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Cavies are rodents of the Cavidae family. The cavys have a rather flat nose, a well haired body and a really short (almost invisible) tail. They are herbivore (only eats plants), and re not capable of using nutritions from meat og dairy products. There are 9 different species of Cvies, belonging in different regions in South-America. The domestic cavy,Cavia Porcellus, comes from the Andes-region, Bolivia, Ecuador, where it has been domesticated for over 4000 years, mainly as a meat source, but in newer times also as pets and for research. Wild cavys have short, grey or brown fur while the tame ones have a veriety of colors and hairlenghts.
The cavies are also known as Guinea pigs. Despite the name they are not related to pigs. Their body figure and wheening pig-like sounds are probably the reason they are assosiated with pigs. Cavys were a sourse for fresh meat on ships that crossed the Atlanticsea and were brought to Europe. That's probably why they got the norwegian name "marsvin", from the german «Meerschweinchen» - little sea-pigs.
Usual living age in captivity is from 7 to 10 years, whilst wild cavys are preys for other animals, and will therefor have a much shorter living age. The cavy compensate for this by rapid breeding. A sow can be fertile as young as 3 weeks old, and are in hest with a high risc of getting pregnant again immedietly after giving birth. A sow is pregnant about 68-72 days, depending on the size of the litter. Usually there are three or four piglets in a litter. Both young- and mortality after giving birth are high. Owners that have cavys for pets is therefore often rcommended not to get their pets pregnant, but to leave breeding to proffecional cavy breeders.
Cavys are sosial pack animals, and they are not happy living by themselves. Wild cavys live in colonies with around 20 animals - usually dominated by a singel boar with a harem of sows. Individual cavys establish a territory of both boars and sows and may may fight with their own sex over dominanse. Dominant boars will evict other boars from the pack, whilst dominante sows demnd first right to food and the best sleeping spots. Boars do not fight where the dominante order is eastblished, but may fight with unknown boars, espesially if there is a sow in heat nearby.
Wild cavys can put great distanses behind them during a day and have exellent memory about the paths to places food can be found. They search for food in groups, and when a group of cavys eats, one of them usually stands guard for predators.Wild cavys are most active at dusk (when it's harder for the predators to spot them), whilst domesticated cavys spreads their activities and rest times in random periods throughout the day, depending on when they are left alone.
Cavys communicate by sounds and body language. Their vocal language is very avanced, compared to other rodents, and is not yet fully maped out or understood by science. Domesticated cavys use destinctive sounds onle to communicate with humans, rather than other cavys.
Cavys make a lot of caracteristic sounds where they try to express their mood. One can interpret ones cavy by listening to the sound they make. Use of vocal language also depends on the cavy's personality.
The most regular sound are:
Uneven squealing = The cay feels lonely or restless.
Even squealing = The cavy is hungry or wants some food. Cavys love food and this sound uasually comes when you open the refridgerator door, rattle plastic bags etc.
Fast highfrequent beeps = The cavy is feeling stressed or is scared or in pain.
Gnistening of the teeth = The cavy is irritated or angry. The best thing to do is to keep your fingers away untill it has calmed down. It may also be a warning sign of a fight about to happen between two cavys.
Long purring = The cavy is happy and enjoying itself.
Medium purring = The cavy is threathening another cavy or trying to establish dominanse.
Short purring = The cavy is feeling fear or hears an unknown sound as if to say "what was that?!". In the wild this signal is used to warn about possible predators.
Calm clucking sound = The cavy is happy. You will hear this sound often if you have two cavies together. Thay are communicating.
Calm beep = This sound is made a lot. It indicates satisfaction. It sounds as if they are talking to themselves.
Chippering/singing = this sound is very different from the other sounds the cavy makes. It's easy to miss because one might think it comes from an insisting bird outside. Why the cavy sings in this way is not known yet. Not all cavys sing.
Cavys also have body language they often use to express their mood. Mixing cavies with other spiesies is not recommanded because their body language might get miss interpreted by the other animals.
The most common behaviors are:
Two cavies touch noses = They are saying "Hello there!" Just like people do when they shake hands.
Stretching their neck in the air = The cavy is observing the surroundings and is on guard.t
The animal is jumping around = This is called "popcorning". And means that the animal is over the top happy or playful.
Mouth wide open and showing teeth = Threatening behavior toward other cavies. Dominance.
Stretching = Satisfaction, relaxed or tired.
Chewing on the surroundings = feeling at home
Standing on two legs = Restlessness
Tying to stretch it's nose higher than it's cage buddy = Showing who's boss
Licking the other ones nose, ear or other body parts = Showing affection. Or the other one might have gotten something tasty on him/her.
