I’m losing my passion, patience and love for my piggies, and I feel horrible about it.

So I know what I’m going to say is gonna sound horrible and i feel bad about it, but of there is any place I think I can get any advice or support I think it’s here. Please be kind and respectful. This is going to be really long but I want to clear anything up that i can.

I got 2 female guinea pigs back in November 2023. They came from a friend of a friend. She was on a pet hoarding spree. A hamster, a bird, fish, piggies and at last a puppy. (Me and my partner have a theory that the puppy got to them maybe). I was seeing this happen in real life and tried to get her to stop to no avail.

Early November she told me she was selling the bird, the hamster already passed (within a year of purchase), she gave the fish away and asked me if I was interested in adopting her piggies. I was looking for a pet at the time, thinking of a bunny or maybe a kitten at the time. Maybe even starting with fostering kittens just to get to know cat behavior. But when she asked me about the piggies I started to research and found this sub and lots of videos of owners who really bonded with their guinea pigs. I also read about their timidness and how to get them to trust you. My partner also used to have Guinea piggies when he was little and we talked about it all evening and he said they were lovely (he had them when he was a little boy tho). He told me to go for it as it would be a great fit for us and he would love to keep them as an adult.

I messaged my friend that i would take them from her and within maybe 3 hours they were in my living room. She had those awful treats, dangerous toys, colorful hamster food, parfum balls and wood-chips. The piggies looked healthy but had really long nails. (I later found out that the “veggies” she gave them were like a banana peel every other day). Long story short I invested a lot for my girls. Buy specific veggies for them, grow my herbs, sew hides for them and try to at least give them an hour of attention. They have an appropriate C&C cage, hay, water, playthings, hides, beds and get fresh pepers at night and herbs every few hours.

Ive tried to give them floor time but they kept running from me. So I bought a huge kid’s playpen for floor time but they were so terrified they were only hiding. So I tried smaller interaction so they maybe wouldn’t be as terrified of me. I tried hand feeding. I was finally getting some progress. One of the girls started to wheek!! She sometimes dared to eat something out my hand, she was still really skittish tho. The other girl was almost warming up and taking pea flakes from me (rarely tho). I was feeling so great about it, almost euphoric. And then cleaning day came. I already stretched it way beyond the limits just because I was so scared of crushing their progress.

I picked them up as gently as i could with a sack and put them in the playpen for as long as i was cleaning. They were terrified. I had so hoped it was just because of the new temporary environment, but no. I kept the cage exactly how it used to be, just changed bedding and cleaned. And now every time I come near they are as scared as the first time they saw me. They wont eat in front of me let alone from my hand. They are so terrified I honestly feel like garbage about it.

I also feel so demoralized by this. I was finally seeing a spec of progress and now its all gone again. My boyfriend tells me its not on me and im not doing anything wrong but this is really weird behavior because he would’ve thought they would at least warm up a little by now. I realize how bad it sounds but at this point I feel bad looking at them and they feel like a never ending chore every day.

I also wanted to mention that I have nothing against “neutral” pets like fish and reptiles (I used to own a snake (rip)). But this isn’t neutral, its just painful to see them constantly panicked. Any advice would be helpful.