Would a silkie guinea pig make a good meat pig?

[CochinBrahmaLover]

So I've been wanting to do meat guinea pigs for a while. Haven't gotten any yet.

Except, today I saw a sweetheart on Craigslist. A silkie guinea pig. He's a year old, intact, and has been a pet his entire life. Comes with all of his supplies, and once I sell this doe, I'll have the money to get him (I have it now, but the doe will cover it). And he's just... So, so, so cute. But I've heard certain breeds are smaller, and I'm not sure if the fur would be a PITA for a meat breed? If anything I could use him just for show

I'll get the pics of him that I have, one sec

__________ Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:17 am __________

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Aww, he is really cute!

I don't know about the weight differences (if any) between the varieties, but I wouldn't start a meat program with long haired pigs. Akane has raised cavies, so might know if you could get normal furred ones by breeding him to the shorthaired type.

As for showing him- to be really competetive, you need to keep his fur wrapped, like they do with the long, silky haired dog breeds.



His current coat is probably too broken, and I have no idea how long cavies can be competitive on the show table. If he was a rabbit, he would probably be ready for retirement.

He'd make a nice pet, though!

 

[WhWRabbitry]

Okay, forgive my ignorance, quinea pigs are sometimes raised for meat??
For real? If so I learned something.

He is a beautie.

***
Okay so I just searched and answered my own question on this thread:
http://rabbittalk.com/why-raise-gui...75-15.html?hilit=guinea pigs for meat#p239535

Interesting... I never knew.

 

[DBA]

I've heard of people doing it, but as long of a gestation period that they have, and small litter size, I can't see the benefit.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I've heard of people doing it, but as long of a gestation period that they have, and small litter size, I can't see the benefit.

Their gestation period is only about twice as long as a rabbits, and they come out pretty much equivalent to a 4 week rabbit. Eyes open, furred, and eating solids fairly immediately. You wean about a month later, and I presume this is when you butcher but I'm still looking up.

Edit: oops you said small litter size. Well they have 1-8, 3-5 being common. So yeah they've got a small litter size.

The best part about them really is that you can just graze them all summer, and so long as you give them Vit c, they can pretty much live off of scraps, grass and added vit c (since they can't make it themselves). I've also heard that gps are far sturdier than rabbits, meaning you don't really have to worry just giving them new foods, they won't stop eating and die.

You can breed for larger ones, but it's really mostly useful when you can graze them.

Aww, he is really cute!

I don't know about the weight differences (if any) between the varieties, but I wouldn't start a meat program with long haired pigs. Akane has raised cavies, so might know if you could get normal furred ones by breeding him to the shorthaired type.

As for showing him- to be really competetive, you need to keep his fur wrapped, like they do with the long, silky haired dog breeds.

View attachment 1

His current coat is probably too broken, and I have no idea how long cavies can be competitive on the show table. If he was a rabbit, he would probably be ready for retirement.

He'd make a nice pet, though!

Ah, well I heard that certain breeds tend to be smaller compared to others.

Frankly, this is Alaska. Not many animals can be imported to Alaska. Or people want to pay for importation. Guinea pig showing isn't super competitive.

That said, I'll probably use him for showmanship, since it doesn't really matter how old or how ugly the animal is. Thank you

 

[akane]

Litters of 5+ are common in females that have had a few litters. We actually rarely get a litter of 3 or under in an experienced breeder. That just doesn't become common knowledge due to the amount of pet only owners and the one time accidental breedings which make up the majority of litters. The main thing is you don't need to buy lots of pellets for guinea pigs. They don't need the high protein to grow and protein is the most expensive part of feeding animals. You can feed guinea pigs on any nontoxic plant matter and get the same growth. Vegetable scraps, garden weeds, letting them free range... So long as the vit c requirement is made they can eat practically anything without digestive upset or slower growth like rabbits.

I haven't seen that the coat has as many downsides as the wool rabbits. It doesn't seem to affect growth and feed intake to the same extent. It's mainly aesthetic and the fur possibly needing trimmed to keep it clean and untangled. As for breeds being different sizes that is not really true. Within the same breed you can find guinea pigs that are double the size of other guinea pigs in the same breed. Various areas may have regional differences but otherwise the breed doesn't matter. What is often true is that show guinea pigs are smaller than pet guinea pigs. They aren't as good of starting stock. Sometimes you take what you can get though.

 

[Susie570]

Okay, forgive my ignorance, quinea pigs are sometimes raised for meat??
For real? If so I learned something.

I learned that too, when we were given a guinea pig (long story, short ending). Guinea pigs are PRIMARILY raised for meat, in other countries (and I guess, sometimes in the US too, although I've never heard of that here). <br /><br /> __________ Sun Feb 22, 2015 3:31 pm __________ <br /><br />

I've also heard that gps are far sturdier than rabbits, meaning you don't really have to worry just giving them new foods, they won't stop eating and die.