Cavies are excellent pets. It is a beautiful and sweet animal with a friendly (and somewhat shy) being and funny maners. Opposite to mice and rats, cavys are not associated as vermons, and opposite to hamsters and desert rats, cavies are easy to tame and capable to form relationships with it's owners.
As they are typical preys in the nature, cavies are very careful by nature, and one of the great joys of having cavies is just to experince trust from this little, shy creature. Cavies are relative clean, and their droppings is almost sent free. They can to a certain degree, be potty trained, and they can be taught to recognize their own name, but it is generally harder to train than for instant rats or cats. They are not capable to understand punishment, and have to be trained by patience and reward.
Cavies need a lot of room and cavy organisations often recommand that the caviary is atleast 0,75m2 for a single pig, and preferably over 1 m2. It is rare that large crates like this is sold in pet shops, and many caviarys are therefore homemade.Too small cages may lead cause the cavy to strunt, bad health and even fights due to boredom. It is well worth using some time to get the animal a spacious crate. The animal should also be let out of the cage daily to move around in an even bigger area.
In its natural habitat, the flora is dominated by dry resistance gras species. The acess to fresh, green gras is therefore limited to the growing season. The rest of the year the gras is stiff, dry and hay like, rough and therefore and does not hold to much nutrition. To exploit the litte nutriton, the cavy has developed strong teeth with a continuing growth, and they are almost programmed to eat most part of the day. This needs to be taken in to consideration when cavies are kept as pets. If one fals for the temtation to feed them high energy food, the result will be that the cavy shortly gets overgrown teeth, wich is very painful, and in worst case starve to death. Relatively rough hay of good quality should be the founding part of the cavys nutrition. They should also be fed a good portion fresh green leafvegatables and other vegtables with high amount of vitamin-C in them every day, seeing the cavy (like humans) are uncapable to produce this themselves. Seedmixes and treats with a high level of sugar like yoghurt etc. is to be avoided. A lot of pet stores and some veterinarians recomend to add vitamin-C drops in the water, but this is a highlt unsertain way to add vitamins to the animal seeing vitamin-C rapidly gets broken down in contackt with light. Many cavies willalso drink less if the water doesn't taste fresh. Mulitvitamins shoult be avoided as they consist of vitamins the pig doen't need, and as in a worst case scenario can be harmful to them.
The fact that these animals' need to be fed a large quantity of fresh fruite and vegetable does not make cavies the cheapest animal to keep compared to other rodents.
Cavys are concidered to be an especially suitable pet for small children. This is a truth with modifications as the smallest children can be too rough and not so careful with the pig. They are after all fragile and small animals. Kids from age 10 and up usually are capable to take care of cavies by themselves, even though they do assistance from an adult. The parents also need to be aware of the fact that these animals can become 6 -10 years. You have to take into consideration that an 12 year old child might not be as interested in taking care of the animal at the age of 17. Cavy assosiations try to make parents aware that it is infact the parents responsability for the animimal their child has adopted. As a parent you should not buy a cavy just because you child want one, unless you are prepared to step in and take over if the child looses interest in the animal. That being said, we also need to underline the fact that cavies are excellent pets that will give you loads of fun entertainment for the person who is willing to spend some time taming and watch these wonderful, friendly and sosial animals.If you take the time you will dicover that each animal has it's unique personality and preferances, For example on what vegetables he or she prefers or what cage buddy they'd rather spend their time with. With patience and many treats you can even teach them some simple tricks.
Cavies are pack animals and they don't like to be alone. Still it's not unusual to keep one animal as a pet. Veterinarians and cavy experts however recomend to keep atleast two cavies and preferabily of the same sex so that fights over dominance and breeding can be avoided. If one boar and one sow is to be kept together in the same crate, the male needs to be neutered.
In the early 20 century, cavies were used for medical research. This is the reason the english expression "guinea pig" can be used about anything used in experimental reasearch . Today it is more common to perform these kind of experiments on rats, as they are breeding faster and have better maped out genes, but the cavy is still used in some scientific areas because they - unlike rats, but similar to humans, are unable to produce vitamin C themselves.
In the Andes-region, todays Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, cavies («cuy») are mainly kept as a food source. It is common for for familys in the mountain areas to feed a cavy flock vegetables and left over food, so they can butcher them and eat them on spesial occations. hovedsakelig som matdyr. They do not name the individual cavies, and this way of keeping cavies might best be compared with our way of keeping chickens.
Cavy meat is seen as an delicates, and is supposed to remind of the taste of rabbit or quail. The cavys bonestructure is thin and porous, this means that this little animal can provide a surprisingly amount of meat. Cavy meat is high on protein, and contains little fat, and is seen upon as much healthier than other types of meat. In newer times Peruanian researchers have bred a "super cavy" that becomes 4 pounds.
