Meat guinea pigs are 6-8 pounds!!

[Secuono]

Did you guys know there's two types of GP? The pet guinea pig, growing to a max of about 3 pounds and then there is the Cuy, they grow 6 to 8 pounds!
So then, how do you get a meat pig? Looks like California petstores import Cuy!
Does anyone have these massive pigs?

http://www.guineapigtoday.com/2012/06/2 ... mejorados/

__________ Fri Sep 27, 2013 2:27 pm __________

http://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61591<br /><br />__________ Fri Sep 27, 2013 2:33 pm __________<br /><br />Also, wouldn't Skinny pigs be best? Since they don't need to have the hair removed?

 

[dayna]

OMG I want one!

 

[Pepperoni]

That's really interesting. I found this video of people preparing cuy in Ecuador. About half way through he explains how they soak the cavy in hot water to scald the hair off, much like a hog I would assume.

*WARNING* This video is about cooking cuy so don't watch it if you're sentimental about cavies.
http://vimeo.com/2222531

 

[AmysMacdog]

That is so cool! I'd love to meet one of those!

 

[Secuono]

I had two guinea pig sisters that were four to 4.5 pounds, but never knew it was possible they were cuy and not just regular pigs that were fat. They were red with some white, which I'm reading is another characteristic of them. Though, everything else was typical cavy.

 

[akane]

They are mostly banned for import in to the US and not sold to the pet trade often. Petco seems to have found a loophole. I do believe someone on homesteadingtoday has some though and I know one person on the pet guinea pig forums had 2 a few years back. She showed pictures of them taking up an entire stair. Scientists actually developed them many years ago because the people eating cuy had eaten the biggest ones for so long everyone was down to our pet size guinea pigs which weren't feeding people well anymore and they are a main meat source in some south american countries. They mention it a bit in the article here:

Many of the guinea pigs raised for food in Peru are the same size as the domestic guinea pigs in the United States. The Cuys Criollos Mejorados are the results of selective breeding designed to produce larger, meatier animals for food consumption. - See more at: http://www.guineapigtoday.com/2012/06/2 ... 6dmVV.dpuf

They bred them up to this bigger size again and sent them back as well as to gourmet restaurants around the world trying to promote cuy as a meat source. They are as or more efficient than rabbits for meat so getting people to eat them and lower our dependence on larger livestock would be helpful to hunger problems and ecological impact. The attempt has mostly failed in the US though and they just end up a curiosity to guinea pig fanciers.

 

[dayna]

For me the problem would be that my guinea pig pets are small and eat way more than a large rabbit! Plus they are pregnant for a really long time, and only have a couple babies.

Maybe they solved that in the larger type?

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

That is cool!!!! Wish the video showed how easy/hard it is to scald off the fur though. Now I'm curious!!! Could it be done with rabbit? :mrgreen:

For me the problem would be that my guinea pig pets are small and eat way more than a large rabbit! Plus they are pregnant for a really long time, and only have a couple babies.

Maybe they solved that in the larger type?

Or maybe they can be pasture-grazed? If I could raise them economically I'd probably give it a shot later on; though I'd invest in just one to begin with and cook/eat to make sure I like it.

 

[Secuono]

Others are saying they free range their GPs without any issues. They don't need tunnels, they don't dig, aren't very fast and tend to do much better on pasture than rabbits. But drafts and moisture are very dangerous for a GP, that's my biggest worry with them when I do have them.

Does anyone sell the Cuys criollos mejorados or any giant pigs in the US??

