It was bound to happen (guinea pigs)

[Cottie]

I'm slowly losing my mind, I think. :lol:

We're renting a farm. The lease is up in a little over 2 years, although we may renew. Since we don't know "for sure" yet, I'm trying to stick to small livestock. We're looking into getting Juliana or pot bellied pigs - I've read on homesteading forums that the meat is nicer than "real" hogs and they're a lot easier to home butcher. I like my breeding stock to have a kind of 'pet' status, so I think miniature pigs would be good. My only hang up (with pigs in general) is their dern near self-aware.

So, if that didn't make me enough of a bad person...

We're also looking into guinea pigs. Gasp! Horror! They're cute and fluffy! I like the idea of adding some more biodiversity to my barn, have read they're tasty, and their pelts are interesting.

I did a search and saw there were several people on here who raise them for meat. Please spill it! Worthwhile? Not?

 

[AmysMacdog]

I've read guinea pigs are tasty buuut I couldn't eat one. :shock: I love those little things!
On the guinea pigs, I wouldn't/couldn't (thats just me, we do eat rabbit) but the pot bellied pigs I would. I've heard they do great on the small farm and tast yummy!

 

[Secuono]

I raise PBs for meat, it's what they were originally bred for. But westerners thought they were cute and turned them into pets.
They continue to grow for 3 to 6 years before they fully reach adult size. Most people buy them as pets thinking they will stay small just because the parents, only a year old or even less, are small. But those parents aren't done growing.

I butchered a year old boar, there was no 'boar taint' nor was the pig 'greasy' like many nay-sayers of meat PBs claim they are.
Very easy to get them to like you, easy to move, if you butcher at a year then they aren't too pricey to feed. And the size is very easy for a single person to do everything from shoot to hang and butcher. The hide is a lot more difficult to remove than a rabbits, though.
I only feed regular hog pellets, not that mini pig crap. They are also on pasture, get raw chicken eggs, raw animal parts[innards] and human scraps.

But I could never eat a GP, way too small in my opinion to be wasting any time, money and effort on. =/

 

[Cottie]

I really have a hang up with actual pigs. It's stupid, I know. They're just too close to sentient.

The boyfriend is all aboard the PB bandwagon bandwagon, though. Pork is one of the precious few things he can eat.

What kind of housing do they need? Not as intensive as full-sized hogs, I'd assume. How do they do with chickens?

 

[Basenji43]

I myself wouldn't eat a guinea pig. However, I would feed it to my dogs in a heart beat. Maybe there are raw feeders in your area that would be interested. I know those that feed/follow the whole prey model like guinea pigs and rabbits because of their small size.

 

[Marinea]

I owned a potbelly pig as a pet years ago. Hands down, smartest pet ever. Ever. I love me some bacon, but could never eat a potbelly. Just too smart and too personable for me.

If you decide to go that route RJ, I wish you luck. It's just not for me.

 

[Sinnfox]

In response to the guinea pigs ...I looked into it at one point since I was curious. in the countries where they are a normal food staple they are a good bit larger then the ones you normally see. The pets most people know were bred down for size...so if you were going to do it and not import the larger (near medium rabbit sized ones) you might want to selectively breed them for larger sizes till they get back up to where their over seas counterparts are. till then they may not be quite worth the effort to butcher. Then again you would probably do well selling to someone with snakes till you get them up to size? ...I thought of doing it if for no other reason the to get giant Guinea pigs >.> but my husband hates them so I got vetoed luckily he loves rabbits

 

[AmysMacdog]

Giant guinea pigs?? :shock: Is there such a thing?

 

[Sinnfox]

before being bred down for the pet market they were two to three times the size normally seen from what I read...so probably

 

[Nyctra]

How big are guinea pigs usually anyway? :?

 

[Secuono]

900-1200 grams for males
700-900 grams for females

__________ Fri May 31, 2013 4:43 pm __________

My pigs have a 2ft tall cattle panel fence and two pallets leaned together with a tarp over it. Kiddy pool for water and soaking in.
Piglets will need heat in winter and a better set up, though.

__________ Fri May 31, 2013 4:44 pm __________

<br /><br />__________ Fri May 31, 2013 5:40 pm __________<br /><br />Oh, forgot to mention.
Hogs will, can and have killed, eaten and gouged humans, goats, sheep, horses, chickens, dogs and any other animal they are kept with.

Just because they seem nice to you, they should never be fully trusted.