I would NOT agree that GPs are 'sturdier' than rabbits!!!
Seriously... do some reading on the GP forums. They are susceptible to all sorts of diseases, particularly URIs and they can get knocked down really quickly.
GPs often have complicated pregnancies and births, it's very common to lose litters and even the mother.
I was given a young female GP and it was a nightmare, very bad, heartbreaking experience. Proceed with caution.

 

[akane]

They've been trying to get guinea pig in restaurants across the US but the public is not really accepting and too many know or ask what cuy is. The US also has strict rules about the importation of a genetically altered line of guinea pigs available in other countries that get considerably larger so they are more effective meat animals. They are equal to rabbit fryers for pounds of meat but they only live about 3 years.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The US also has strict rules about the importation of a genetically altered line of guinea pigs available in other countries that get considerably larger so they are more effective meat animals.

I know of at least three people here in California that have the large meat pigs. I've spoken to one lady about getting some from her, but want to try cuy before I commit to buying any.

 

[akane]

There's a handful of breeders but most aren't lucky enough to live close enough to someone. They seem mostly confined to the coasts. Every now and then on the west coast some show up in a shelter and are snatched up by the pet crowd who try to keep them alive longer. I've seen a few pics of them in homes on stairs and next to regular pigs.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Okay, forgive my ignorance, quinea pigs are sometimes raised for meat??
For real? If so I learned something.

I learned that too, when we were given a guinea pig (long story, short ending). Guinea pigs are PRIMARILY raised for meat, in other countries (and I guess, sometimes in the US too, although I've never heard of that here).

__________ Sun Feb 22, 2015 3:31 pm __________

I've also heard that gps are far sturdier than rabbits, meaning you don't really have to worry just giving them new foods, they won't stop eating and die.

I would NOT agree that GPs are 'sturdier' than rabbits!!!
Seriously... do some reading on the GP forums. They are susceptible to all sorts of diseases, particularly URIs and they can get knocked down really quickly.
GPs often have complicated pregnancies and births, it's very common to lose litters and even the mother.
I was given a young female GP and it was a nightmare, very bad, heartbreaking experience. Proceed with caution.

I was just talking about food.

There's a handful of breeders but most aren't lucky enough to live close enough to someone. They seem mostly confined to the coasts. Every now and then on the west coast some show up in a shelter and are snatched up by the pet crowd who try to keep them alive longer. I've seen a few pics of them in homes on stairs and next to regular pigs.

What's the breed called? I've heard of them, but cannot recall the name.

Litters of 5+ are common in females that have had a few litters. We actually rarely get a litter of 3 or under in an experienced breeder. That just doesn't become common knowledge due to the amount of pet only owners and the one time accidental breedings which make up the majority of litters. The main thing is you don't need to buy lots of pellets for guinea pigs. They don't need the high protein to grow and protein is the most expensive part of feeding animals. You can feed guinea pigs on any nontoxic plant matter and get the same growth. Vegetable scraps, garden weeds, letting them free range... So long as the vit c requirement is made they can eat practically anything without digestive upset or slower growth like rabbits.

I haven't seen that the coat has as many downsides as the wool rabbits. It doesn't seem to affect growth and feed intake to the same extent. It's mainly aesthetic and the fur possibly needing trimmed to keep it clean and untangled. As for breeds being different sizes that is not really true. Within the same breed you can find guinea pigs that are double the size of other guinea pigs in the same breed. Various areas may have regional differences but otherwise the breed doesn't matter. What is often true is that show guinea pigs are smaller than pet guinea pigs. They aren't as good of starting stock. Sometimes you take what you can get though.

Well I guess this guys just from petco, not show stock.

 

[Susie570]

I would NOT agree that GPs are 'sturdier' than rabbits!!!
Seriously... do some reading on the GP forums. They are susceptible to all sorts of diseases, particularly URIs and they can get knocked down really quickly.
GPs often have complicated pregnancies and births, it's very common to lose litters and even the mother.
I was given a young female GP and it was a nightmare, very bad, heartbreaking experience. Proceed with caution.

I was just talking about food.

Ah, ok. Yes, they are much less picky about food. They are pretty fragile critters though in other respects.

 

[akane]

I've only found them fragile to temps. We've had them since I was a little kid. We've never treated a URI. I've treated gerbils 3 times for it. We've treated 1 UTI. We had one boar die of moldy hay. We never had a female die of complications before she had 5+ litters and usually 4+ years old. We lost one litter because the female aborted out of heat stroke, had one retained kit that did not kill the sow but she was useless to breed, and lost a few runts in large litters. I'm talking 20+ years of having them. We lost 1 to using cedar bedding when I was about 8 years old. A few to dogs and being stolen when they were in the yard. We usually left them outside from last frost to first frost at our first house.

