How To Get Your Humans To Overfeed You

Hi, Cavy Savvy readers, Lola here. The humans have a nightly ritual with us: before they go to bed, they make sure we have plenty of hay and water, give us vitamin C syrup, and say good night. Then around 7:00AM, if the humans aren't already up, we wheek loudly for our favorite meal of the day- breakfast. We have some delicious Carefresh pellets, but we only get 1/4 cup a day. This is a problem for me! I love Carefresh food pellets, and I hate that we only get a measly ration once daily. Oh sure, the humans are concerned about overfeeding us, but I don't care! I want my pellets!

So lately, I've developed a genius plan to get more pellets each day. The humans say good night to us, and we pretend to snuggle up in our beds or in our pigloos. But then, in the dead of night (usually around 3:00AM), I start a guinea pig revolt. Out of nowhere, I start wheeking as loudly as my lungs can wheek. Buffy and Broccoli join in. Oh, the humans hear us alright, even though they sleep in a different room with their door closed. That's how loudly I wheek. They bolt up in bed and then run to the living room where our cage sits. They give us hay. They shush us. They try to pet us. But we won't stop wheeking until we get what we really want: Carefresh pellets!! See, the trick is to be inconsolable until they give you pellets. Then you can stop the theatrics.

It really works! I've tried it every night this week, and sure enough, the humans don't put up much of a fight at 3:00am. They're too tired. They are afraid of waking the neighbors. So it's an automatic win for us. Haha!

Th only flaw in my scheme is that I suspect the humans are planning something. I overheard them saying they were worried about "positive reinforcement" and that we might learn to wheek at 3AM if we know it means we'll get fed. I'm not sure what they're up to yet, but I saw the humans getting the bathing basin and the animal shampoo and- oh no. They wouldn't, would they? I'm going to be mighty displeased if tonight at 3AM I start wheeking and instead of getting pellets, they try giving me a BATH!