Settelers from the Andes region has taken with them their food traditions to their new countries, and cuy meat are also now sold in some cities in Europe and North-America.
The cavies are also known as Guinea pigs. Despite the name they are not related to pigs. Their body figure and wheening pig-like sounds are probably the reason they are assosiated with pigs. Cavys were a sourse for fresh meat on ships that crossed the Atlanticsea and were brought to Europe. That's probably why they got the norwegian name "marsvin", from the german «Meerschweinchen» - little sea-pigs.
Usual living age in captivity is from 7 to 10 years, whilst wild cavys are preys for other animals, and will therefor have a much shorter living age. The cavy compensate for this by rapid breeding. A sow can be fertile as young as 3 weeks old, and are in hest with a high risc of getting pregnant again immedietly after giving birth. A sow is pregnant about 68-72 days, depending on the size of the litter. Usually there are three or four piglets in a litter. Both young- and mortality after giving birth are high. Owners that have cavys for pets is therefore often rcommended not to get their pets pregnant, but to leave breeding to proffecional cavy breeders.
Cavys are sosial pack animals, and they are not happy living by themselves. Wild cavys live in colonies with around 20 animals - usually dominated by a singel boar with a harem of sows. Individual cavys establish a territory of both boars and sows and may may fight with their own sex over dominanse. Dominant boars will evict other boars from the pack, whilst dominante sows demnd first right to food and the best sleeping spots. Boars do not fight where the dominante order is eastblished, but may fight with unknown boars, espesially if there is a sow in heat nearby.
Wild cavys can put great distanses behind them during a day and have exellent memory about the paths to places food can be found. They search for food in groups, and when a group of cavys eats, one of them usually stands guard for predators.Wild cavys are most active at dusk (when it's harder for the predators to spot them), whilst domesticated cavys spreads their activities and rest times in random periods throughout the day, depending on when they are left alone.
Cavys communicate by sounds and body language. Their vocal language is very avanced, compared to other rodents, and is not yet fully maped out or understood by science. Domesticated cavys use destinctive sounds onle to communicate with humans, rather than other cavys.
Cavys make a lot of caracteristic sounds where they try to express their mood. One can interpret ones cavy by listening to the sound they make. Use of vocal language also depends on the cavy's personality.
The most regular sound are:
Uneven squealing = The cay feels lonely or restless.
Even squealing = The cavy is hungry or wants some food. Cavys love food and this sound uasually comes when you open the refridgerator door, rattle plastic bags etc.
Fast highfrequent beeps = The cavy is feeling stressed or is scared or in pain.
Gnistening of the teeth = The cavy is irritated or angry. The best thing to do is to keep your fingers away untill it has calmed down. It may also be a warning sign of a fight about to happen between two cavys.
Long purring = The cavy is happy and enjoying itself.
Medium purring = The cavy is threathening another cavy or trying to establish dominanse.
Short purring = The cavy is feeling fear or hears an unknown sound as if to say "what was that?!". In the wild this signal is used to warn about possible predators.
Calm clucking sound = The cavy is happy. You will hear this sound often if you have two cavies together. Thay are communicating.
Calm beep = This sound is made a lot. It indicates satisfaction. It sounds as if they are talking to themselves.
Chippering/singing = this sound is very different from the other sounds the cavy makes. It's easy to miss because one might think it comes from an insisting bird outside. Why the cavy sings in this way is not known yet. Not all cavys sing.
Cavys also have body language they often use to express their mood. Mixing cavies with other spiesies is not recommanded because their body language might get miss interpreted by the other animals.
The most common behaviors are:
Two cavies touch noses = They are saying "Hello there!" Just like people do when they shake hands.
Stretching their neck in the air = The cavy is observing the surroundings and is on guard.t
The animal is jumping around = This is called "popcorning". And means that the animal is over the top happy or playful.
Mouth wide open and showing teeth = Threatening behavior toward other cavies. Dominance.
Stretching = Satisfaction, relaxed or tired.
Chewing on the surroundings = feeling at home
Standing on two legs = Restlessness
Tying to stretch it's nose higher than it's cage buddy = Showing who's boss
Licking the other ones nose, ear or other body parts = Showing affection. Or the other one might have gotten something tasty on him/her.
Cavies are excellent pets. It is a beautiful and sweet animal with a friendly (and somewhat shy) being and funny maners. Opposite to mice and rats, cavys are not associated as vermons, and opposite to hamsters and desert rats, cavies are easy to tame and capable to form relationships with it's owners.
As they are typical preys in the nature, cavies are very careful by nature, and one of the great joys of having cavies is just to experince trust from this little, shy creature. Cavies are relative clean, and their droppings is almost sent free. They can to a certain degree, be potty trained, and they can be taught to recognize their own name, but it is generally harder to train than for instant rats or cats. They are not capable to understand punishment, and have to be trained by patience and reward.
Cavies need a lot of room and cavy organisations often recommand that the caviary is atleast 0,75m2 for a single pig, and preferably over 1 m2. It is rare that large crates like this is sold in pet shops, and many caviarys are therefore homemade.Too small cages may lead cause the cavy to strunt, bad health and even fights due to boredom. It is well worth using some time to get the animal a spacious crate. The animal should also be let out of the cage daily to move around in an even bigger area.
In its natural habitat, the flora is dominated by dry resistance gras species. The acess to fresh, green gras is therefore limited to the growing season. The rest of the year the gras is stiff, dry and hay like, rough and therefore and does not hold to much nutrition. To exploit the litte nutriton, the cavy has developed strong teeth with a continuing growth, and they are almost programmed to eat most part of the day. This needs to be taken in to consideration when cavies are kept as pets. If one fals for the temtation to feed them high energy food, the result will be that the cavy shortly gets overgrown teeth, wich is very painful, and in worst case starve to death. Relatively rough hay of good quality should be the founding part of the cavys nutrition. They should also be fed a good portion fresh green leafvegatables and other vegtables with high amount of vitamin-C in them every day, seeing the cavy (like humans) are uncapable to produce this themselves. Seedmixes and treats with a high level of sugar like yoghurt etc. is to be avoided. A lot of pet stores and some veterinarians recomend to add vitamin-C drops in the water, but this is a highlt unsertain way to add vitamins to the animal seeing vitamin-C rapidly gets broken down in contackt with light. Many cavies willalso drink less if the water doesn't taste fresh. Mulitvitamins shoult be avoided as they consist of vitamins the pig doen't need, and as in a worst case scenario can be harmful to them.
The fact that these animals' need to be fed a large quantity of fresh fruite and vegetable does not make cavies the cheapest animal to keep compared to other rodents.
Cavys are concidered to be an especially suitable pet for small children. This is a truth with modifications as the smallest children can be too rough and not so careful with the pig. They are after all fragile and small animals. Kids from age 10 and up usually are capable to take care of cavies by themselves, even though they do assistance from an adult. The parents also need to be aware of the fact that these animals can become 6 -10 years. You have to take into consideration that an 12 year old child might not be as interested in taking care of the animal at the age of 17. Cavy assosiations try to make parents aware that it is infact the parents responsability for the animimal their child has adopted. As a parent you should not buy a cavy just because you child want one, unless you are prepared to step in and take over if the child looses interest in the animal. That being said, we also need to underline the fact that cavies are excellent pets that will give you loads of fun entertainment for the person who is willing to spend some time taming and watch these wonderful, friendly and sosial animals.If you take the time you will dicover that each animal has it's unique personality and preferances, For example on what vegetables he or she prefers or what cage buddy they'd rather spend their time with. With patience and many treats you can even teach them some simple tricks.
Cavies are pack animals and they don't like to be alone. Still it's not unusual to keep one animal as a pet. Veterinarians and cavy experts however recomend to keep atleast two cavies and preferabily of the same sex so that fights over dominance and breeding can be avoided. If one boar and one sow is to be kept together in the same crate, the male needs to be neutered.
In the early 20 century, cavies were used for medical research. This is the reason the english expression "guinea pig" can be used about anything used in experimental reasearch . Today it is more common to perform these kind of experiments on rats, as they are breeding faster and have better maped out genes, but the cavy is still used in some scientific areas because they - unlike rats, but similar to humans, are unable to produce vitamin C themselves.
In the Andes-region, todays Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, cavies («cuy») are mainly kept as a food source. It is common for for familys in the mountain areas to feed a cavy flock vegetables and left over food, so they can butcher them and eat them on spesial occations. hovedsakelig som matdyr. They do not name the individual cavies, and this way of keeping cavies might best be compared with our way of keeping chickens.
Cavy meat is seen as an delicates, and is supposed to remind of the taste of rabbit or quail. The cavys bonestructure is thin and porous, this means that this little animal can provide a surprisingly amount of meat. Cavy meat is high on protein, and contains little fat, and is seen upon as much healthier than other types of meat. In newer times Peruanian researchers have bred a "super cavy" that becomes 4 pounds.
Settelers from the Andes region has taken with them their food traditions to their new countries, and cuy meat are also now sold in some cities in Europe and North-America.
