Guinea pigs vs rabbits

MelissaLynne
MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭

Has anyone considered or tried raising guinea pig for meat instead of rabbits? There are a lot of pros due to hardiness and reduced space requirements, the main con being that they are a bit trickier to process with less meat per animal.



Thoughts?

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Comments

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    What an interesting idea. - definitely going to research this more. For those of us with just small backyards, seems like a great idea.

  • MelissaLynne
    MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭

    Found a video of a guy roasting guinea pig while visiting Ecuador.

    it doesn’t seem that like it would be that difficult if you roast them whole. I was trying to picture removing the meat from the carcass prior to cooking...lol

  • soeasytocraft
    soeasytocraft Posts: 237 ✭✭✭

    Interesting idea! Wonder what the cost breakdown per pound would be? Lots of questions come to mind that I'd like to research! I know nothing about guinea pigs! Thanks for the link for later.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Read the blog you posted. They had great info in follow up blog too about cost. Talked to my sons about it. We’re actually thinking this might be the right choice for us. So more research needs to be done before we embark. I’ll share it here if i find more sourcing and larger varieties, and more about harvesting. Also found a good meat article.

    http://www.eattheweeds.com/guinea-pigs-cavy-cuy/

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    The other very intriguing thing I found is you can free range them a bit during the day in a fenced yard. And some in the permies forum said they would keep the grass a perfect height. And you don’t have to worry about burrowing like rabbits do Very intriguing for suburban homesteaders.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    How interesting! They eat guinea pigs in Peru, too. I've been considering raising rabbits, but my patio gets a little too hot for them. If guinea pigs need less space, it would be easier to provide adequate shade.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭
    edited November 2020

    Heres a youtube found on cuy ( guinea pigs). Like how shes easily growing flats of grass for them, whole flat goes in pen. Listened to her talk about how separating them early, still wondering how to really keep genetic diversity over time with just a few males? Also interesting hows shes shaking up the mores if the community, to what works, instead of rigid tradition.

    https://youtu.be/3hrDPEoyGQU

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Ok. Seriously considering this. Looking for information. So far the article (both parts you provided are the best practical info.

    I found this video just fun to watch: Great couple in Queensland. And i never would have considered the possibility of using cuy dropping as food for aquaponics. Was just planing on composting droppings directly on garden soil since it wont burn like chicken dropping do. since they are little herbivores.

    https://youtu.be/A0BTctUfPvI

  • MelissaLynne
    MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭
    edited November 2020

    @AngelaOston What a fun video!

    I love guinea pigs and feel like they are a little more small child friendly than rabbits. I would like to raise small animals for meat at some point, but my little girls, the animals we have, trying to keep up with the house and some health struggles take up most of my time. Space isn’t an issue for me as we have a large property, but I am waiting for the girls to be able to help some. I think there could be many advantages to going with guinea pigs, but my husband thinks I am crazy.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    My husband thought i was a little crazy. But then he taked to his friend who thought it was a great idea compared to rabbits. Still trying to figure out where i can put more than one warm enclosure. Since i dont want siblings breeding. Which it sounds like they tend to do. Also still figuring out if they need more than alpha hay and carrots for vitamin c. Want to make sure they have proper nutrition. But most info is about pet guineas pigs that people spend a lot on for pet store food and veggies. So still trying to make sure i have everything set up correctly before taking the plunge.

  • MelissaLynne
    MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭

    Yes, I hope to venture into them in the next few years, just waiting until my girls are big enough to help a bit.


    it it sounds like when you do get them you will be well prepared. :) I love that your husband found a friend that can see the sense in it. Lol.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Well been considering this for a year and back to the conclusion that this is the best small animal for us to raise.

    found a nice artlicle that talks about the brain health fats in the meat ( dha) and some of the anticancer properties. Makes sense when you consider tgey eat a-lot of wheatgrass and alpha. Sort of the ultimate grass-fed meat benefits

    https://peruvianfoodusa.com/en/eating-guinea-pig/

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Also found this great little free ebook (28 pages in English) on raising guinea pigs for meat.


    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32189/32189-h/32189-h.htm

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Now the hard part: trying to find the larger variety of guinea pigs that is more in the range of five pounds in America, and a bit more skittish, so apparently not as good of a pet. Saw some reports of petco, etc importing the larger meat ones as pets, and people returning them. But cant find anywhere to buy them. Would really prefer not to breed the smaller (2 lb) , fluffy pet size, bred for their coat and cuteness.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    So if any one knows where to get some giant cuy ( guinea pigs) Please let me know. Would even enjoy getting some production going and providing breeding groups for meat to others interested.

  • Sharie
    Sharie Posts: 276 ✭✭✭

    Have you tasted both animals? Guinea pig is greasy and really not so tasty for most people and there's not much meat on them. Rabbit on the other hand will provide a greater quantity of meat that is more versatile for cooking as well as possibly providing fur and leather. I plan to start with rabbits later this year. The interbreeding is apparently not a problem for meat quality. I have some documents from a friend who has bred rabbits on a large scale back in the US and is now setting up here in Ecuador so if you'd like them I can find them and upload here.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Thanks. Like that guineas dont fight. And we had rabbit plague in our area last year that decimated the wild rabbits. And readily spreads to domestic rabbits via flying insects. Also like that they have high DHA fat which is hard ti get without supplements. I also really love Peruvian food. 😎

  • Karon
    Karon Posts: 17 ✭✭✭

    If you (@AngelaOston) are speaking of the Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2), I just saw on TV about one veterinarian who has gotten approval to import the vaccine and it's 90ish % effective. I did a quick search and see that there is a process for veterinarians to apply for approval, so hopefully more veterinarians have gotten approval and made contact to import. Speak to your veterinarian about their status and encourage them to file the paperwork if they haven't already done so. https://rabbit.org/rhdv-importing-vaccines/ Hopefully the US will soon approve it for use by all veterinarians.

