farm guinea pigs (meat cavy!)

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Down in Oklahoma lately we haven't had much of a "winter" these past couple years so I'm also debating keeping them out like the rabbits.

Beware that during the thousands of years when guinea pigs were being domesticated, for that whole time, they were kept in houses. They were kept running around in a back room with a ledge at the doorway, where people stepped over but the ledge kept their guinea pigs in. Guinea pigs were living at the same room temperature, with the same draft conditions (or lack of draft) that the people maintained for themselves. They were not kept outside.

This domestication situation started something like 5000 - 9000 years ago. All those hundreds and hundreds of years in those rooms, in those houses, formed the guinea pigs we have today. There is no wild cavia porcellus. It was born and made in those rooms.

In the 1500s, the first guinea pigs were brought over to Europe, ie: 500 years ago. They were kept indoors there, too.

That's the core of the guinea pigs we have today. Housing them outdoors means doing something to them that has not been done since the beginning of their existence. If it's done it would have to be done with the utmost of care, and the conditions would need to be right for them despite them being outdoors.

 

[CertifiedChaser]

Can show what I'm doing for my indoor housing. Minimizing poop work is definitely a priority. It's possible there's a more efficient way, this is just what I came up with.

With what I am doing, I end up "straightening" cages and pens say, every 4th day or so. Maybe more often if it looks like it needs it. It depends on the cage's size and relative to size, how many animals are pooping and peeing in it, and so on.

Guinea pigs will demonstrate preferences on where they poop and pee in their pen if the environment is designed to support their natural bathroom habits. What I'm doing to minimize the amount of cleaning work I have to do is setting up the the cages with areas that they will naturally use as a bathroom, and making those areas able to be cleaned out quickly, without needing to reset the pen very often.

They like to poop and pee along tall walls and under things and in corners. So, my big pens have the floors that are next to tall, solid walls and including corners set up as a litterbox zone that is straightforward to clear out and replace the bedding in.

The pen is constructed of wood. Above that, a relatively permanent plastic cover that runs partway up the walls is cut and installed. Above that is one layer of towel material. Then sitting above that is the portion of the floor that the guinea pigs touch. There is a piece of thin fleece blanket that has deliberately been laundered/machine-dried at too high a temperature and generally lets liquid pass through it (the older it gets the better it gets at this). That fleece is all the way across the floor and partway up the walls. On top of that, there is a plastic liner - one piece - that is cut to the exact right shape that goes along the back and sides of the pen. Then, small-diameter circular wooden dowels are taped into place to create that whole back and side area as the litterbox area. You want small diameter dowels, like 1cm or something, because guinea pigs have short legs and you want to minimize the chance/damage from them smacking their feet into the dowels. You want the circular ones, not square.

All of this stuff is secured with a high quality clear packing tape sort of tape.

The point of all that trouble is that you don't have to reset the cage for a long time. You just scoop out the litterbox areas. The purpose of the towels is to help absorb the pee when they do decide to just pee outside the litterbox area for some reason.

When the cage needs to be completely reset because the fleece and the towels underneath are just too nasty and/or they tore up the plastic litterbox liner in spots and you want to replace it, it is a significant amount of work.

Having said that, the point is that you don't need to reset often. If you have the design matching what they want to do, they won't pee outside of the litterbox area very often. The pee is a bigger deal than the poop, although you can't let the poop just pile up, it's not good for their health and skin/feet to have anything nasty pile up.

Some pics:

View attachment 1154946
Above is a view of a pen before being straightened.

View attachment 1154947
Above is a view when I just finished removing all the nasty. I removed the 2 lowest ranking animals before starting so things would stay calm as I did the work. They tend to crowd together when I'm doing this and they can get all pissy if the wrong combination of animals gets bunched up like that.

View attachment 1154955

Above is the pen with the pellets replaced and the animals put back in. You don't want a dense layer of pellets because they expand when they get wet and then tons of them spill out of the litterbox and everything gets stupid.

Note the partially-visible empty bowl to the bottom right. There is a water bottle mounted above that bowl. Guinea pigs can be messy drinkers and it's best to put a heavy bowl under the bottle + keep the water bottle in the litterbox area (both things). Some make a bigger mess than others but all it takes is one messy drinker to turn the pellets under the bottle to mush or soak whatever is under there.