Our second house I put them in horse stalls for slightly longer during the warmer parts of the year. After regular frosts or a snow storm we would sell all the extras and bring our chosen keepers indoors to live in stacked cages in the laundry room. We lost one sow after she had many litters and one boar to a skin infection from irritating bugs that come off the hay from the time we moved in that house when I was 12 to when I sold the pigs to move out of the home while going to college when I was 20. Everything else was sold healthy.

Then when I moved to my own farmhouse I built this herb garden where they lived during warm weather, shorter than the other locations due to lack of weather protection, and I moved panels as needed to let them trim the plants while they kept the grass paths *mowed*. I double walled it with chainlink outside, mesh inside, due to coons that will reach through wire and foxes that would tear up wire. They lived longer in there than our chickens did with all the predators at that house.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/aqh88/l ... t=3&page=1

 

[DBA]

Ok, I'm sorry. I was going by what my wife told me. She is just now trying to learn about them as she has recently aquired 4 g pigs.
She read somewhere that they only breed once a year and only have litters of 1-3.
Is this not true?

 

[Susie570]

My apologies. Perhaps the huge amount of gp illness I've seen in the forums were due to unhealthy, pet store GPs and such. :/

 

[akane]

They can breed immediately after giving birth just like rabbits. Of course it's best to give them a break and watch for loss of body condition like with breeding rabbits but with plenty of vit c and kcals to maintain weight they easily have 4 litters a year. First litter or 2 is usually 1-3 but later litters are often 5-8 (beyond 8 nearly always involves runts and they do not survive) with only occasional litters of 3 or 4 depending on the sow. Most probably don't breed that often though because they don't have a use for that many pups but that doesn't mean they can't.

You are mostly going off pet guinea pig info and stuff put out by rescues. All the info is based on the first 1 or 2 litters because they are not repeatedly breeding. The females are at the most risk and have the fewest pups during those litters. If you are going to lose a sow early it will probably be on litter 1. Many of these are also litters very young from keeping genders together in pet stores, mis sexing, and people that don't know to separate them. You won't have as much of that with show breeders. Guinea pigs can breed as early as 3 weeks old and need separated by gender by that age. That sounds so early to most people but because of the long gestation they will be on nearly 100% solid food including whole pellets and no milk within 5 days of birth. They can survive on pellet mash or critical care without milk by 3 days old. It is more common for growth to drop off a bit at around 8 weeks and then have them breed. Sows aren't as willing to breed as early as boars but it can happen. Particularly if you have an adult boar with young sows. By 12months together you definitely have all pregnant sows and probably already by at least a couple weeks. I've seen sows temporarily slow down growth to feed a baby and give birth to a pup nearly as large as they are at about 12 weeks. They still lived. Although none I know of were bred a second time so I don't know the long term effects of an early litter. They usually grew normally after that and reached near the size of their siblings as adults.

You will also have a lot better nutrition going in for planned breedings. Most pet store pellets are crappy mixes leading to a poor diet. Quality guinea pig pellets are rather expensive so many of those who also mis sex, keep them together too long, breed too often, etc.... from lack of knowledge or lack of caring feed the cheaper pellets/mixes. Most show and meat breeders use rabbit pellets and vit c crystals in the water like puritan's pride vit c for a cost effective and healthier diet. The rescues and pet boards claim this is horrible and the guinea pigs won't drink due to taste or won't get enough vit c because it breaks down in the water. Yet probably 100,000s of breeders do this with millions of guinea pigs and do not have any issues. When I brought up those points at a cavy show everyone said it was rather stupid since they'd been doing it for many years with healthy pigs giving birth to healthy pigs. Hay is included much more often than it is with rabbits and as discussed you can throw them all the fresh food you want with minimal adjustment needed. Partially because the high protein is not as necessary with guinea pigs as rabbits and high fiber is prioritized a bit more.

 

[DBA]

Thank you for that information, most helpful!!!

 

[WhWRabbitry]

Akane,
I just came back to this thread again and wanted to thank you for all the info you provided here on Guinea Pigs. When I commented on this thread 3 months ago I wouldn't have guessed I'd be picking up a guinea pig to bring home tomorrow night!
We have owned them in the past but it's been a few years.

 

[JenerationX]

So.... now we're likely to catch a GP addiction here too? LOL

 

[Zass]

So.... now we're likely to catch a GP addiction here too? LOL

I know, right?

I've had my eyes on gp adds for a few months now...