Guinea pig what is it

Sign up to receive our exclusive e-book full of training techniques, problem-solving and important information about caring for your pet. Young children often lack fine motor control and self-restraint, which means they may inadvertently drop a guinea pig, squeeze them or scare them into biting.

Guinea pigs require a gentle touch and may be easily startled by sudden movement and loud noises. The adoption fee for a guinea pig is typically small, but there are significant startup costs and ongoing needs. The initial purchase of equipment and supplies is likely to include:.

Are you prepared to spend at least several hundred dollars a year on your new friend not including regular veterinary costs if your guinea pig needs to be treated for a common condition like mites or requires emergency veterinary care? Guinea pigs are social animals who do best with the companionship of another pig. Preventing a solitary guinea pig from becoming lonely and bored is a tall order, even for someone committed to spending a significant amount of time with their animal every day.

Some people are allergic to guinea pigs. These allergies are a reaction to proteins in the animal's saliva and urine contrary to popular belief, the culprit isn't hair or dander, although they often transmit these allergens during handling and close contact.

Hay and wood shavings can also cause allergies. If you've never lived with a guinea pig, test the waters by visiting a household that has one or spend time handling adoptable guinea pigs at your local humane society or rescue group foster home—you might meet your new best friend in the process! More About Allergies to Pets. Guinea pigs live an average of five to seven years.

This lifespan is longer than many other small pets such as hamsters, gerbils, mice or rats, all of whom only live up to a few years. If your life is in transition, a guinea pig may be more portable than a dog or a cat, but five years or more is still a significant period of time. See the full definition for guinea pig in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of guinea pig for Spanish Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of guinea pig. Examples of guinea pig in a Sentence He volunteered to act as a guinea pig in the experiment. Recent Examples on the Web Picture a guinea pig the size of a St. Bernard with chompers like a beaver, an insatiable herbivore appetite and XXL-size droppings. First Known Use of guinea pig , in the meaning defined at sense 1. Learn More About guinea pig. Time Traveler for guinea pig The first known use of guinea pig was in See more words from the same year.

The extended family. Guinea pigs are more distantly related to the rodents in the genera Microcavia, Galea, Hydrochoerus, Kerodon, and Dolichotis; which include other cavies, capybaras, and maras. The greater capybara Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris , for example, is the largest rodent in the world. A family resemblance. While the various types of cavy differ in size, there are some shared characteristics: a stout body, a short tail, a large head with short ears, and continuously growing, flat-crowned jaw teeth 20 of them.

Their dense, coarse coat ranges from olive-, cinnamon-, and reddish-brown to yellowish-gray. Some, such as the greater guinea pig C. Underparts are usually whitish to gray. The soles of their feet are hairless and claws are sharp. When it comes to domestic guinea pigs, a range of colors, hair length, and coat texture are possible. Savanna to scrub. Cavies are found across the South American continent, in open areas ranging from moist savannas to thorn forest and scrub desert.

They live in low elevations right up to 16, feet 5, meters. Their range runs from Venezuela to southern Patagonia, but they are not found in western Chile or most of the Amazon River basin.

Anybody home? They den at night in burrows that they have excavated or that other mammals have abandoned. Some also find shelter in dense vegetation, in rock crevices, or under brush piles.