 

[AmysMacdog]

I did not know that about guinea pigs. (About being bred down in size) Thats very interesting. I love guinea pigs, I wouldn't mind having one for a pet again. Maybe someday.

 

[Secuono]

I rescue them on and off since I was 12 years old. Their singing makes me so happy and my Dober dog goes giddy with joy to count them in the morning! He loves those darned toupees, furry potatoes...er, guinea pigs!!
I spoil them crazy rotten!

 

[Cottie]

We've put off the idea of guinea pigs for now. I think the girls would really have a hard time with the "cute" factor.

However, we are now the proud owners of two potbelly gilts. We'd been looking all Spring and finally found someone selling a pair of sisters. They aren't what you think of when you hear "potbelly pig", though. No cute factor here at all. Very docile, though they do have quite the temperament when you try to move them. I feel bad because their accommodations for tonight aren't up to their standards and they seem quite scared. I'll be getting them some goodies tomorrow to make them happy, spoiled pigs, then continuing the hunt for a suitable small-breed hog to mate.

 

[Marinea]

Congrats RJ!

 

[Cottie]

Hehe thanks! The pigs were a biiigggg fight last night. Apparently, they're bigger than I thought. He was mad. Really hoppin' mad.

It's OK. Necessity is the mother of invention. We had to quick fix the chicken coop for them. Today I'm building them a pen and putting up a fence. It's a win-win all around because I realized I could put all the critters in that building with the proper set-up.

And he gets his garage back. :lol: So now he's happy.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

I know its a no-no to post links to other forums but its just entirely TOO much stuff to copy-paste or anything. so here is my thread on guinea pigs for meat, complete with pictures and video links of my setup: http://www.permies.com/t/19371/rabbits/ ... at-journal

I have eaten one of my GPs. I will copy-paste what I thought of it from my other thread...
"it tasted a lot like rabbit, just a bit differently. mostly the texture was different. like there is chicken, which you can shred with a fork... and rabbit isn't quite the same but still shreds some just not the same and more falls apart when you cut it then chicken does.... well guinea pig is similar to rabbit except it falls apart more like canned tuna fish. at least the way I cooked it, which was in crockpot. next time i'll definitely be pulling the meat off the bones and BBQing it. the meat doesn't really have its own flavor. like rabbit meat but more bland I suppose."

as far as cost... they are super easy to keep and as long as you can make a tractor sort of thing or cut forage for them they are just about no cost at all.
mine eat the same grain-mix I use with my rabbits and they don't get very much at all. really only when it storms or I get overloaded with stuff and cant cut more forage and ran out of stuff I cut and set aside. and then hay for them to eat and bedding, and since I bale my own hay its super cheap. and if you can garden and save up some things for them they will be good in winter too. i'm going to be doing squashes and pumpkins for mine to set aside and cut and feed in winter. plus things like dryed sweet peppers, etc will get them enough vitamin C that you wont have to buy it. although from what I know of the people who do buy it, its not terrible much and it lasts a long time.

 

[GBov]

Good job finding what you want!

I traded six blue New Zealand kits for three - two girls and a boy - weened PBPs last Febuary. Sold the smallest girl as a pet and picked up two sisters the same age as my remaining two that were going free to good home.

Last month we processed the boar and he is FANTASTIC! Nice rich meat and he dressed out at about 25 pounds of boneless meat. His hams are brining now to be smoked next week.

LOVED the size of him, I could manage the entire job myself, even pulling him up to skin.

Skinning is harder than rabbits but then again, MANY things are harder to skin than rabbits! They are so danged easy I am now down to 9 min per rabbit, start to finish.

The three sows have now giving us 15 piglets! All of them doing really well but flighty little things.

DONT like the temperment of any of my PBPs, not friendly or outgoing like the blue butts we raised so really easy to kill them at need, no fear of becoming attached to them. :lol:

Guinea pigs are easy to raise, can be fed entirely on food gathered for them and, while they start off really slow, once the squeekie fur ball starts rolling, you will have LOTS of meat. Yes they are small but so is a quail.

I havnt yet killed one for us to eat but have killed four so far for the dogs. EASY animal to dispatch! A mid sized box with a scattering of hay on the bottom adn a pair of long handled pruners/loppers. Once the g pig gets under the hay they stop running so just get the jaws positioned behind the ears and snip.

Mine all live in a walk in, roofed over, pen with my quail. So far its working really well.

I DIDNT know that about PBPs continuing to grow! Will litter sizes get bigger as they girls get bigger? Right now my largest sow is knee high and the smallest is four inches shorter than that. So her having 6 piglets was a surprise.