Guinea Pig, The Best Pet Mammal?

Well, hi there! These are guinea pigs, which are not from Guinea or New Guinea. And, uh, they're not pigs. They're rodents, part of the family Caviidae, like maras and capybaras. And like maras and capybaras, they're from South America, which is very far from both Guinea and New Guinea. Given that they're not from anything called Guinea and they aren't pigs, many people refer to them as cavies. Of course, that can lead to some confusion with other caviids, like the maras, which I first knew as cavies. But guinea pigs are in the genus Cavia, so I suppose, of all the caviids, they deserve the title most. Whereas the giant forest hog probably is the most deserving recipient of the title guinea pig. In Peru, where they are from, we called them Cuy. I knew lots of people that kept Cuy. Some of them had thousands of them. But not for pets. But I reckon that you're here because you're interested in keeping Cuy for pets and, uh, not for other purposes. And I think that's a great idea. If a guinea pig is actually a good fit for you and to help you figure out if a not-from-Guinea, not-a-pig, non-mara cavi is the best pet for you, we're going to have to give it a score based on our five categories, handleability, care, hardiness, availability, and upfront costs. When it comes to handleability, guinea pigs are social, chatty little guys. In general, they're very good for handling. More like rats than they are like chinchillas or rabbits. Despite being more the size of the latter two. And rats are one of the most delightful and pleasant rodents to handle. For the record, uh, by the way, rabbits are not rodents. But rats and chinchillas and guinea pigs are. Even though guinea pigs have white incisor teeth, more similar to lagomorphs like rabbits. They also do some other stuff fairly similar to rabbits, but we'll get there soon enough. Because rats and guinea pigs, despite being great to handle in almost every way, have one problem that makes them, well, worse in some ways to handle even than chinchillas. And that is their poop. Rodents poop, um, uh, all the time. And rat and guinea pig poops aren't dry little pellets like those of chinchillas. They have a consistency more like, uh, what you would anticipate poop to be like. And if you're handling rodents, you will become intimately aware of its consistency quickly and repeatedly. No more than with rats. And rats get a four for handleability. Though I can totally see how getting peed and pooped on could be a total deal breaker for some people. And making the animal bigger certainly doesn't make that experience any less horrifying. That said, the way that you interact with guinea pigs is a little bit different than the way that you usually handle rats. Guinea pigs, they're really fun to interact with, to pet. You can pick them up and move them. They'll crawl into your lap, but they don't tend to sit on your shoulders, up on your neck, in your collar. They don't poop and pee on you in quite as horrifying of places as do rats. But when they do poop, it's bigger. So I'm going to give them the same score that I gave to rats. A four out of five for handleability. They're basically perfect, except for that one little problem. And if you don't mind bodily functions functioning on your body, then these guys, I mean, they're basically perfect. And that's really good because they do need a lot of interaction and time outside of their enclosures on a daily or at least near daily basis. So not only can you handle them, but you really should handle them. Be sure to socialize them well when they're young and don't act like a predator. Be calm, non-threatening, quiet, allowing them to do many things on their own timetable as they become more comfortable in your presence. Make sure that they're never chased or aggressively restrained. Make handling a pleasant experience for everybody involved and it will likely continue to be a pleasant experience for the life of your cabbie. When it comes to care, there are a few important considerations. First, they need friends and a lot of regular interaction. You are not enough for them, however. They really need at least one guinea pig friend or ideally many, but no rabbits, no rabbits anywhere around. Second, they need quite a bit of space. Third, you need to be sure that they don't get too hot. Fourth, they need access to healthy food, including citrus and other vitamin C rich foods. And they eat all the time. And fifth, well, what goes in must come out. And it do. And you need to clean up all that do, which makes me want to give them a two. But before I do, I want to chat with my friend Jesse from Clint's Reptile Room who keeps these guinea pigs too. So Jesse, thank you so much for being here. Happy to be here. Um, what are your guinea pigs names? So this one right here is Pepper and the one that you've got right there is Cinnamon. Okay. So kind of a spicy bunch. We call them our Spice Girls. Are they both girls? They are both girls. Girls. Okay. So Cinnamon Spice and Pepper Spice. I love it. Um, how old are they? Um, they're roughly about, uh, anywhere from a year and a half to two. Um, Cinnamon, we got from a local rescue here nearby. Uh, didn't quite have an exact age on her. And then Pepper we got, uh, from our friends at Animal Ark. Animal Ark Orem? Yep. Up in Orem. And she was, uh, roughly about