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

way ahead of you guys

I have been reading into meat guinea pigs for like a year and only just this week have I found anything about someone with some actually from peru. person wishes to remain anonymous and not say a word about where they are located or anything more specific than this really. currently has two for sale at $175 each X.x which is a bit high but when you take into consideration how many months and thousands of dollars it took for the person to bring a few of the stock from their birthplace to their new home in USA... ya I mean like a couple thousand dollars each plus almost half a year in preparing and politics and quarantine and government crap.


so yes there are huge GPs but not what you might think them to be.
for anyone thinkin about this I really suggest reading into it a lot. but for anyone wantin to learn more i'm compiling all the info i'm finding as well as writing about what i'm doing with ones I have and breeding up.
I have made a facebook group and there are threads about this on several groups. anyone can PM me for more info

 

[akane]

We used to let them run wild in our fenced yard in town when I was a kid. They lived under a low deck and trimmed the grass around the deck, pool, and garage. They'd always cross from one area to another in a train with sow in front, pups in the middle, and boar in the back. We did bring them in during winter and stick them in a big rabbit hutch in the mudroom but we had several that we couldn't catch go through a few snow storms and not end up inside until dec. They were just fuzzier.

First litters were small but later litters were 5-8. Even when we started over with a new line because someone left the gate open and a small dog who could fit under the deck got them all. When we moved and didn't have a fenced yard I would put them in horse stalls from Feb through Nov and let them breed at will. Then sell all the extras and stick our favorites in cages to go under the counter in the laundry room. Some people though have managed to leave them outside year round even in areas that get quite cold if they are protected from the weather. They need somewhere to hide out since they are major prey animals and to keep warm. In town that was the deck. In the stable I built squares out of those shelving cubes and then covered in old horse blankets.

When we moved yet again and I had no fenced yard and no suitable building I built an herb garden with removable panels to let them graze the paths between the plants and then eat the plants down. I used these brick tubes I found behind the garage and an old wooden house as hiding places so I wouldn't have to put a roof on the pen.

That's a cilantro pen on the right(eventually got over waist high) and a fennel and swiss chard pen on the left. I also grew edible flowers, nasturtiums, snapdragons, as well as catnip(turned in to 3' bushes), spearmint, and surrounded the outside of the pen in blueberry bushes and strawberry plants.

After everything was harvested or eaten by guinea pigs the bantam chickens went to work tilling the soil for next year.

Unfortunately my landlord went nutso and I only got to see 2 seasons of my guinea pig herb garden before we had to move in to this condo.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

figured I may as well put this here... I had more links that the computer ate and I haven't been able to find again. but its decent list..

full link file I put together on the FB meat GP group:


~food nutrition chart (*anti breeding site but has some good info on things*)http://www.guinealynx.info/chart.html
~GP for meat thread at BYC forum
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/23...a-pigs-as-meat
~article with videohttp://therealknowhow.com/2012/03/ ... -for-meat/
~article with breeding plan suggestions
http://survivalblog.com/2012/01/rais...s-a-survi.html
~GP for meat thread at HT forum
guinea pigs for meat
~guinea pigs for meat prduction 1991
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.echocom...GuineaPigs.pdf
~article on Fekunia couple who are sort of spotlight for gp as meathttp://www.abc.net.au/local/stories ... 287792.htm
~guinea pig management manual 2003
http://www.bensoninstitute.org/Publi.../guineapig.pdf
~due date calculator (i love this! type in the date you put em together and click a button and you have a appx due date!)http://www.gestationcalculator.com/other/guinea-pig-calculator
~a bit on genetics
http://www.zianet.com/nstcbbt/genetics.html
~genetic diversity in cavies (i admit this is all totally greek to me!)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3229130/
~about a girl with benson institute on breedin up GPs for sizehttp://www.bensoninstitute.org/Publ ... /jenny.asp
~profit in guinea pigs (copyright 1922!)http://archive.org/stream/profitinguineapi00robe#page/n7/mode/2up
~latin american research review, on the guinea pig in andean culturehttp://lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/LARR ... &Start=129
~guinea pigs as meat producershttp://www.agriculturesnetwork ... t-producer
~scroll down to 7.2.2 for GP infohttp://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/ ... t-producer
~someones article about small backyard herdhttp://www.users.on.net/~arachne/guinea.html~GP in africahttp://www.new-ag.info/en/develop ... php?a=2751
~word of mouth, three ways to eat a guinea pighttp://petercherches.blogspot.com/20 ... html~micro livestock book (can read at this link!)http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/LSTOCK/001/Minor_Stock/Microlivestock/INDEX.HTM
~commercial breeding of guinea pigs (translated page)http://www.microsofttranslator.com/b...a-de-cuyes.htm
~hydroponic green fodder and their application in breeding guinea pigs (translated page)http://www.microsofttranslator.com/b...idroponico.htm
~breeding of guinea pigs peru (translated page)http://www.microsofttranslator.com/b...za-de-cuyes%2F




