Guinea pigs as meat

[Jeanette56]

WOW! Ohiogoatgirl, That's quite a list!
Thanks for all your effort

Jeanette
Texas

Trying to figure out where I'm going to put some Guinea Pigs now! LOL

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

thats not even all of the info i have on them.

i have my own beginner herd now. gonna add links to videos of mine now should be listed in order, so start from the top and go down.

 

[franksgreengirl]

I lived in Ecuador for a year and guinea pigs were a delicacy. I never tried them because the only place I saw them for sale was with street vendors. I was reminded by my exchange family that unscrupulous vendors cut the tails of rats and roasted them.

I have friends from Ecuador and eating Guinea pigs or Cui (not sure how they spell it) is common place. I've joked about eating our little pal and it just wouldn't happen. However a random GP that hasn't lived in our home I would try if I was in Ecuador. I can't imagine having to make an on the spot choice to eat street food that could have been a rat. Which after watching survivor years ago shouldn't make me squeamish but it does. How the animal has lived is important to me as I get older. I figure if you're going to eat meat turning up your nose at someone elses choice of it is just not kind. To eat or not to eat is a really big question

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Trying to figure out where I'm going to put some Guinea Pigs now! LOL

thats not too much of an issue. they dont need much space at all. look at my videos (links in my last post) and how much space they have. which actually how i have my setup currently (see last link) i can probably fit 2 more sows in my longhair pen. and outside, with the divider up now, i think i can have the male growouts on the upper side and on the lower side probably 5 more sows. after that though i will need to watch and make doubly sure that they are all getting along. and long as i keep baby sows in there to growup as breeders together then those should all get along.

heck if you only wanted a few you could likely just keep em in a decent size closet!

 

[Jeanette56]

Where would you suggest buying guinea pigs from? Private breeder or pet shop? Pros - Cons?
Also, have you processed you first guinea pigs yet? How did that work out if you have?
Too many questions! LOL

Jeanette

P.S. thanks for the video links!

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Where would you suggest buying guinea pigs from? Private breeder or pet shop? Pros - Cons?
Also, have you processed you first guinea pigs yet? How did that work out if you have?
Too many questions! LOL

Jeanette

P.S. thanks for the video links!

petstores quite often get peoples ex-pets (for free) and resell them for like $30+ in my experience. they often have no idea what is actually in the cages/tanks let alone what breed or gender or how old they are! i almost never set foot in a pet store. but thats my opinion.

try craigslist. there are several facebook groups that are super helpful, just make sure any groups or guinea pig forums you join arent rescue-nazis. just weed through and find the good ones and just with-hold saying you may eat them or feed em to the dogs/cats. if you are on facebook and would like i can PM you my FB name to find and friend me so i can add you to the better ones i've found. or just do a search on facebook for "guinea pig" and see if you can find a group near you.

another thing would be to watch the local newspaper ads. or a local classifieds paper.
maybe put up an ad "looking for/ISO guinea pigs"

look at local auctions. the few that i've been to in the last year i've not seen any but i hear online some people have luck that way. heard some amish people raise em for cheap for side money and to eat.

just find out whats in your area. my first ones i got 2 for free and 2 for $10 each. then traded someone a rabbit for 2 younger sows (female guinea pigs). they are all on the smaller size but i will be breeding for size and culling hard.

i even took a leap and worked out something with a person i found several states away with large 4-5lb GPs. between paying for them and paying for transport it'll be $100 for 1 boar and 2 sows. i'm pickin them up at a rabbit show.

i'd say start with cheap/free ones you can find to see if you hate them or not just having em around. then after you have em a couple weeks and they arent driving you nuts stick the boy and girl(s) together (sows should be ~3.5-4 months old, hopefully tops of 8months) and wait 60 days for babies. unless they are longhair types you will be able to tell when they start gettin baby bellies. personally i have a pair of longhairs and though they are cute i wish they were shorthairs. i keep the longhair pair inside cause i dont want dirty knotty GPs running around. plus those two seemed bothered by the cold when i was doing test hour/days with them outside. just too much hassle.

i have not done up a GP yet for eating. though someone i had gotten the free ones from before got hold of me again and wants to get rid of the rest of hers (2 mommas, 2 young boars, 2 young sows) and i will likely be getting all of those within the week. seeing what boar i want to keep (if any) and eatin the rest. if they are all longhair i might just run the one i like the best with the sows a while and then do him up.

of course with all the animals i have and currently without a job i put almost all critters up for sale a bit before i butcher. been goin about a year with no income other then the animals.
hahaha and i have 2 milk goats, up to 10 adult rabbits and babies, and since october 6 GPs (now plus babies). so not too bad payin for all their feed just on what i can sell.

though once things start growin outside i should be able to feed the GPs almost 100% free. the rabbits i cut down alot of feed cost feeding cut forage.

and if you have anything in particular you would like to see in a video just say so i've not had any request videos yet. always happy to be of help.

 

[iluvsedward]

guinea pigs breed like crazy!! I'd imagine they'd be good eats like rabbit. I would have no trouble eating them because they are so skiddish but I can't eat rabbits I like rabbits too much

 

[miss heny]

I pretty much would eat anything XD I soo want to try one!

 

[Duckchick2011]

Eating guinea pig? Now that's a first for me,

but then I guess I could see it. I eat squirrel pretty often and people will give you strange looks for that as well LOL They are both cute little rodents with I would imagine a similar meat to bone ratio, sooo yeah, I could imagine it. I wonder what they taste like

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i've heard the taste is:
~ just like chicken really, only chewier
~ just like rabbit but more of a sweet meat
~ if rabbit is white meat chicken the guinea pig is dark meat chicken
~ similar to squirrell

guinea pig meat is all dark meat. i think the chewy-ness would depend on how it was cooked. the guy who said it was chewy had it in peru, cooked the traditional way. so slit, dip, de-fur, cook on a big stick over the coals of a fire. so no meat resting time. which basically always affects the chewy-ness.

i am finding that once you breed their size up they should have a bit better meat-bone ratio then squirrel. and even if it takes a bit longer for them to reach eating size, since they can be fed for free very easily its not bad havin to keep em that long. whereas with rabbits they are harder to feed self sufficiently, especially if you dont have much land. but guinea pigs can do amazingly on just pasture and kitchen peelings.

new update video of my guinea pigs (and rabbits) :