Occasionally chewing on the bars of her pen

[CuteGuineas]

One of my new GPs has started occasionally chewing on the bars of her pen. What does that mean, and how can I get her to stop? So far I have tried distracting her by petting her (she actually sometimes lets me do that now) or giving her a veggie. Today I put a big chew wreath into the pen in hopes that she would chew that instead. They have no lack of things in their pen to chew on (a pinecone, toilet paper roll, Timothy hay braided "carrot," little ball made of sticks) but they don't seem overly interested in them.

[bpatters]

You'll save yourself a lot of useless effort and worry and, potentially, dental bills, if you'll just line the inside of her cage with plexiglass in the areas she chews. Mine only chewed the end of the cage closest to the kitchen, and the only thing that stopped it was lining that end.

[Sef]

Also, if you gave her a veggie in response to chewing the bars, you rewarded the behavior. Be careful not to teach her that bar chewing will give her treats or attention.

[Renonvsparky]

My Scruffy does that when he wants attention of any kind. I've tried everything to get him to stop it. Plexiglass in the spots where he does it would mean putting it up around the entire cage. Not sure that's feasible at this point. Doing so would enclose him more than I would like to.

Anytime I do anything with him whether it be feeding, water, hay, cleaning, love and attention, I do the same for all 4 of the piggies. What helps is to take care of him first. That cuts down on the cage biting quite a bit.