy climbing, taking advantage of any ramp or easy-to-climb object in the cage for exercise.
To keep an eye out for predators, guinea pigs in the wild will occasionally climb to higher spots. Your guinea pig will still have this climbing instinct despite not having predators to worry about.
However, a pet guinea pig will not fight very hard to reach a new view if the climb is too difficult or strenuous.
Your pet guinea pig most likely prefers to be closer to the ground than high places. Since the guinea pig is naturally a prey animal, it will instinctively avoid open areas. Instead, it prefers to hide close to the ground and under various objects rather than being exposed at height.
With the guinea pig already seeking not to push their climbing abilities, a guinea pig attempting to climb out of its cage is essentially pointless. Guinea pigs understand their limitations sufficiently to not attempt to climb out of cages on their own.
However, if given help from an easily climbable ramp to the direct exit of the cage, a guinea pig may attempt to climb out of the cage and escape. The good news is that these instances are easily avoidable.
How to Prevent Guinea Pigs From Climbing Out of their Cages.
Because they lack athletic abilities and a passion for daring heights, guinea pigs cannot climb out of their cages. Nevertheless, a grand escape for a guinea pig is not impossible if the items in the cage are situated so that the guinea pig can climb them.
The guinea pig can still climb up ramps with a small incline, so a ramp that leads directly to the cage’s opening would help a guinea pig climb out of a cage.
It is easy to avoid these incidents by simply checking the cage to ensure that no ramps or climbable objects can lead directly to the cage’s exit.
Keeping the guinea pig from climbing out of the cage is crucial for its safety, since any ramp or object that it could climb on could be unsafe or unstable. Falling from a ramp’s height could cause serious injury since the guinea pig’s joints aren’t designed for impact.
However, even if the cage has ramps leading to the exit, all is not lost. A guinea pig would not be able to undo a safety hatch that would keep the cage enclosure safe. So even if the guinea pig was able to reach the top exit, it still would not be able to climb out of the cage.
Despite this, it is recommended not to even allow the guinea pig the chance to climb out of the cage by simply making sure that nothing makes it possible for the guinea pig to begin his cage climb. If the cage is safe, the guinea pig will be safe.
A Guinea Pig Escape is Unlikely
The guinea pig is physically incapable of climbing out of cages without the help of easily accessible ramps that lead to the cage’s exit because of its limited ability to climb steep surfaces.
Guinea pig owners shouldn’t worry about their pets trying to escape since a guinea pig’s natural tendency is to be closer to the ground and safely in their cages.
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