    I've thought of guinea pigs for lawn mowing a small yard, i hear that is common in some other countries. Unfortunately, In my research I found that dog pee will kill them so that stopped me in my tracks on that thought.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    The cuy compound is up and running. Latest batch of pups

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2021

    So saw ad for 400 countertop composter for food scraps. That dehydrates and mixes peels etc in 24 hours. And enjoyed the fact that little cuys are happily making wonderful compost and mulch for my garden in less time.

    This baby is only a few hours old. They come out eyes open, fully furred and eat hay and veggie / fruit scraps along with their breast milk. So really like the babies are hardy through the winter. The come out like little adults.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    So wanted to update everyone on our guinea pog adventure the last year. We are now officially cuy micro-ranchers. I have to say its been pretty great.


  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    So we started with 2 Guinea Pigs last May. We got 3 more in August. 2 Males and three females. Now we have 50 plus?

    We had them on a different area of wood chips last summer through the early spring. I then simply left their mulch of used straw and fertilizer on the wood chips for spring planting. The only downside was a bit of grass growing in the chips, which usuallly dont have to week the wood chips.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Added a new area of wood chip mulch first, under the trees, and moved the cuyes here for the summer where they are shaded. Dobby, our pit bull mix is patrolling for rodentsand protecting her cuy ranch. After an initial incident of trying to dig under the pens, and getting a disapproving stare down with growling bad dog, she has decided to be their protector.

    Our neighborhood bylaws prevent us from having chickens, and we have both wild bunnies and quail on our property, so i didnt want that interaction I also wanted something that we be happy in pens Which did not seem true of either bunnies or quail. From everything I ‘ve seen the prefer a secure place they can hide and they enjoy having a community of cuyes around them They absolutely hate being alone in a cage and do better with at least five or six than just two in their social dynamics So they seems more engaged than i see the usual pest store guinea pigs

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    I also really like the fact that they have amore diverse diet than bunnies, but still pure vegetarian feeders unlike birds. They eat almost all of our kitchen scrap compost for their vitamin C needs, plus hay, grass and weeds They seem to be much less finicky than bunny food requirements

    so in Peru they have been domesticated for 7000 to 9000 years, according to recent dna analysis. Women in Peru traditionally kept them safe in the side of the kitchen. The were feed all the compost straps for kitchen directly and given all the weeds and leftover grasses and geens from the kitchen gardens. And then now and then they would grab a cuy for the pot. They were domesticated for home gardening.


  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Ive been raising cuy (guinea pigs) as small livestock in our backyard the past year. And i just dispatched my first cuy, My grown son had done the earlier ones. I now understand why people who raise and release their animals to the infinite call it dispatching. It was good to hold, love and give it warmth of my hands and heart before it left. It was relaxed and warm immediately after it was dispatched. A good quick parting with out terror. And then will still warm, i dispatched its body between out two older dogs, one who is healing her cancer. The other who has lost weight and frail from age, but is getting strength back from the cuy, and starting to look better. So quickly the cuy essence was dispatched back into nature and every drop of its body was dispatched into other life. And it disappeared, didpatched into the infinite again.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Advantages and Disadvantages and latest update after raising cuyes (guine pigs) for a little over a year now:

    I raise cuyes in back yard pens for meat. Mostly our older dogs eat them. They split one fresh raw guinea pig for a daily meal. Its helping our small older dog gain some muscle and helping our other dog with cancerous tumors. 


    I live in a neighborhood that bans chickens do to noise. So. Cuyes are easy to keep quiet. My husband started singing when feeding them. And they got louder. I trained them back to silence, with soft shhhhh and only giving hay when quiet. The are now silent again. 

    Cuyes are fatter than rabbits if eaten with skin. Which is a benefit if its your only meat. 


    Cuyes are easier to feed than rabbits. Eat all types of hay, weeds, vegetables, fruit, peels and soaked grains (sprouted) 24 hours. Rabbits will die. They are truly great com-posters. 


    They have been raised as small meat domesticated animal for at least 7000 years i m Peru, they actually dont mind a their cage. They feel safer. We’ve had the cage left open twice, both times they didn’t venture farther around the property, stayed next to or their cage or their neighbors cage to visit. 


    Gestation is twice as long. But the benefit is fully adult like babies with fur, open eyes able to eat hay on day one. So survivability of pups much higher than vulnerable rabbit babies. . 


    We put their pens directly on wood-chips. The mixture of droppings, leftover hay, and wood chips routed in makes perfect mulch directly on plants. Unlike chicken manure, no burning or secondary composting needed. Their dropping containing a higher level of good bacteria than most. 


    The worse part of processing is pulling off fur in clumps, its a bit like pluking feathers. 


    Other downside is without skin, not alot of meat. 


    Would love to find the fabled super cuy of 2-3 kilos. But ours are more around a kilo when dispatched. 


    So, I would recommend, but I’m also trying to figure out how to get a live male cuy from ecuador or peru for my herd. 

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    All of them in a plastic file box while we removed the woodchips, hay and cuy droppings - mulch under their pens, turned into black gold by them.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Here’s another article regarding guinea pigs a good food preparedness meat

    https://preparednessadvice.com/raising-guinea-pigs-food/

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Third year of guinea pig raising. Ultimate head to toe dog food. Dispatch one animal and give whole to dog. They eat every morsel, nothing goes to waste and their complete nutrition is met for the day.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Have you tried eating them yourself? Many of us are looking for a meat source for us and our families but have no first hand knowledge of food quality and taste.