Can guinea pigs learn things? That is the question for today. I am Ludo, your host for Saturday’s post in the A to Z Challenge. We blog every day in April except for Sundays.

Learning and intelligence

Well, of course we can learn things. We’re not stupid, you know.

If you see a guinea pig in an isolation unit once every few days, he/she/they probably won’t have much to say to you. They may even hide. They have learned to look after themselves, and keep safe from stranger danger.

I was like that once. I was very confused, because my nice keeper was kind to me, and stroked me, and we liked each other….and then she disappeared. Someone threw some hay in my cage every now and then, and I learned to hide from people. Then came the day when my hutch was sold… and me still in it. The buyer took me to the rescue…more about that for letter R.

When I came to live with mummy, I had a companion, a baby called Locksley. I gather I was supposed to teach him how to be a guinea pig, but I didn’t know much myself. I taught him not to trust this person who brought us food, who tried to pick us up and stroke us. But he just got confused, because he was learning different things from her. Like how to go into the cosy tunnel or the blue tent to be picked up. Like how to take cucumber from her hand at early evening time.

Anyway, we all learned our daily routine, and what weather we needed so we could go out in the garden run. And Victor is absolutely brilliant at telling the time, and wheeking at mummy to alert her to our requirements. So I learnt from him to wheek at mummy when I wanted something. And it works!

And this year, I discovered that if I let mummy stroke me in the cage, I like it nearly as much as when I sit on her lap. She seems happy with that too. Am I being a bit hasty in letting her do this after only three and a half years? Everyone else seemed to let her do it within a couple of weeks.

I don’t think they are more intelligent than me, even if Pippin did teach mummy to put his tent at the end of the blue tunnel when he wants to come in after his run.

Fred and George, they were the really clever ones. Picking mummy then teaching her so much stuff about looking after us. George even let out the secret of our counting system. And Fred wrote all sorts of clever things.

But we all draw the line at being taught to do silly things like turn in circles for your entertainment. Fortunately mummy agrees with us. She must be a little bit clever, even if she doesn’t understand our speech as well as we understand hers.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Learning and Intelligence.

Ludo