It's possible to scrub down the plastic area with a weak bleach solution if you think it's best, but you'll want to remove all the animals while you are doing that, because fumes.

Some of my cages at this time are the more typical pet type. They are done a bit like the above, but in miniature.

View attachment 1154957

Just finished cleaning up the nasty in pic above. The "ends" of the cage are set as litterbox areas. This cage has no dowels because it's being used for recuperation of a sick guinea pig + a breeding cage (they run around while breeding and anything that can obstruct their feet while they are running is bad). With this cage there is no need for the permanent-ish layer of plastic at the very bottom because it is a plastic container, not a wood pen.

View attachment 1154964

Above is Wilbur and Mousey in the newly straightened cage. This cage has no little house area or toys or such because those objects are in the way for breeding animals. When using a cage that should not utilize little housing areas directly in the cage for some reason, you can drape a towel over one side of the cage, thereby creating an enclosed area without having an obstruction within the cage. This cage in essence has 2 places for them to feel like they can be "in" something - directly under that hay rack to the top right. and the left 1/3rd gets towel-covered.

The bowls and such are in the middle, not on the sides, because guinea pigs perceive the sides of areas, like next to walls, to be travel areas. So, you want the sides to be clear of obstructions such as food bowls and toys that do not allow direct passage through.

I got the plastic sheeting at a hardware store. It comes in omg-huge rolls that are so big that the sheets are folded in 2 as they are wrapped onto the spindle. The permanent layer on the bottom of the big pen uses it folded as it came, essentially 2 layers. There were 2 kinds of plastic available, one that was supposedly resistant to steam and one not. I got the steam resistant one.

You may have seen pictures of guinea pigs housed on hardware cloth flooring. Some of the pictures of this I have seen are from cuy being kept in South America, ie: not USA or UK. Assuming you are living in USA or UK, you do not want to do your animals like that for 2 reasons.

Reason 1:

Paragraph below is quoted from book The Biology of the Guinea Pig, bottom of page 7 into page 8:

Several articles, particularly in the British literature, describe the successful use of wire floor cages in guinea pig breeding colonies. Therefore a room of wire-bottom cages was designed and installed in the Fort Detrick breeding colony to test the desirability of wire floor cages verses solid floor cages. Two hundred females were maintained in this room for 3 years of testing. From almost every aspect, the use of wire-bottom cages in this breeding colony was unsatisfactory. The production rate was 22% below that of the colony on solid-bottom cages and the young weighed 25% less at weaning. Bacterial pneumonia was the principle cause of a higher mortality rate among both adults and offspring. Other guinea pigs had to be eliminated because of emaciation and debility. The wire mesh floor was essentially devoid of sharp projections yet many animals had to be culled because of pododermatitis. Hairlessness increased significantly in this colony, and guinea pigs turned a dirty rust color on their ventral surfaces. Many young were caught in the wire mesh, suffered fractured legs, and had to be destroyed.​

They ultimately concluded that wire cages using really small wire mesh may have advantages for short-term stuff, but it's no good for long-term housing such as breeding colonies.

Reason 2:

As a guinea pig breeder, there are piles of people (in particular in USA and UK) who look down upon you or even hate you. They will use the derogatory term "backyard breeder" to describe you. If they are aware that you are breeding guinea pigs (especially high-ish volume) and can identify you, plus you're not one of their purebred-breeder dandy friends, they will report you to your local animal welfare authority for abusing animals.

It doesn't matter if you are not abusing animals. It doesn't matter that your husbandry may outclass theirs. They won't try to verify anything themselves. They will report you because they can; because breeding guinea pigs is evil and they dislike/hate you that much.

After they report you, the local animal welfare authority people will show up at your door unannounced, wanting to see your animals. The people who show up may already be biased against you. There was a complaint about you, after all. They may very well believe the anti-guinea-pig-breeder hatred pseudo-science spew that is floating around the internet right now. They may have already labeled you as a simpleton "backyard breeder" who should probably give up animals and walk away in shame and go repair rusted cars on your lawn instead.

If they find your guinea pigs in wire floor cages, they might take action against you, such as maybe taking your animals.