current feeding file on the FB meat GPs group:


WHAT KATIE FEEDS:
as of 9/27/13 i'm feeding one scoop rolled barley, two scoops whole wheat, two scoops rabbit pellets (producers pride, from TSC). on top of that i feed tons of hay and tons of forage as possible in the warm months plus some regular mix veg sometimes (carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini, spinach,..). in winter i sprout and grow some of the wheat into wheatgrass (not like usual pretty stuff you see, mine is short or else it molds before it grows taller).

SOME OF WHAT JACOB FEEDS:
"grain,; chook pellets; banana, whole plant; passionfruit, whole vine; mints, oregano/marjoram, parsley (most all culinary/medicinal herbs rosemary causes abortions in ppl and possibly animals); borage, lemon balm, all edible fruit trees, canes, leaves, prunings etc; sweet potato vines, carrots, all parts; wilted comfrey, (limited treat); Swiss chard; plantain; dock (contains iron); dandelion (even root, calcium); chickweed (go nuts for it, cuy love it too, tastes like corn); sow thistles/smooth thistle or whatever u want to call it (its called puha in NZ; wheat grass; corn stalks an...d leaves; sunflowers all parts (I take off the leaves and feed as they fade/get damaged); jobs tears (clumping grass, edible seeds, u can keep cutting this down and it just keeps coming back); violet flowers; loquat leaves and branches (sheep love the leaves too, I had one try to climb the tree to get at the leaves); squashes/pumpkins; at the mo im trialling them with dill (small nibbles, it can repel rodents apparently) cape gooseberry leaves and globe artichoke leaves (nibbled). Molasses can encourage biting insects, esp. in warmer areas. I tend not to feed any brassica or pulses (beans, and other nitrogen fixing plants like tree Lucerne, I do have a lot of clover in my pasture, but the cuy never eat it)."

THINGS TO GROW:
~wheat: if you can find some that is whole and not treated from the feedstore etc it makes good sprouts or grow it in plots with the garden and cut it for the GPs
~oats: mine never seemed to like oats really but some peoples do. the oats i could get never sprouted well and growin some (thanks to rabbits spillin theirs it grew some around the hutches) but it never grew the oats really. could possibly be good to grow for forage greens though for some people
~indian corn: corn is one of the controversial topics among GP and rabbit people. i have quite a bit of seed and i'm going to seperate out the lesser quality seed from what i have and crack it and see if they eat it. either way i know they clean up sweetcorn raw cob ends and stalks and husk/silk so even if i grow the corn for myself they will have tons of stalks and husk to eat.
~cilantro/coriander: this is medium-low in vit C level and supposed to be easy to grow.
~carrots: careful feedin too much because its like candy to rabbits/GPs and high in natural sugars and can actually give them diabetes. but the greens are good for them AND DID YOU KNOW you can take the big store carrots and cut the tops off with a bit of carrot left and plant it in a pot (or outside really) and it will grow a top again! i currently have 4 tops in a large pot that are doing great. day after i put em in the pot they started growin!
~garden cress: i have no experience with this but some people have wild patches of it that grows all year round i hear. its med-high vit C level.
~dill weed: medium-high vit C level.
~kale: high vit C level.
~lambsquarters: medium vit C level.
~cantaloupe melon: low-medium vit C level.
~mustard greens: medium-high vit C level.
~mustard spinach (tendergreen): very high vit C level
~NZ spinach: medium-high vit C level
~parsley: easay to grow once its going. medium vit C level.
~bell peppers: yellow are very high vit C level, red are med-high vit C level, green aremed-high vit C level. pretty easy to grow.
~pumpkin: very low vit C level but they keep easily over winter and pretty easy to grow. seeds have natural worming affect. whole thing is edible to them with little work on your part to feed out.
~watermelon: not much nutrition but grow it for you and feed em the rinds! ~summer squash (crookneck, straightneck, scallop, zucchini): low-medium vit C level but super easy to grow and store.
~winter squash (hubbard, acorn, butternut, spaghetti): very low vit C level but easy to grow and easy to store for winter.
~strawberries: med vit C level but i'd rather have strawberry shortcake for me then feed em to the GPs
~sweet potatoe/leaves: very low vit C level but easy to start from store ones. currently have several small plants in large pot now doing pretty well.
~watercress: med vit C level

