Guinea pigs
Facts about guinea pigs:
Did you know that the name for a male Guinea pig is a ‘boar’, the name for a female Guinea pig is a ‘sow?
Did you know that a baby guinea pig is called a pup?
You can tell that a guinea pig is happy because they ‘purr’.
Guinea pigs need to drink water to stop getting thirsty but actually get a lot of water from eating grass.
Guinea pigs will eat all day and night.
They are vegetarians and love green grass and vegetables
When they sense their owner is nearby they will squeak to get their attention.
They are very social animals and love the company of others, even humans.
They do not bite in defense and will only bite because they think your hand is food.
They need a supplement of vitamin c as they do not produce it themselves.
Guinea pigs love to be held as they love contact.
After they are born, male guinea pigs need to be taken away from their
mother’s as they may try and mate with her after a month.
Guinea pigs really don’t like the weather when it’s really hot or really cold, they like it somewhere in-between.
Guinea pigs are really easy to handle as they are very tame.
When you are holding a guinea pig, the way to settle it down if its
wriggling too much is to bring your hand under its back-side and it will
stop wriggling.
Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs? Some people think that the term
‘guinea’ is actually a mispronunciation of the country of ‘Guyana’
which is in south America where Guinea pigs come from
Guinea pigs have the ability to live on their own up to 5 days after being born.
Did you know that doctors in the Andes mountains in South America
have been known to use guinea pigs to find illnesses in people? What
they do is to put the guinea pig up against the sick person and it will
let out a squeak when they close to where the disease is.
Did you know that guinea pig pups can run after 3 hours of being born?
When they live in the wild, guinea pigs go around in herds.
Did you know that when guinea pig pups are born they have all their
fur? Guinea pig pups also have their eyes open, have claws that they can
use and are able to eat solid food.
Guinea pigs can’t sweat like humans can and so can get heat stroke if
they are left out in the sun or become too hot. They love to sit in the
shade whenever possible.
Guinea pigs have a total of 258 bones in their body.
Guinea pigs have a very good field of vision and are able to see around
them so as to detect predators. However they can’t see anything straight
in front of their noses which means they don’t see what they eat.
They use touch a great deal to find food and have tactile hairs around
the eyes, mouth and nostrils to detect food and and to help moving
around in the dark.
When they are in their herds they rely on each other for safety. For
this reason, there are more eyes, ears and noses to sense out trouble if
it comes their way and the predator has a harder time catching a herd
than individual guinea pigs.
Guinea pigs are fast and agile and can turn without pausing.
They are able to memorise their tracks and grass tunnels so as to escape their predators.
They are able to get into very tiny cracks and crevices so you need to
be careful when making a home for them as they can escape through small
cracks.
Guinea pigs squeal when they are frightened however they may also go
totally silent when frightened as well. Guinea pigs have also been known
to sing by rubbing their teeth in an unusual way which indicates that
it is very scared.
pictures of guinea pigs:
