50 Fun Facts About Guinea Pig

Guinea pigs were first domesticated around 5000 BC, as food, in which part of the world?

Regionally they are called cuy, from the Quechua quwi, and Peruvians still eat an estimated 65 million a year.

Which of these is true of the animal's name?

One theory is that they reached Europe via Guinea; another that 'guinea' was slang for anything foreign. The 'pig' half survives in the Latin porcellus, 'little pig'.

The guinea pig's scientific name is Cavia porcellus. What does porcellus mean in Latin?

Cavia comes from the same Tupi-Guarani root that gives us 'cavy', the other common name for the animal.

Like humans, guinea pigs cannot make one essential nutrient and must get it from food. Which?

That quirk is why two Norwegian doctors accidentally gave guinea pigs scurvy in 1907, an animal model that has been called the most important piece of vitamin C research.

What disease appeared when Holst and Frølich fed guinea pigs a 1907 grain diet meant to cause beriberi?

Until then scurvy had been thought an exclusively human disease; they could cure it with fresh foods, years before the word 'vitamin' existed.

How long do pet guinea pigs typically live?

Some reach eight; the Guinness record holder, as of 2006, lived to 14 years, 10 months and 2 weeks.

According to Guinness World Records (as of 2006), how old was the longest-lived guinea pig?

Fourteen years, ten months and two weeks, roughly three times the average pet's span.

What is the loud whistle-like noise a guinea pig makes, usually when it hears the fridge open, called?

The word is onomatopoeic; the animals also purr when content, rumble when courting and chatter their teeth as a warning.

What is it called when a happily excited guinea pig hops repeatedly in the air?

Rabbits do a similar thing called binkying; young guinea pigs popcorn the most.

In which country is it illegal to keep a single guinea pig without a companion?

Guinea pigs thrive in groups of two or more; the same Swiss animal-welfare law also covers other social species.

Which English monarch is named as a royal who kept guinea pigs as pets in the 1500s?

Spanish, Dutch and English traders brought the animals back from South America and they were an instant hit with the upper classes.

How long is a guinea pig's gestation period?

Fifty-nine to seventy-two days, unusually long for a rodent, which is why pups are born with fur, teeth, claws and open eyes and can run within hours.

Newborn guinea pigs are described as 'precocial'. What does that mean?

They arrive with hair, teeth and claws and start nibbling solid food within days; hamsters and mice, by contrast, are born naked and blind.

What is the correct term for a baby guinea pig?

Adults keep the porcine words: males are boars and females sows, but the young break the pattern.

What is a male guinea pig called?

Females are sows; in the wild a herd is typically several sows, one boar and their pups.

Why do guinea pigs constantly gnaw on wood and other hard materials?

They have four front teeth plus small back teeth; overgrown incisors are one of the commonest reasons a cavy ends up at the vet.

To extract nutrients from fibre, guinea pigs ferment it in the caecum and then do what?

The special droppings are called cecotropes; rabbits do the same, and it is perfectly normal, if unglamorous.

What should make up the bulk of a pet guinea pig's diet?

Pellets are usually timothy-based too, plus fresh vegetables for the vitamin C they cannot make themselves.

How much does an adult guinea pig typically weigh?

That is roughly the weight of a large grapefruit to a small pineapple; boars run heavier than sows.

Roughly how many guinea pigs are eaten in Peru each year?

Cuy is usually roasted or fried whole; a famous Last Supper painting in Cusco cathedral shows the disciples dining on one.

Which city's cathedral has a Last Supper painting showing Christ and the disciples dining on guinea pig?

Marcos Zapata's 18th-century canvas swapped in local dishes; cuy still features at Andean festivals and family celebrations.

In traditional Andean folk medicine, how are guinea pigs used by healers?

The animal is seen as a supernatural medium; the practice survives alongside modern medicine in parts of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

The guinea pig breed with a coat full of rosettes, or cowlicks, is called what?

Despite the name it has nothing to do with Ethiopia; the Peruvian and Sheltie are the long, straight-haired breeds.

The 'skinny pig' is a guinea pig strain that is what?

It descends from a spontaneous mutation spotted in a lab colony in Montreal in 1978 and keeps hair only on its muzzle, feet and legs.

The skinny pig's hairless mutation was first identified in 1978 in a lab colony in which city?

