The Cavy(Guinea Pig) Lovers Club

[spiderfish]

Anyone around familiar with guinea pig genetics?
Need someone to tell me whether one of my girls has roaning or not. Kind of urgently.

Please PM me for pictures.

[Pokeperson]

I would like to be apart of it because I had two giney pigs Junie and carrot they both past carrot past at my old house and Junie past relentlessly so I would love to be a part of this!!!!!!!!!!!!

[_breezy_star_]

I brought Ray home last night (on the right).
This is him with his new big brother, Jaxon.

[cocoawolfz]

awww how cute!

[guinea piggy]

Aww, I miss my guinea pigs so much
Ever since they died I got this weird phobia
I got a huge phobia of bones, mainly skulls and mainly guinea pig bones, not seen a guinea pig skull since I was a kid but it scared me so much

Rip childhood, I was obsessed with guinea pigs
(I have still got a bad habit of putting my hands like a meerkat) and I used to squeak like guinea pigs when I was a kid xD
Is anyone else scared of bones?

[BudgieLover5000]

Hiii guys, sorry if this is not the place to ask this, but I have some questions for reasons you can read below:

1. How much cold can they deal with? Any tips for keeping them safe and warm in an outside setting (inside a shed built for them)?

2. Does anyone have any good information on naturally feeding them without pellets?

3. People generally keep a pair or so; can you keep more than that together provided they have adequate space? I was thinking of keeping a herd of females that I could introduce males to periodically for breeding purposes. I don't want the males to be alone, either, but I read somewhere they'll fight if they smell females. Is this true?

The reason I ask is because I would like to *eat* them. While it's legal where I live, it's not common at all, so I'm not sure what I'm doing.
Thank you and have a nice day!

[leg]

snip

1. the ideal temperature for guinea pigs to live in is around 65-75 degrees f / 16-24 c. i live in england, average room temp in my house (excluding summer etc) is 20 c, but you might want to look around on forums.

2. naturally feeding without pellets is sometimes a lot of work. i’ve seen people feed a veg/fruit/grass diet only due to their gpig’s health reasons, but it can be quite expensive. general diet for guinea pigs is pellets (before my gpigs passed i used excel pellets and after that a specific grain-free brand) and certain vegetables. fruit is sugary and usually given as a treat.

3. i’ve kept trios before two times. two boys and a girl is a no-go, they’ll become usually become aggressive. two or more girls and one boy is possible. the main things is space. even peaceful pairs/trios will become aggressive. more space the better. males and females can be kept in the same room usually, but i’m not certain about how safe it is during heat. i’ve seen two males be in a caged above two females to prevent a female dropping creating an argument.

there is a different guinea pig type known as cuy, bred in peru as meat - much, much more skittish and a bit larger than domestic pet guinea pigs.

if you’re breeding guinea pigs to eat, they might be contain more maintenance than some others due to their diet and sometimes ease in getting sick. keeping in mind i’ve had guinea pigs as pets rather than raising for meat. is it possible for you to order guinea pig meat from overseas (hopefully humane) companies?

[BudgieLover5000]

Thank you for the answers! They were very helpful.

I probably could buy the meat from overseas, but i'm intending to breed them as an alternative to rabbits - namely they're smaller (better size as a meal for one person) and I find them more appealing than rabbits, which is a big factor as I would like to enjoy the animals I raise. I'm very much into humane meat as well but I don't want to deal with larger animals.

[Zero ❍]

I feel like she has answered the majority of your questions ^^ I just want to say from my personal experience to be careful with breeding guinea pigs. It is very dangerous for both the mother and her offspring. Because of the sheer size of the piglets, there is a high probability that it will kill the mother. I have had accidently had two litters of guinea pigs. One of which the mother died after childbirth and only one of her piglets survived and my second had only half her litter survive. It is a common thing talked about online. It is a very rough experience considering the young are born so large with fur, claws, and teeth.

//Also, might I salute you for having the guts to come and ask that question on here X"D Considering it is a guinea pig "lovers" club...//

[HowlToTheWind]

Hey all ^-^ I've got 4 piggies;

Thistle - Grey agouti American piebald female, she lives in her own cage
Wilbur - Red-brown Amercian mix male with a bit of white on his face, lives in a cage with his twin brother Orville
Orville - Red-brown American mix male with a bit of white on his face, lives in a cage with his brother Wilbur
Joshua - Josh is primarily a creamy fawn-brown color with patches of a more saturated fawn color, grey agouti, black, and some white as well as red-brown similar to Wilbur and Orville. He is an Abyssinian, no doubt. He even has a little Mohawk lol. He has his own cage.

We suspect Wilbur and Orville have anxiety, because if they are separated too long they start frantically squeaking until you put them together. Wilbur and Orville are my boys, and they know I'm their mother. Usually they run away from my siblings and towards me, and when they want to go home they jump up on my arms. They are big boys, around 3 or 4 pounds, no matter how much exercise they get. They look like really pregnant females but they aren't XD we think they are partly meat pigs because no pig we've seen so far is that big. they look like this guy when they are up like that

Joshua is a biter, if you try and touch his chin, you get bitten, you try and move him from his blankie, you get bitten, you touch him when he does not wish to be touched, you get bitten XD he desires cuddles, blankies, and food. Lots and lots of food. XD Thistle is a bit harder to get OUT of her cage, but once she's out she just wants a soft fuzzy blankie and cuddles <3 I have no idea which of the pigs are fixed and which aren't, Wilbur and Orville were from the shelter and no one can remember if their shelter card said fixed or not, but they were only 2 weeks so I don't think they were. Anyway, I'll try and get some pictures of them tomorrow <3