a year as well. So. Very cool. So they're probably fully grown now. Yep. Fully grown. No bigger than about this. And these, these have a slightly different coat texture. There's a lot of different coat types that you can find in domesticated guinea pigs, which is cool. Now, what, what is it like caring for these guys? Like on a daily basis, weekly basis, what all do you have to do if you have a guinea pig? So as far as the care for them, it does require a bit of daily upkeep. Gotta make sure that their, their cage is, uh, pretty decently clean. As you kind of already mentioned, they do do the do. How do you clean it? Um, so there's, there's a few ways. Um, we have actually invested in using, uh, basically just a wet dry shop vac. And so we'll just take them and all of their stuff out of the, out of their enclosure, kind of set it off to the side, have a little space for them to just kind of hang out while we're taking care of it. And we'll just use that, that shop vac to just suck everything up. It does a pretty decent job, uh, works on the poo as well as any, uh, pellets that they may have spilled to the ground. Any, any hay that's left over. Well, what kind of ground covering do you have where you can use that shop vac to do it? Um, so we use, uh, uh, kind of fleece covering almost sort of like what we talked about with chinchillas. Uh, but also we bought one online that is, uh, also kind of, uh, a lining. So it's, it's got a fleece top, but then under, it's got layers of like a couple of different absorbent pads, uh, that kind of helps with keeping the pee from, you know, just puddling up in, in places or, or just absolutely soaking. If it were just regular fleece, just kind of soaking that and making it have to be a daily change for the, for the fleece itself. And that's kind of just the one other thing that's, the other upkeep is because we've got, uh, the, the shop vac that we use, we can keep the, their cage pretty clean daily. And because the, the lining for their cage is so good at absorbing everything else, we can actually keep that in for, I'd say no more, no more than a week, but you can keep it in there for about a week before you absolutely should be, uh, changing it out for, for something new. And we've got like a couple, uh, different fleeces that we are a couple of different liners that we rotate through on a regular basis. That makes a lot of sense. Now, now, if you don't do the fleece and shop vac approach, what other options are there? It becomes a lot more of a manual task, uh, buying, uh, a small dust pan and a brush and kind of just sweeping it up, uh, the best you can. Do you use things like Aspen shavings or what would do people normally use if they're not using fleece? Uh, my wife raised, uh, guinea pigs a lot more than, than I did and kind of determined that, uh, the fleece linings tend to be a little bit better just because, uh, if you, if you have, you can use like the, the paper shavings or the gray, whatever material that is that, that can work pretty well. Uh, the risks that you run with that, it's just that they, they like, they need to chew on stuff. And so they'll, they've got a lot of scraps stuff lying around and that's easy to get a hold of and just munch on. And that can kind of ruin, uh, their digestion a little bit. So that definitely sounds like the way to go to me is the, the fleece. Um, in addition to cleaning up, you're talking about feeding digestion. What kind of foods do you recommend? So they should always have a constant source of hay. Uh, Timothy hay is typically, typically the best option. I understood grass hay more than alfalfa. Alfalfa is really high in protein. So if you want an overweight, uh, cabby, then that'll definitely do the trick. I, uh, I know in Peru they fed them all the time, but I think they were looking for an overweight Gabby. Yeah. So yes. So grass, hay, primarily grass, hay, definitely best. Uh, and then, uh, also a Timothy hay pellet, uh, diet as well. Just, uh, always have fresh pellets available just for them to have something to, to eat. And then typically it's recommended that they get about a cup's worth of fresh vegetables and fruits daily. We'll typically feed them. Is that per per Guinea pig? Uh, and so we'll typically, and we only ever just need to, to feed them that once a day. They're very good at reminding us when, when it's time to eat, they remember and will, and will weak at us when, when they feel like we're too late with their vegetables. And it's nice to have a reminder, but not when that reminds your neighbors as well. And as far as, uh, the, the mixture, uh, of vegetables go, there are a few things that, uh, should be kind of avoided, um, just because it can give, uh, too much stuff that can give them gas. We'll make them bloated. Is that things like broccoli? Um, broccoli actually. Okay. But things like, for example, like Brussels sprouts are not, are not too good for them, but broccoli is good. Um, lettuce it, we always have like a green leaf or Romaine lettuce, uh, that we'll give to them. They like parsley and, uh, cilantro. They, uh, need a constant source of a vitamin C. And so cilantro can kind of supply that a little, but the thing that the main thing that we'll give them that's got a better vitamin C source is bell peppers of any color and variety. And they can eat just about everything of, of