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- The best places to find and adopt a guinea pig
- The gear and daily care needed to make sure that he settles in at home
- Feeding, grooming, and taming tips to keep your pet healthy and happy
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Meet the Guinea Pig
Long a favorite among pet owners, guinea pigs are friendly animals who enjoy human companionship and are fairly easy to care for. They make excellent pets for young and old alike—anyone capable of providing them with the care and environment they need to thrive.
Appearance
Guinea pigs are small and stocky animals and usually weigh 1–3 pounds (0.5–1 kg) at maturity. They have rounded, mostly hairless ears on top of their heads; large, round eyes set slightly to the sides of their heads; and flat noses.
There are three basic guinea pig coat types—long, short, and rough—but within those three types are 23 different variations of color and pattern. For example, some guinea pigs are single colored and can be beige, black, chocolate, cream, lilac, or red. Others may have bands of different colors running through their fur, and still others may have patches of solid colors on their bodies.
Guinea Pig Breeds
There are 13 recognized breeds of guinea pig that vary mostly by coat. Depending on the breed, your pet may have smooth, short hair, or he may have a kinky or curly coat. The hair may also flow freely in long locks. For example, the American guinea pig is a smooth-coated, short-haired, sleek animal, while the Peruvian guinea pig has dense, soft sweeps that grow several inches long from the body, which can make it difficult to tell the front end of the animal from the back end.
Natural History
Guinea pigs are tailless, plant-eating mammals of the family Caviidae. They originated in South America and are relatives of the porcupine and chinchilla. Although they have been domesticated since roughly 5000 BCE, their wild relatives still inhabit forest edges, savannahs, and swamps from Colombia to Argentina. These wild guinea pigs live in small groups in burrows, emerging at night to forage for plant materials to eat.
Guinea Pig Behavior
Unlike hamsters and other small animals kept as pets, guinea pigs are diurnal, which means they’re awake in the morning and sleep at night, although they often also nap during the afternoon. They generally have docile temperaments that make them easy to care for and handle and are not likely to bite, although yours may nip gently if you are holding him when he needs to eliminate.
Guinea pigs usually develop close bonds with their owners. With proper handling and sufficient attention, your guinea pig is likely to become quite affectionate and content to snuggle in the crook of your arm or nuzzle your neck while sitting on your shoulder.
Body Language
Though guinea pigs generally aren’t as active as mice or hamsters, they do have certain moves and behaviors that indicate their moods to other guinea pigs—and which you can also learn to interpret. The following table lists some of the most common guinea pig body language and what each behavior means.
Guinea Pig Behavior |
What It Means |
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Popcorning (shaking, skipping, and leaping around) |
A sign of happiness and
contentment |
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Rumblestrutting (swaying at another animal and making a rumbling sound) |
An attempt either to
intimidate a rival or to
attract a mate |
|
Fluffing up the fur |
An attempt to appear larger and more menacing to show dominance over another |
|
Inactivity—lounging in one spot |
A sign of being perfectly comfortable in his
surroundings |
|
Freezing low to the ground |
A fearful reaction. The guinea pig feels alarmed or threatened by something nearby |
Vocalizations
Initially, most guinea pigs are shy around people they don’t know, but guinea pigs that have become accustomed to their owners will often whistle to show their delight at seeing them and may purr happily while being petted or groomed. Some guinea pigs also squeal for attention, while others make the noise only when being mishandled or mistreated.
Guinea pigs have a variety of other vocalizations that they use regularly to communicate with each other. These sounds include chirrups, chuts, chutters, drrs, purrs, squeals, wheeks, and whines. Each of these sounds means something different.
- Chirrup: The chirrup can mean several different things to a guinea pig. It may indicate some disturbance or mild upset in his world, or he may simply use it to draw attention to himself.
- Chut: The chut is one of the most common guinea pig vocalizations. It indicates that he’s content with his home and interested in his surroundings. Guinea pigs chut to one another and also to themselves while exploring their cages or their surroundings when let out of their enclosures.
- Chutter: Chutters indicate that your guinea pig is mildly unhappy. He chutters when he wants to be left alone or when something is slightly upsetting to him.
- Drrr: A guinea pig makes this sound when startled by a loud noise or something else out of the ordinary. These sounds are usually followed by the animal freezing in place out of fear.
- Purr: The opposite of the drrr, this sound indicates a happy, contented guinea pig. Yours is likely to make this sound when you pet him, for example. Courting guinea pigs also purr as they circle and sway to indicate their interest in each other.
- Squeal: A squealing guinea pig is in need of attention. He may be in pain, or another guinea pig may be bullying him.
- Wheek: An excited guinea pig makes this sound when he senses that his owner is bringing him food or when he’s let out of the cage for some cuddling or playtime. Multiple guinea pigs also wheek to one another to indicate where they are in the home when they’re out of their cage.
- Whine: An upset guinea pig often follows a chuttering sound with a whine. This indicates that he is very unhappy with something in his surroundings.
Keeping Multiple Guinea Pigs
Unlike many other small animals who are kept as pets, guinea pigs are sociable and used to being in groups. If you will likely be away from home for long periods during the day, it may be best to keep more than one guinea pig so that the animals can keep each other company.
Keep males with males or females with females—or have your animals spayed or neutered—because guinea pigs breed readily and often. Many new owners don’t realize their pets are going to have a litter until the female begins to look very pregnant.
Guinea Pigs and Other Pets
Guinea pigs can coexist with certain other pets in the same household, but many pets will have to adjust to having the new arrival share a home with them. The following are some common pets and how they are likely to get along with a guinea pig.
- Birds: Birds and guinea pigs normally get along well together, but you must supervise them at all times to ensure that a playful bird doesn’t accidentally injure the guinea pig with a nip from his beak.
- Cats: Some cats view guinea pigs as potential prey, while others may bond well with them: this depends on the individual cat. Use caution when introducing a cat and a guinea pig, and supervise all interactions between them.
- Dogs: The amount of interest a dog displays in a guinea pig varies by breed. Terriers, most hounds, and sporting breeds may see a guinea pig as potential quarry and hunt him instinctively. Herding or working breeds, on the other hand, may want to herd or protect the guinea pig from harm. Toy breeds may view him as an equal because of their similar sizes and may bond well with him. Regardless of the breed of dog you have, supervise all interactions between your pets to protect the health of both animals.
- Ferrets: Ferrets were originally bred to hunt small rodents, so it’s unwise to keep a guinea pig and a ferret in the same home. Your guinea pig will likely become stressed from being around the ferret, who may view him as a meal and try to attack him.
- Hamsters: Hamsters and guinea pigs should never live together in the same cage. They have completely opposite sleep and activity schedules, and hamsters tend to be nippy when they’re awakened from a nap. They also have different dietary requirements, which makes sharing a cage problematic. If you want to keep hamsters and guinea pigs, house them separately from one another and don’t allow them to socialize.
- Rabbits: Rabbits and guinea pigs don’t tend to get along well with one another. Rabbits are often territorial and may injure a guinea pig who enters their space by kicking or biting him. Rabbits can also carry a bacterium called Bordetella, which can cause pneumonia in guinea pigs. If you already keep rabbits in your home, you may not want to acquire a guinea pig.
| Text & Photos Copyright © 2007 TFH Publications, Inc. | Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
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