 

[GBov]

There is a guinea pigs for meat thread going in teh rabbit section on the homesteading today forum where someone can give a link to a cuy breeder in Georgia. Cant remember off the top of my head who right now its been a loooooong day.

Things I have learned from raising guinea pigs for meat - no, we havnt eaten any yet due to several problems :roll: - are that first, if your family like cute animals, your gunna have problems getting the go ahead to butcher.

The long gestation seems a problem at first but if you start with 8 sows and one boar, by the third generation you will have dozens and dozens and dozens of htem. Picture a fuzzy snowball gathering momentum!

Mine dont seem to mind cold, damp, hot, dry or anything really, just dont stop with the food!

If you have the time your gpigs will cost you NOTHING to feed. If, like me, you are short on time, they cost as much or more than a rabbit to raise.

LOVE the garden Akane! Once we are finally finished moving in here I might just have to try that. Did they eat everything or just the weeds adn grass?

 

[Secuono]

I miss all the cute noises they make and just having them around...
Georga, eh? I think I found that thread, but never found anyone who was breeding and selling them.

 

[akane]

They'd spend the summer trimming the grass and weeds between the plots and then after harvesting for myself in the fall or if I ended up growing too much of something I'd remove the barriers and they'd flatten it all to little specks of greenery. Which the chickens cleaned up. I didn't remove the barriers from the perennials and just let them trim what over grew the barriers until the cat got in the 2nd spring and went crazy on the catnip bushes before they were leafed out enough to take it. Killed all 3 of the 3' bushes. I only had the mint and fennel left as perennials then. Aside from the berries growing outside the pen.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

There is a guinea pigs for meat thread going in teh rabbit section on the homesteading today forum where someone can give a link to a cuy breeder in Georgia. Cant remember off the top of my head who right now its been a loooooong day.
that was me its not cuy but he has a lot and the pair I got from him got me farther ahead then I would have gotten without em in year or more trying to breed up. soon as I get things settled I want to get more stock from there and cull out all my not-to-par GPs.

Things I have learned from raising guinea pigs for meat - no, we havnt eaten any yet due to several problems :roll: - are that first, if your family like cute animals, your gunna have problems getting the go ahead to butcher.

The long gestation seems a problem at first but if you start with 8 sows and one boar, by the third generation you will have dozens and dozens and dozens of htem. Picture a fuzzy snowball gathering momentum!
ya like if you have 8 sows and 2 birth at once and then a couple weeks later the other 6 birth the same night :roll:

Mine dont seem to mind cold, damp, hot, dry or anything really, just dont stop with the food!

If you have the time your gpigs will cost you NOTHING to feed. If, like me, you are short on time, they cost as much or more than a rabbit to raise.
if you can spare a bit of time its more then worth it. the way the grass grows here I can go out and gather up over a packed full grocery bag of grass and edible weeds. usually I just use my skirt or put on my big apron and use it to gather up much as I can and feed it.

LOVE the garden Akane! Once we are finally finished moving in here I might just have to try that. Did they eat everything or just the weeds adn grass?