Species: Cavia porcellus
Diet: Herbivore
Length: 8-10 inches or so
Weight: Usually between 1.5 and 3+ pounds
Origin: South America(though these are domesticated)
Group Name: Herd
Personality: Typically peaceful
Life Span: 7-9 years
Hi, I am Lily and this is my little sister Lucy(the little red one). I am an American Guinea Pig, so is Lucy.
Our species is bred from the wild Guinea Pigs that come from South America. Those Guinea Pigs usually sleep in burrows in old burrows from another animal and also live in groups or herds. Guinea Pigs are social animals meaning they like to be with others of their own kind. We get lonely when it's just one of us. We need company from another Guinea Pig.
If you have not noticed yet Guinea pigs are extremely cute rodents. Yep, we're rodents. There are a lot of different looking rodents out there.
Diet: Herbivore
Length: 8-10 inches or so
Weight: Usually between 1.5 and 3+ pounds
Origin: South America(though these are domesticated)
Group Name: Herd
Personality: Typically peaceful
Life Span: 7-9 years
Hi, I am Lily and this is my little sister Lucy(the little red one). I am an American Guinea Pig, so is Lucy.
Our species is bred from the wild Guinea Pigs that come from South America. Those Guinea Pigs usually sleep in burrows in old burrows from another animal and also live in groups or herds. Guinea Pigs are social animals meaning they like to be with others of their own kind. We get lonely when it's just one of us. We need company from another Guinea Pig.
If you have not noticed yet Guinea pigs are extremely cute rodents. Yep, we're rodents. There are a lot of different looking rodents out there.
Guinea Pigs are herbivores, so we only eat plant based foods. Sometimes though we've been known to eat some things that are sweet and may have dairy in them, which would make us omnivores, but for the most part we are herbivores.
Some of our favorite foods to eat are romaine lettuce, timothy hay, grapes, spinach, cantaloupe, seeds and pellets. My vet says her Guinea Pigs eat crackers and cereal, but Lucy and I don't really like those that much.
We are called Fibrevores too, which means we need a lot of fiber in our diets. See the hay up there in the picture of us eating? We eat A LOT of hay. Timothy hay is our favorite. It helps our digestive system work and also helps keep our teeth ground down, as our teeth never stop growing.
Our bodies cannot make vitamin C, so we need to be given foods that contain vitamin C, but fair warning, Lucy and I do not like citrus fruits, which is what most people would pick first for giving us vitamin c, so make sure to have a good backup source of vitamin c, like grapes and cantaloupe.
Fibrevores are unique and actually have an appendix called the cecum. The point of the cecum is to ferment the fiber they eat. Breaking it down to be easier to digest..but at this point it is formed into little pellets and removed from the body. But these pellets are not poo, they are called caecotrophs. Our humans like to call them vitamins for the fibrevores, because they actually will eat these pellets so they can redigest the food they already have eaten. This helps them get the most out of their food.
It is imperative guinea pigs eat these "vitamins" to be healthy. If they do not get to eat them their health will suffer badly. So while it may seem gross to you, it is natural for guinea pigs and other fibrevores, like rabbits and chinchillas.
We need a water bottle too, we do love our water!
Some of our favorite foods to eat are romaine lettuce, timothy hay, grapes, spinach, cantaloupe, seeds and pellets. My vet says her Guinea Pigs eat crackers and cereal, but Lucy and I don't really like those that much.
We are called Fibrevores too, which means we need a lot of fiber in our diets. See the hay up there in the picture of us eating? We eat A LOT of hay. Timothy hay is our favorite. It helps our digestive system work and also helps keep our teeth ground down, as our teeth never stop growing.
Our bodies cannot make vitamin C, so we need to be given foods that contain vitamin C, but fair warning, Lucy and I do not like citrus fruits, which is what most people would pick first for giving us vitamin c, so make sure to have a good backup source of vitamin c, like grapes and cantaloupe.
Fibrevores are unique and actually have an appendix called the cecum. The point of the cecum is to ferment the fiber they eat. Breaking it down to be easier to digest..but at this point it is formed into little pellets and removed from the body. But these pellets are not poo, they are called caecotrophs. Our humans like to call them vitamins for the fibrevores, because they actually will eat these pellets so they can redigest the food they already have eaten. This helps them get the most out of their food.
It is imperative guinea pigs eat these "vitamins" to be healthy. If they do not get to eat them their health will suffer badly. So while it may seem gross to you, it is natural for guinea pigs and other fibrevores, like rabbits and chinchillas.
We need a water bottle too, we do love our water!
Lucy here. Ok since this picture is of me I will tell you about this part. See this milky looking fluid in my eye? This is something our eyes make to help keep our eye moist and it also is used when we clean our faces.
We take regular baths ourselves. Sometimes though we have to be put in the tub with just a shallow bit of water and washed with a Guinea Pig safe wash by our humans. Sometimes we can't get all of the gunk we might get into, off of us. For the most part we stay clean though.
We take regular baths ourselves. Sometimes though we have to be put in the tub with just a shallow bit of water and washed with a Guinea Pig safe wash by our humans. Sometimes we can't get all of the gunk we might get into, off of us. For the most part we stay clean though.
We like to have places like this, that we call our Cave, to sleep in and eat our hay in. Sometimes we just need to get away and be by ourselves. We both have our own cave now, but when Lucy first came to live with us, we had to share mine..which I didn't LOVE..but we made it work while there was the one cave.
Guinea Pigs are somewhat crepuscular, which means we are active at dawn and dusk. Really though we take mini naps throughout the day and night. In between naps we eat and play.
see me here? I think I'm sleeping here. I have my eyes open. Some Guinea Pigs will sleep with their eyes open. I do most the time. Though there is a picture below where they caught me sleeping with my eyes shut!
You see here Lucy is also sleeping with her eyes shut, but usually does do this. Some Piggies like to sleep with their eyes open and some with their eyes shut.
We usually sleep anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours at a time. When we get up usually the first thing we want to do is eat. We get hungry a lot. We want plenty of hay and lettuce. A piece of cantaloupe or a couple grapes always makes things a little sweeter too! we also like our kibble too, or pellet mix that we eat. So we like to have that freshened up a bit throughout the day too.
When Guinea Pigs have babies they usually have two to three at a time. We are called Pups, though I think it'd be better to call us Piglets, since we're called Pigs. But really we aren't Pigs, we're rodents, and we're not even from Guinea..so oh well.
Anyway after being pregnant for about 2 months we have our babies.
Anyway after being pregnant for about 2 months we have our babies.