Considering the description from the study above, it's hard to argue that wire floors represent good care. They sound like the lazy way to go, demonstrating the minimal possible regard for the animals' comfort, health, and safety. We don't live in third-world countries and we don't need to go with wire floor cages.

It's strange to me that rabbits can be kept in wire cages, birds can be kept in wire cages but animal welfare would have a problem with guinea pigs in cages. Either way, I agree with the science that wire cages are not the way to go with such small animals like guineas. I had a few ideas based on pictures I've seen of them being raised in South America such as under decks and such but just curious how fellow "backyard breeders" plan on doing it if they keep them outdoors 24/7.

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

I found a blog written by an English-speaking person who visited Peru and took a picture of a large pen of cuy being maintained outside. It looks like the animals are being maintained up against the side of a house, under a roof, with walls left and right that would protect them from the wind. The cages are not wire floored in this case.

https://midlifemusingsblog.wordpress.com/tag/guinea-pig-farming/
https://midlifemusingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_4475-1.jpg

Regarding the location, the blog author was referring to a town named "Mato", in Peru, but what I found was a geographical region in Peru named Mato District, or Motto Grosso.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mato_District
http://www.brazil-help.com/mapa_do_brasil.gif

It is important to note the climate where these animals are being maintained in this way. Referencing climate data site below for Matto Grosso:

https://en.climate-data.org/location/772313/

There is a graph toward the bottom of the page named "Mato grosso Climate table // historical Weather data".

The coldest winter month of the year is July. The low is 49.8F, the high is 72.1F. Average is 61F.

There are a number of summer months where the temperatures are relatively stable. Just picking February, the temperature max is 76.6F, minimum temperature 56.5F, average 66.6F. There is not that much difference between winter and summer.

Picking Oklahoma City in USA for climate comparison: it's nothing like that of Mato District in Peru. The highs and lows are a different world in both in summer and winter.

https://en.climate-data.org/location/718571/

Other parts of USA (and Europe) should also be findable on this site.

I can see from the picture on the blog that these are definitely cuy and not pet strain guinea pigs. Cuy are expected to be some combination of red and white, as there is a cultural taboo or something about ones with black on them. I don't know if cuy have different environmental tolerances than pet strain guinea pigs from USA/Europe.

 

[Hardwarehank]

I meant to post this last week and have a proper 1 week baby update but I got busy and then the weekend was busy as well with some ziplining on Saturday. What an awesome experience and highly recommended.

Out of the 5 from my first litter there are 3 remaining. The runtiest one did not make it, I'll put the cause of death as failure to thrive. The 3 remaining appear to be in good health, are active and have healthy appetites.

Here they are in a picture taken last Thursday 7 days after their birth:

Here they are in their enclosure with the adults enjoying some freshly cut grass and grain. It was a gorgeous day.

@Zoomie asked about winter plans earlier. My plans for the winter have changed in that I will only be maintaining 2 herds through the winter in the garage(rather than 4) based on some of the literature @Fuzzy Torpedoes provided that boars could service up to 7 sows. So instead of 4 boars to 5 sows each I'll probably be doing 3 boars to 7 sows each but don't have enough sows to justify keeping more than 2 boars at the moment.

Any extra adult boars will most likely be rehomed rather than being maintained indoors. I will be raising the young indoors or possibly selling them. They will not be kept in the garage this winter due to their small population(not enough communal body heat I figure) and I will not be keeping them with the adults due to territory and premature breeding concerns.

I have a work bench that's about 10ft x 3ft that I'll be covering with a tarp and then splitting the surface in two with some 1x8 or 1x10 boards then stapling plastic dropcloth to them to protect against urine. I'm thinking of doing a combination of spot cleaning in heavily used areas + deep litter. I'll also be making use of styrofoam coolers inside the enclosures as insulated caves with bedding in them. We'll see how that goes. Plan to start building that in the next week or so.

Depending on how this winter goes I'll adjust/expand winter accommodations next year or scrap the project altogether with not too much invested and will re-purpose the guinea pig tractors as rabbit tractors with some modification.

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

boars could service up to 7 sows.

