Guinea pig -Erakina

Every living organism is cute and best in its way. Every organism has a reason for its existence in this world. They balance the food chain and maintain the cycle of life. Many little creatures like rodents and mammals are living in the wild and as well as in the homes of people as pets. Likewise today we are going to see about Guinea Pigs and some facts about them.

Guinea Pig

A guinea pig and a little girl

The Guinea pig(Cavia Porcellus) is a small organism that belongs to the group of rodents. It belongs to the family of Caviidae. They are smaller in size and they live underground. They burrow themselves in a place where they can have a good source of food. They have four toes in front and 3 on the back. They have sharp little claws which help them to make digging a burrow easy. They have round eyes, small noses, and small ears. Different species have different colors of eyes like red, brown, black, and blue. Many people say they get the name Guinea pig because of they were shipped from the port of Guinea. Guinea pig is also a derogatory term that mentions humans who are test subjects in scientific study. 

A Guinea pig eating green

They weigh around 1-1.5 kg and 20-50cm in height. They have furry hair on the top of their body which differs from silky smooth to sometimes little rough. They have whiskers around the nose like mammals. The Guinea pig has different colors like black, white, orange and white mixed, golden brown, etc. Herbivores in nature eat leaves, grass, and greens. They don’t need more water because they eat food with moisture in them that fills the sufficient amount of water needed for them. But the moisture isn’t there they need water for their body needs. The female will give birth to 5-13 young toddlers. The gestation period takes around 52-68 days. The females reach maturity in 2 months and males in 3. Most of the time young babies don’t get milk-fed by their mother and they eat grass after they are born. 

The history of the Guinea pigs is they were present around 3000 years ago and they were domesticated for food and petting. But in the 16th century Europeans took the Guinea pig back from Peru to Europe. After that, they were reproduced and used as pets in houses. Queen Elizabeth had a Guinea pig when she was a child. 

Facts about Guinea Pigs

A closeup shot of a guinea pig

There are a lot of facts about Guinea pigs but here we see some of the important and amazing facts in the following.

• The origin of the Guniea pig is from Andes mountain, South America.
• The female guinea pig is called a sow and males are called a boar. 
• The lifetime of the Guinea pigs is up to 4-8 years. The long-lived Guinea Pig is Snowball who lived 14 years and 10 and half months.
• They sleep only four hours a day. They are active in the morning and not much in the evening. During this time they do activities like keeping track of their environment, eating, grooming, etc
• They pee in different colors. When they pee in a place that place becomes powdery white because of the presence of calcium in it. When their pee looks pink to red it may maybe possible to infections or urinary stone problems.
• They have a good vision comparing humans and they can see colors in their vision.
• Guinea pigs are smarter in their ways like they can able to remember the pathway of food resources. 
• They have a good hearing capability by which they can able to hear sound from 50-50,000hz which humans can’t hear. 
• They communicate with one another using squeaky sounds and some sounds can be in lower hertz which humans can’t hear. 
• They are allergic to penicillin medicine. It may cause different behavior and diarrhea in them. Sometimes even death.
• Rabbits and guinea pigs shouldn’t be kept in the same place. Because they don’t get along and sometimes rabbit disease may affect guinea pigs.
• In 1961 guinea pigs went on a journey to space in Soviet Sputnik 9 spacecraft.

These are some of the facts about the Guinea pig and its characteristics. In today’s world other than petting they are also used in scientific research. Kids above 5 can start their petting with Guinea. So let’s adore these little buddies and enjoy ourselves.

Mukesh Kumar U M

Date: 04/05/2022