Maret 17, 2017
hey guys, welcome back to animal wonders!i've been getting a lot of questions asking about how to take care of certain animals.and i'd love to answer all your questions, but i'll do it one episode at a time. today let's talk about how to take care ofguinea pigs. guinea pigs are so loved by so many that they've become a very common pet,mostly in america, but in other countries, too. so, let's learn, what are guinea pigs? wheredid they come from? and how are we going to give them the best possible care? this is pickles! well, what are guinea pigs?let's classify them using taxonomy. so, they
are a small animal in the class: mammalia,and in the order: rodentia, and the family: caviidae. so, when you classify an animal being a mammal,it means they are covered in fur, they have live young, and they nurse their young. when you put them in the class: rodentia,it means that they have two large ever-growing incisors on the top and the bottom. and when you put them in the family: caviidae,it means they have four toes in the front and three toes in the back. so, where did these guys come from, and howdid they end up in houses across the world?
when the discussion of the origins of thedomestic guinea pig come up between phylogeneticists the situation can quickly become heated. the controversy among taxonomists of whatgenus to place these guys in goes down to the mitochondrial genome level! but they canmostly agree that they came from the grasslands and plains of the altiplano region in southamerica. the most popular theory is that these guysoriginated from the peruvian cavy. these small animals were referred to by incan people ascuy, which is still used today. but they weren't what we see today. they awere smaller, thinner animal with more neutrally colored fur so they could blend in with theirenvironment.
so, their move from wild animal to domesticatedanimal...ehh... that's still some what fuzzy. it's, um, thought to happen around 5000 bceand they're being kept and bred in backyard enclosures. and they were used in celebratorymeals in incan culture. so, what were guinea pigs to this ancientculture? well, they were mostly food, but they were also woven into their culture. it was common for a boy coming of age to begifted with their own guinea pig. and newlyweds were often given a pair so they could startbreeding a herd for their new family. some households, they liked having the cuyinside, and so they would keep them in by putting little walls along the entrance waysand exits of their house. guinea pigs are
pretty terrible climbers, so just a smallwall is needed. the keeping and captive breeding of theseguys specifically for their meat lead to artificial selection for a fatter, larger cuy, just likecows, pigs, chickens and turkeys. so, how did they go from the dinner plateto being a pet? i imagine there are quite a few times when a small child took a likingto one of their little guinea pigs and begged their mom to keep them as a pet instead ofeating them. now, there's no documentation of the firsttime a guinea pig was specifically, strictly a pet. but i'm comfortable imagining thatscene. so, what are guinea pigs to us today? well,they're mostly sold, kept, and rescued to
be solely companions for humans. they havebeen bred in captivity for some 7,000 years. and since humans are naturally curious, theystarted experimenting with their coat texture and their color. today we have three mains types of fur: silkie,short-haired, and abyssinian; the patterns and colors seems endless. i know, i know! you just want to learn howto take care of one! ok, the first thing you need to do is choose where you're going toget your guinea pig. there are so many guinea pigs that are surrenderedby their owners for a multitude of reasons. so, please consider adopting one from yourlocal shelter.
