Guinea pigs as meat

[shelleyd2008]

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Okay, I need to read the posts more thoroughly. I thought that you had written that your mother put the guinea pigs in the meat loaf for fun. I was thinking "I don't want to come to your house for any 'fun' meals.' Then I realized that I had misread your post.

 

[spectrumranch]

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Our capybara have never gotten that big, you maybe thinking of a tapir.

 

[Emzyyy]

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My thoughts exactly! And how could you eat something so cute?

This is Debbie (tri-colored) and April (brown and white). You can see Debbie's little piggy butt cheeks in this pic some, so cute!! Especially when she has her booty sticking out of their igloo house.
http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq337/shelleyd2008/miscellaneous/PICT0564.jpg

How could you eat one of these cute girls?

See my issue is...I think cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, quail, deer, horse, or any other animal is too cute to eat.

 

[cutiepieacres]

Cavies are efficient but Im not sure they are a lot more efficient then other small meat type animals. They can reproduce at 3 weeks but its rare and for females dangerous as they are not big enough yet to have the size to carry and deliver babies. Males surprisingly don't often reach maturity until later, I have had plenty of males that don't breed until after 4months of age despite being caged with girls earlier. Sometimes I wish they would breed quicker though. They have small litters when compared to bunnies, 1-3 is most common with 4-6 being somewhat rare. They dont reach full size until 5-8 months of age and as far as eating they are "pigs." I feed a lot more then I ever did with my rabbits. Rabbits however can also be highly destructive, can run fast and jump, they have a pretty pungent urine odor and fight when maturity hits none of which is really suited for living in large colonies on floors of a house.

As far as moms and babies cavy milk is important and baby guinea pigs would die without their mom, though they are born with eyes open ready to go and they do nibble food starting pretty early they are fairly helpless in the first couple weeks and nurse almost constantly. If something does happen to mom in a colony with other nursing moms they would easily be accepted by another nursing pig even male guinea pigs will clean and cuddle babies.

I have raised and shown g-pigs for the last 20 years and right now have around 60-75 pigs at anytime just depending. At this point though im not considering any endeavors into the guinea pig meat industry....

 

[CindyS]

I guess I have never seen a skinned guinea pig carcass but to me the pic of the one on the plate does not look like one to me, the skull looks more rat shape, and it looks like it has a tail stub.

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

Quote:
My thoughts exactly! And how could you eat something so cute?

This is Debbie (tri-colored) and April (brown and white). You can see Debbie's little piggy butt cheeks in this pic some, so cute!! Especially when she has her booty sticking out of their igloo house.
http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq337/shelleyd2008/miscellaneous/PICT0564.jpg

How could you eat one of these cute girls?

See my issue is...I think cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, quail, deer, horse, or any other animal is too cute to eat.

Ditto.

 

[fowltemptress]

Cute things are tasty.

Even plants . . . have you ever walked through a vegetable garden? It's adorable! If I could cuddle those little growing bell peppers I would . . .

 

[AHappychick]

OMG I almost peed when I saw it with the pepper in its mouth but then again I always laugh when I see that just so funny to me

I would certainly taste it as far as size I would think that 1 GP would equal 3 quail. looked like a meal to me.

I love gator so anything can be yummy

I just need to know are they just pooping everywhere? in the homes I mean.

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

Here in middle Tennessee/southern Kentucky you will always find a lot of GPs at the Amish/Mennonite auctions. They are raised like rabbits for their meat. They are real economical because during the warm months they feed them grass and usually no grain or pellets. I often wondered why they wouldn't feed them more grain or pellets and make them bigger but I guess they don't want to buy feed they can't raise. There are so many they uasally only bring $1-2.50 each. I used to buy them,fatten and clean them up and resale them as pets for $5-!0 each.

 

[ems_chick]

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they taste really muddy from what i've been told. i grew up in panama and there were tons of them everywhere at night.