All About Guinea Pigs

Guinea Pigs are rodents. Many pet care books will tell you this, but this is actually a common mistake. Domestic Guinea Pigs are quite different from other rodents.    

Because of their name, many people believe that Guinea Pigs came from New Guinea; actually, domestic Guinea Pigs of today descended from an animal called the Cavy, which lives in South America. These Wild Cavies live mostly in the Andes mountains and Peru, but there have been reports of Wild Cavies in Venezuela and Chile. In many villages in Peru and Bolivia, Wild Cavies are an important source of food, as there is very little space for raising cattle.Wild Cavies live mostly in burrows and dense vegetation, and they mostly eat plants and berries. They usually breed once a year, and produce litters of between two and four.

There is much disagreement over where the name 'Guinea Pig' comes from. Some Guinea Pig experts think that Guinea Pigs were brought to New Guinea, and then to England, by slave traders, while other experts believe the name is a confusion with an earlier name, Coney Pig. However, the name used in most of Great Britain today for Guinea Pigs is Cavies.

           
Today, Guinea Pigs are very popular pets. Their friendly nature means that they have no tendency to bite or scratch. They are also very hardy, and if cared for, they will have very few health problems. They are between 12 and 14 inches long, making them larger, and are far more intelligent, than other rodents



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