so, before you bring your little friend home,get prepared. get all the supplies that he or she is going to need. get an enclosure,the larger, the better. you can see that we have quite the large enclosurefor pickles here, but... you know.... not everyone's going to have this for them. uhm,just get as large as you can for them, 'cause they do like to run around and play. all right, so, the supplies you're going toneed is... you're going to need food, but you're also going to need bedding. and i likebedding from a paper product. uhm, that can be carefresh or it can be shredding paperlike this. um, you're also going to need... (picklessqueaking) i know, buddy.... a water bottle,
and a food dish, and some nail clippers. andyou're going to need some non-chewable and chewable toys for them. and remember to getthem some hiding places as well. so, food. really, really important for yourguinea pig. uh, you're gonna wanna start with a high quality guinea pig pellet. this isgoing to have the nutrients in it that you need. do not give your guinea pig rabbit pellets.i know they look exactly the same, but guinea pig pellets have vitamin c in it that yourguinea pigs really need. if they don't get enough vitamin c a lot of bad things can happen.one of those things is a disease called scurvy. so, you wanna give them pellets. and that'sgoing to be a big portion of their diet, but
you're also going to want to include somefresh produce as well. so, i like giving them broccoli. and theycan chew this up, so, you don't have to make it teeny, teeny tiny for them. they can takebig chunks of it; remember they have ever-growing teeth. um, so, just give them little bits of produce...got some sweet potato and some broccoli. also, give them some lettuce. that's going to helpwith their fluid intake. give them a little bit of that. and then, occasionally some fresh fruit. that'sgoing to keep them happy. all of this is going to keep them healthy, but a little bit offruit is going to keep them happy.
next, you'll need some timothy hay. now, timothyis the best hay. you can also use meadow hay, but i would really strongly suggest that youfind timothy hay. don't give alfalfa hay unless they're-- you'rebreeding or the mom is nursing. timothy hay free fed, really, really important for yourguinea pig's health: for their teeth and for their whole digestive system. free feed hay. so, you wanna change their bedding at leastonce a week. spot clean when necessary. you're also gonna wanna fill up their wattle bottlewhenever it gets less than half full. give them fresh water. dump the whole thing out,give them fresh water. and i don't know if you can see it, but youcan see there's a little bit of a gap right
here at the top. when you fill your waterbottle, you're going to want to fill the water bottle all the way, all the way to the top,so, when you tip it back over it's going to create a pressure seal. right now, because i didn't fill it all theway, you can see it's just going to drip and drip and drip and drip. and that's going toget the bedding wet in your guinea pig's enclosure, which can cause them to get cold and sick.so, fill your water bottle all the way full. since guinea pigs are rodents, they have ever-growingteeth, and they're gonna have to have to gnaw and chew on hard things to make sure thatthey wear those teeth down. so, give them items to chew.
i mean the hay, the hay is going to come inreally handy to help them chew down like that, but give them pieces of wood. um, you cansee we've constructed some wood for them to chew on. um, here's another chewing toy. here's a chewtoy i made myself. i just used an old bird perch, and i put a lot of blocks of wood andsome cardboard on there and a little calcium chew. they just... they love this thing. guinea pigs are naturally really nervous animals.their instincts, when a predator comes, is to run and hide. that's their only defense. they don't have sharp claws or huge fangsto defend themselves. they can't climb. the
just have to run and hide. so, that's a really completely normal behaviorfor them. the more interaction you have with them, the more you'll reduce that, but you'renever going to completely eliminate it. so, you wanna make sure you give them a lotplaces for them to hide and snuggle. you can see here, pickles loves this little cooshy,soft hiding thing. but you can also give them other hides likethis timothy hay hut or, i really like these little stumps as well. so, give them lotsof places to run and hide so they can feel safe. if you've previously watched our episode ona few of my friends, you'll know that animal
communicate verbally and nonverbally. so,guinea pigs have some nonverbal communication, but a lot of it is verbal as well. so, these guys, they will purr when they arecontent; they rumble when they are upset or displaying dominance; they "wheek" when theyare excited or contacting members of their group; they scream when they are in pain orscared; and they will chatter their teeth when they're trying to threaten somethingaway. so, pay attention and know these communicationsso that you know what your guinea pig is trying to tell you. so, now that you know what they are, wherethey came from, and how to take care of them,
the only thing left is to make them a promisethat if you take one into your home that you're going to care for them to the best of yourability for the rest of their life. and enjoy your little furry companion for all the awesomenessthat he or she contains. thank you for joining us on this week's episodeof animal wonders! if you have any questions or comments, you can find me at twitter, tumblrand facebook. if you would like to go on an adventure every week, join our youtube channel:animal wonders montana. links are below.
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