Listen to some real cavy squeaks!
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| Curious... |
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| The Last Word |
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2)
| Afraid of the Dark |
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| Hide and Seek |
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| Attention! |
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| Food Fight |
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4)
| Chirping |
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| Imminent Buffet
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A Guinea Pig's lifespan is a mere 5-7 years, but there have been records of guinea pigs living to an amazing 12 years! This is highly uncommon, though.
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A guinea pig is not a rodent. They are actually more closely related to rabbits, which are also not rodents.
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Guinea Pigs are native to South America, where they were used as a food source, and humans and GPs became friends around 10,000 years ago. |
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| If you let your guinea pigs graze outside, be sure that you have a purely organic yard. Do NOT let them eat chemically treated grass!!!! Also, be careful of fire ants! The damage they can do to pigs is pretty awful. Just make sure you don't have any fire ant piles anywhere around. |
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| Guinea Pigs are constantly thinking about world domination. In deep sleep, they dream about taking over the world! It's a good thing GPs don't have opposable thumbs. |
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| Guinea Pigs are injured very easily when they are dropped. Always watch small children when they hold GPs. I recommend that you place Guinea Pigs in a towel when you hold them. They feel more secure and it is a way to absorb 'accidents'. |
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| Be careful not to move them around a lot when they are eating. Choking often occurs. Do NOT use cedar shavings or aspen bedding! They will choke on them. We lost Choncho because of aspen bedding. We use pine shavings because it's soft enough that if digested, it isn't lethal. I highly recommend something digestable. I've heard corn cob bedding works well, and pet stores sell all kinds of recycleable, biodegradable beddings that piggies can digest if accidentally ingested. But, they are more expensive.
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Pregnancy lasts for 9-11 weeks, and sows usually produce 2-3 young in the first litter and 4-6 in later litters. |
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| The average weight of a boar (male guinea pig) is about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds, and the average for a sow (female guinea pig) is 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. |
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The German word for guinea pig is Meerschweinchen, which litteraly means 'little pig from over seas'. |
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| Their forefeet have four toes, and the back have three, but sometimes they do have four toes. |
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| A GP's sight is poor, but its hearing is very good. Their sense of smell can range, depending on the breed. |
A Pig For All Languages
- English: Guinea pig, Cavy
- German: Meerschweinchen
- Spanish: Cuyo, Cobayo, Conejillo de Indias
- French: Cobaye, cochon d'Inde
- Swedish: marsvin
- Portuguese: Porquinho da India, cobaia
- Dutch: Guinees biggetje, Cavia, marmot (obsolete)
- Latin: Cavia aperea porcellus
- Indonesian: Marmot
- Finnish: Marsu
- Italian: Porcellino d'India, cavia
- Russian: marskaya svinka
- Japanese: tenjiku nezumi, marumotto
- Polish: swinka morska
- Norwegian: marsvin
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