Music is all pervasive in human culture.
Have an intense workout session? Listen to “Eye of the Tiger” and you will push through the session like a tiger. Broke up with your love? Put on weepy love songs and wallow in pain. Perhaps, you have a set of playlists for every occasion. The point is we love music.
So, as a responsible guinea pig owner, you may wonder if guinea pigs like music as well. If you love music and like to put it on the speaker now and then, continue reading. In this article, we are not only going to learn if guinea pigs like music or not. But also what music do guinea pigs like?
Do Guinea Pigs Like Music?
While there is no scientific research to prove that guinea pigs like music, many guinea pig owners find their guinea pigs like soft and calming music. While putting on music for your guinea pigs, you should keep in mind that guinea pigs have a great sense of hearing and thus loud and abrasive music would be scary and stressful for guinea pigs. No matter the type of music, you should always put it on low soft volume for your guinea pigs.
What Music Do Guinea Pigs Like?
Where almost all guinea pig owners seem to agree that they like classical music, some owners also find their guinea pigs enjoying soft jazz. For some guinea pigs lullabies and fairly slow, chime-like sounds work the best.
Whatever music you are putting on for your guinea pigs, just keep in mind their high sensitivity to sound.
How to Find What Music Does Your Guinea Pig Like?
Soft classical music always seems to work with guinea pigs.
But like we humans have different tastes in music, different guinea pigs may have different preferences. You can play different songs to your guinea pigs and find out what they like and what they did not, based on their body language. While doing this you should keep in mind that loud music is damaging for guinea pigs, so you can only play soft and calming music.
You may try playing the piano versions of your favorite songs, sounds of water, and other relaxing sounds. Sounds of ocean waves and soft flutes also seem to be the favorite of many guinea pigs.
By observing your guinea pigs’ body language, you will be able to tell if your guinea pig is liking a certain song or not. Here are a few signs that your guinea pig is enjoying the music:
- Guinea pig relaxing and blinking or closing its eyes
- Guinea pig making happy purring or chirping sounds
- Guinea pigs continue to do whatever they were doing
- Popcorning—Guinea pig jumping around and twisting in a playful manner
- Pancaking—fully relaxed and comfortable guinea pig lies down like a pancake with its feet kicked out
Does Music Calm Guinea Pigs?
Based on the anecdotal evidence, we can say that soft and calming music can calm guinea pigs. Many guinea pig owners claim that soft music puts their guinea pigs to sleep. While it is the piano covers that seem to calm some guinea pigs, for others it is soft flute music, and yet other guinea pigs find the sounds of ocean waves calm and relaxing.
Once you have found the music that slams your guinea pigs and put them to sleep, you should stick with it. Unlike humans, our guinea pigs don’t get bored by listening to the same music over and over again. Rather you should put the music on repeat. Listening to familiar sounds is comforting for guinea pigs.
Some guinea pig owners found that when they put on soft flute music while handling guinea pigs, their guinea pigs would mellow in their lap and would try to stay in their lap for long periods.
What Music to Play for Your Guinea Pigs?
If you don’t know where to start looking for a favorite song for your guinea pigs, here is a list of music that you can try:
- Try soft classical and soft jazz
- Soft flute and piano
- Sounds of ocean waves
- Soft rock, country, folk, even opera
- Soft lullabies
- Birds chirping and cats meow
- YouTube videos claiming calming music for guinea pigs
- Try softly singing while handling a guinea pig
What Music Do Guinea Pigs Hate?
Guinea pigs have sensitive hearing and they just hate loud noises. While music preferences vary from guinea pig to guinea pigs, generally, guinea pigs hate blasting heavy metal and piercing music. Besides that, hard rock like heavy metal, or anything containing loud sounds like crashes, guns, etc. would be frightening for guinea pigs. If your guinea pig seems to be unable to maintain its normal activity after you put the music on, know that your piglet is not liking it.