You gotta see this

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-06-06/...-to-400-after-breaking-into-female-enclosure/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...aks-free-cage-makes-100-females-pregnant.html

Here they are in a picture

They look like cute little wheekies!

 

[Zoomie]

@Hardwarehank your little kits (is that what they're called?) are really cute! Look at their ears! LOL! Sounds like you have some good plans going forward. I'll be looking forward to updates!

@Fuzzy Torpedoes HOLY COW. That's kinda hilarious - WOW. 400?! I remember going to a cashmere goat ranch, where she was selling young goats very cheaply (for cashmere goats) because ONE buckling had gotten in with the herd of female does. Apparently he bred a little over 50 does IN ONE NIGHT. !!! He was not the buck she would have chosen, so she was NOT pleased about this overflowing of offspring. Thus these kids were fairly cheap. LOL. Well he helped a friend of mine get into cashmere goats, although TBH I think a lot of those kids ended up in the freezer, led of course by their dad!

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Depending upon if the person is willing to spend the time/effort, and assuming the environment itself is essentially okay:

If a runt is born into a large litter (4 being large) and the runt is developmentally far enough along that it's not ridiculous, and it's having trouble, it's frequently possible to save it without extreme effort if the person wants to take the time and is attentive about it. Guinea pigs only have 2 nipples and what happens is, the bigger animals crowd the runt out and push it off of the nipples. One way to catch what is going on is to weigh the babies (all of them) every 12 hours for the first few days, and also pay attention to what's happening. Doing that, it's possible to recognize the problem in time.

Sometimes it's enough to take the other babies out for half an hour every day, giving the small one that block of dedicated nursing time. It's also possible to give them extra milk via spoonfeeding them a warm milk replacer. You take the baby out and get them to taste the warm milk replacer on the spoon. Once they taste what it is, they will drink it off of the spoon. The hungrier/thirstier the baby is, the more energetic it is about drinking it. The really hungry or thirsty ones might even bite the spoon.

When they don't want any more, wash the mouth and everything off with water, and they dry the baby's face and chest using toilet paper.

The milk I use for this is specifically 1% milk that is slowly, on lowest heat possible, reduced down, while stirring very often, to 1/3rd of its original volume. That final milk approximates the fat and protein percentages of guinea pig milk (although I assume it has no vitamin C). If you cook it using too much heat you get these floaty specks that don't like to come out. If you get a skim because you didn't stir it enough, you want to stir the skim thing back in and make it dissolve again. When I do this, I start with 300ml and reduce it to 100ml.

You don't add sugar or anything to the milk, it's already got 2x the sugar that guinea pig milk has. It keeps in the fridge (covered of course) as long as any other milk, but it does tend to get thicker as time goes on, so you'll have to use your judgment and add some amount of water if it's not used up right away or something.

They don't seem to like the milk replacer as much when it is room temperature as opposed with warm.

If spoonfed milk replacer is being used regularly, I cut an ultra-thin, ultra-tiny strip of "sweet red bell pepper" and require the baby to eat it. You can angle it such that it's in the back teeth and get them to chomp and eat a piece. I assume that the milk replacer I make does not have the vitamin C they need, and red pepper is super dense on that, as well as a bit of vitamin A. It's only the mild bell pepper you do this with, with 0 hotness and 0 anything funny to it, no other variety.

If you read somewhere on the interwebz that baby guinea pigs are lactose intolerant or that any form of cow's milk hurts them in this situation, ignore that noise. Also, don't feed recovery food to infants instead of milk replacer (another ill-advised idea you might read on the interwebz).

It's also best to have baby-appropriate pellets available and you want to ensure that some of the water bottles are low enough for babies to be able to reach. Babies cannot chomp some of the gigantic pellets I've seen in some pet store cages but the pellets that are intended for guinea pig breeding colonies are small and babies can start eating them within a few days.

On my monitor this picture is larger than my hand irl but it should get the idea across.

 

[Hardwarehank]

Perhaps I need to rethink my management strategy!

Somehow missed adding the quote about Mr. Randy the guinea pig and his escapades :O

 

[Bug n Flock]

Wow I've missed a lot! Been busy. I'll read thru the new posts and post a better update later, but look: Maggie had a litter!

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

aw it's little baby wheekies!

seeing them never gets old.