a bell pepper. Uh, they'll eat the, the actual pepper itself. They can eat the seeds and a bit of the core. It just can't give them the, the green topper of the bell pepper. Cause it's got, uh, some chem some night shades. Yep. Same, same thing for like no green tomatoes, but red tomatoes are perfectly fine. And the big thing that we've had to learn even with all that is there's so much stuff that they can eat, but it's less of a question of can they eat it? And more question of will they eat it? They can be very picky when it comes to what they like to eat and what they don't. And so kind of just comes to learning what your Guinea pig likes and what it doesn't. Do you ever offer citrus fruits as a source of vitamin C? Um, we've tried, uh, orange slices, uh, can, can be an option. Ours don't, uh, unfortunately won't, won't eat those, but some options are, are a possibility. But that's, that's really good to know that there are so many other good alternatives for a vitamin C source. Usually that's not something you're looking for with a pet is wanting to make sure that it has vitamin C in their diet. And so you don't always pay attention to what those things are. Everybody have, have your once a day glass of fresh squeezed pepper juice and you will never get scurvy. Let's see. So that we've talked about feeding. How about water? Uh, they should have a constant source of water. Um, just to kind of avoid competition too, between, uh, if you, because you're going to have multiple Guinea pigs, having maybe two sources of water in an enclosure works best. Uh, just so that there's, there's always something, something available to them. I've seen people normally use the little sipper bottles. I haven't seen anybody use bowls. I know, I know what chinchillas is not good because their first so dense that they have trouble drying out. I don't think that's probably the problem for cabbie. Oh no. We eventually started using the, the little, uh, dripper bottles. Uh, but we, we did use just some, some bowls full of water and they were able to drink that just fine. Uh, that actually brings up another kind of good point too, is the fact that, uh, you know, the taking care of, uh, their fur, they're very self-sufficient at keeping themselves clean. Okay. Uh, as far as like they'll, they'll bathe themselves and, and just kind of keep themselves clean. You never have to, to bathe a Guinea pig unless you've got the longer hair variety where they can get stuff in it. That's a little harder to clean out and no dust baths or anything. No, no dust baths needed. They just, you can just kind of set them free in their enclosure and they'll just do their thing. The closure can be a couple of, there's a couple of different things that you can provide for them. Uh, typically it should be pretty spacious. We kind of keep ours in like a, a four by two foot enclosure for the two of them. And that's typically a pretty good, pretty good, uh, size for them have a variety of places for them to hide in if they need to like little, uh, wooden, wooden houses that they can just kind of go into and nap in if they need to stuff for them to, to chew on. Hey, we'll do, uh, we'll do a lot for them to, to keep their teeth down, but, uh, some wooden structures in there that they can, that you're not worried about them damaging, uh, will help keep their continuously growing incisors in check. That makes sense. Um, you can have some enclosures where you can have, you know, the, the, the two by, by, by four feet, but then you can also add a couple of layers, uh, vertically as well, some ramps and platforms for them to sit on and explore around in. Uh, and that, uh, will, will be good for them as well. Uh, I've seen some people keep them in, uh, enclosed cages, uh, you know, with like a roof. Uh, but you can't, you can't also just keep them, uh, in an open, open roof enclosure. Uh, just gotta be a little careful. They can jump pretty high vertically. Is there anything else that you think somebody who's considering a Guinea pig should know before they get themselves into the Guinea pig world? Uh, just to remember that they, they, they are very social creatures. They, they can like being around you and being with you and enjoying your company, but they very much need a friend of their own species, uh, with them, uh, at all times. And just to keep, keep them each other company and keep, keep them happy. Uh, other than that, just knowing that it will be a daily, uh, thing to, to take care of them and make sure that they've got everything that they need. But so long as you give them everything that they could possibly need, they are the sweetest, the sweetest things that you could have. I'm very impressed by how wonderful they are. Well, thank you so much for bringing these two here and for, for joining us today. This has been awesome. Of course. So with all that in mind, we are going to give the Guinea pig a score of three out of five for care. By the way, if you liked Jesse's hat and I do, I've got one just like it. You can get your own down at our Teespring store, which is right here in the description and maybe just right here below the video. Definitely check that out. We've got cool hats, we've got rad shirts, and a few of them are about to disappear forever. So if they're designed that you've been enjoying for a long time, but haven't quite pulled the trigger just yet, now would be the time when it comes to hardiness. We give the Guinea pig a score of five out of five. For the most part, they should be very, very hardy. That said, there are a few weird things that could go awry with your Guinea pig that you might not anticipate. One of them are rabbits. In a lot of ways, there's some serious similarities to Guinea pig physiology and rabbit physiology. One of them being they've got a kind of a similar diet and they need to keep the train moving just like with rabbits. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch our rabbit video. But you might be tempted even to keep rabbits with Guinea pigs because in a lot of ways, their care is very similar. That could very easily kill your Guinea pigs because rabbits can carry some diseases that hardly affect them, but will just wipe out your Guinea pigs. So it is not a good idea to have rabbits with Guinea pigs or anywhere near Guinea pigs. Another one is heat, excessive heat. These guys are a little bit like chinchillas in this way and they come from a similar part of the world. They don't do well if it gets really hot. And so you need to make sure that they're never getting to any sort of extreme temperatures, even over like 80 degrees Fahrenheit. That's not all that hot and that's too hot for them. So that's another weird thing. So you need to keep them cool and away from rabbits. And the last thing is something very unusual for mammals, but not unusual for you. And that is that Guinea pigs do not make their own vitamin C. We will actually be talking about this in great detail in a video coming up next month during phylogeny February. But in case you can't wait until then, Guinea pigs are one of very few mammals that do not produce vitamin C. And as a result, they need vitamin C in their diet or they will get scurvy and die just like you will. It's a very unusual problem to have, but you need to make sure there's vitamin C in their diet. Additionally, there's little grooming things like you need to keep their nails properly trimmed. You need to keep their hair brushed, especially if they've got longer coats like these. Make sure you give them proper food and water. That's not an unusual thing. And if you do all these things, well, your Guinea pig should live many times longer than a rat. And that's pretty good. When it comes to availability, assuming that you're not in Australia, we give the Guinea pig a score of five out of five. They're basically everywhere. Pet store, absolutely. These particular Guinea pigs come to us from Animal Ark in Orem, Utah, which is one of those pet stores that you've heard me talk about since the very beginning of this channel. It's an awesome place if you're looking for a Guinea pig or really any other sort of really cool reptile, amphibian, mammal, bird. They've pretty much got it and everything that you'll need for them. So definitely check that out. If you go to a mammal expo, I bet they have Guinea pigs there. I've never been to one, but I have seen them even at reptile expos with some regularity. Straight from a breeder? Yeah, totally. You can totally get them from a breeder. Online? You betcha. If you want a Guinea pig, you can get a Guinea pig, except maybe if you're in Australia. I really don't know. They've got some stuff, but most things they don't have. When it comes to upfront costs, we give the Guinea pig a score of four out of five. Guinea pigs really do not cost that much at all. The bulk of your cost will pretty much just be the enclosure and the furnishings for the enclosure, including things like ideally an absorbent fleece pad and another one of those, and maybe one more just in case. Proper diet, including hay and sipper bottles, will not cost all that much, though these will be recurring costs. We'll have links to a lot of these things down in the description, but overall, a Guinea pig is not an exceedingly expensive animal to get or set up properly, especially for how much they give back. That is why, overall, we give the Guinea pig a score of 4.2 out of 5, which is really an astoundingly high score for a mammal. If what you want is a cuddly, affectionate animal that needs a lot of love but won't throw off your life quite as much as a dog or a cockatoo, and you don't mind a little poop and a pretty good-sized puddle of pee every now and then, and you want it to live longer than a couple of years, then the Not From Guinea Not A Pig might be the best pet mammal for you. As always, like and subscribe, and we hope to see you real soon. You want to come back over this way? You want to come back over this way? Let's go. One. Two. Good job. Good job. You guys are professionals. I mean, yeah, so they make that you eat the whole thing. They shave it. Other than that, it's the whole thing. When you said that they cook it whole, you really mean it. Yeah, the whole thing. Head, everything. It is, they don't part it out. It is the guinea pig. Yeah, and there's not that much meat on a guinea pig, so you kind of need to eat the whole guinea pig. Like, that's a person's meal is a guinea pig. Wow, that is a lot more not as appetizing as they appear on the table. Salivating. Those look like they'd be delicious, but when I see it prepared... You should see Jason when you see a field full of cows. He's like, oh my goodness. Those look amazingly delicious.