It turned up among Hartley lab guinea pigs at the Armand Frappier Institute and was later crossed with haired breeds to make a healthier pet strain.

Guinea pigs belong to the rodent family Caviidae. Which giant relative shares that family?

The capybara is the largest living rodent, weighing 35 to 66 kg; the family also includes the long-legged maras and the wild cavies.

Genetic studies suggest the domestic guinea pig's most likely wild ancestor is which species?

The montane guinea pig of Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina; the domestic form no longer exists in the wild.

Guinea pigs have a wide field of vision of roughly how many degrees?

Their eyes sit high on the sides of the head, as befits a prey animal; distance and colour vision are poorer than ours.

As prey animals, what survival instinct makes guinea pigs tricky patients for vets?

By the time a cavy looks ill it is often very ill, so owners are told to weigh them weekly.

How good are guinea pigs at climbing?

That is why low-sided pens work as enclosures, and why a ramp to a second level needs to be gentle.

European traders first took guinea pigs home from South America in which century?

Spanish, Dutch and English ships carried them back in the early 1500s, and by the 17th century they were being used in laboratory experiments.

Which actor voices Darwin, leader of the secret-agent guinea pigs, in Disney's G-Force (2009)?

Animal testing on the species dates from the 17th century, though mice and rats long ago overtook them in the lab.

Beyond eyesight, which senses are described as well developed in guinea pigs?

They can hear well above the human range and recognise their owners' footsteps, which is when the wheeking starts.

How many front teeth does a guinea pig have?

Two upper and two lower incisors, plus small back molars; the incisors are what keep growing.

How do guinea pigs feel about baths?

They groom themselves; a bath is only for medical reasons or a very grubby long-haired breed.

The Spanish word for guinea pig, cuy, derives from which indigenous Andean language?

Quwi in Quechua, the language of the Inca; the animal has been part of Andean life for seven thousand years.

In how many animals should pet guinea pigs ideally be kept, according to welfare guidance?

They are herd animals; a lone cavy tends to be quieter, more nervous and less active.

The largest living rodent is native to every South American country except which one?

The Andes and the Atacama keep it out; elsewhere it lounges in wetlands and, famously, Japanese hot springs.

Which long-haired guinea pig breed shares its name with a South American country?

Along with the Sheltie (or Silkie) it is one of the straight longhair breeds; show animals need daily grooming and hair wraps.

What is another common name for the domestic guinea pig?

Breeders' clubs tend to prefer it; the coypu, agouti and degu are all different South American rodents.

Spanish accounts say guinea pigs were the preferred sacrificial animal of which people?

Archaeology and Quechua mythology back it up: the rituals served to appease gods, accompany the dead and read the future.

The German word for guinea pig, Meerschweinchen, literally means what?

Polish, Hungarian and Russian use the same idea, apparently because the animals arrived from overseas; the French instead call it an 'Indian pig'.

Which country first launched guinea pigs into orbital space flight, in March 1961?

They flew on the Sputnik 9 biosatellite and were recovered successfully; China also launched and recovered guinea pigs in 1990.

Paddington creator Michael Bond also wrote a children's series about a guinea pig named what?

Beatrix Potter's The Fairy Caravan also stars a guinea pig, and in C. S. Lewis's Narnia one is the first creature sent between worlds.

The Japanese word for guinea pig, morumotto, is borrowed from the name of which other rodent?

Dutch traders used that name when they first brought the animals to Nagasaki in 1843; a rarer Japanese term translates as 'India rat'.

A courting male's deep purr while swaying and circling the female is called what?

A rumble is otherwise about dominance or fear; a low one while walking away reluctantly is read as passive resistance.

Which French chemist used a guinea pig in his 1780 calorimeter experiments?

Guinea pigs were being dissected by Italian anatomists as early as the 17th century and later helped Pasteur, Roux and Koch establish germ theory.

In The Magician's Nephew, a guinea pig is the first creature to reach which place?

Uncle Andrew's magic rings send it there before Digory and Polly follow in the chronologically first Chronicle of Narnia.

The 1933 US bestseller 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs spurred the growth of which movement?

Written by the founders of Consumers' Research, it stretched the lab-animal metaphor to everyday shoppers; the OED's earliest such usage dates from 1913.

The WWII 'Guinea Pig Club' supported burned airmen treated by which plastic surgeon?

Based at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, the patients were undergoing previously untested reconstruction procedures, hence the name.