To be honest, before becoming pets, guinea pigs were actually food...

Many zoos and farms in Japan have a program called "Guinea Pig March", which is very popular among children. Every day, the keepers clean the guinea pigs' homes or let them go somewhere else to eat, and the guinea pigs will line up and march forward.

The video above was shot at Nagasaki Biological Park. When the staff set up the suspension bridge, the guinea pigs lined up one by one from the feeding area to return to their nests. Some ran into the nest without hesitation, some stopped and looked around, and one even turned around and ran back. Their cute and silly behavior is really hilarious.

Guinea pig? It's also called Dutch pig.

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) are common small animals in the pet market, and they can be seen in almost every flower and bird market. Compared with guinea pigs, the name "Dutch pigs" may be more familiar to people , but they are neither from the Netherlands nor pigs.

The adorable guinea pigs｜Vladimir Skibin / flickr

Guinea pigs belong to the class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Cavia, genus Cavia. Their ancestors lived in the Andes Mountains of South America. As for why they are called Dutch pigs, it may be related to the Dutch merchants who first introduced guinea pigs to China . The same is true for the common vegetable snow peas, which are not native to the Netherlands. In English, snow peas are even called "Chinese snow peas".

There is a guinea pig that is not native to the Netherlands｜Tony Verschoor / flickr

Domesticated guinea pigs were previously used as a source of meat for people. Because guinea pigs are gentle, cute, and easy to raise, they were welcomed by people when European merchants brought them back to Western countries in the 16th century, and gradually became common domestic pets.

A hairless guinea pig looks a bit like a pig, right? | wideopenpets.com

Guinea pigs are similar in size to a small rabbit, 20 to 25 centimeters long and weighing about 1 kilogram. They are a kind of rodent that lives in groups. They have round bodies like piglets, faces like rabbits without long ears, and short tails. They are all vegetarians and have almost no attack power. They rely on their strong reproductive power to continue their population .

Try your best to have a baby｜caruba / flickr

After artificial breeding, there are more and more breeds of guinea pigs now. Here I will briefly introduce to you several more famous varieties of guinea pigs, which can be compared with the following pictures: ① Abyssinian: short-haired, but the hair is curled like a rose; ② The most common short-haired one; ③ Crested: short hair on the body with a tuft of longer curled hair on the top of the head. The crown on the head is white in the picture, also known as white crown; ④ Corolla: a combination of crown and long smooth hair; ⑤ Long reverse: the record holder for the longest hair, with fine, long and slightly curly hair; ⑥ Long smooth: short hair on the front of the head and long hair on the body, also known as Shetland; ⑦ Hairless, this is a bit expensive, and relatively more delicate to raise; ⑧ Teddy: It is hard to tell from this picture, Teddy is just curly all over.

Image: petguineapigcare.com

As an excellent experimental animal

The English name of guinea pig is "Guinea pig", which is also a synonym for "experimental subject". In biological experiments, guinea pigs are more important than the familiar mice . Why? This starts with the basic principles of selecting experimental animals in medical and biological research.

The mice are dissatisfied｜cosmosmagazine.com

Scientific experiments on animals can help us explore the pathogenesis, pathology and physiology of human diseases and find ways to prevent and treat them. Because the ultimate goal is for ourselves, when conducting experiments, we try to choose organisms that are similar to humans in structure, function, metabolism and other aspects , while also considering the feasibility and economy of practical operations.

Therefore, among species that belong to the same class as humans, rodents that are smaller in size, easier to obtain, and easier to breed artificially become better choices (especially when the experiment requires a large number of experimental subjects and involves several generations of experimental subjects, it is difficult to find other organisms more suitable than rodents). Among rodents, rats (albino species of brown rats), mice (small white mice), hamsters, and guinea pigs are the most commonly used experimental animals. Among them, guinea pigs have incomparable unique advantages over the other three .

Guinea pigs appearing on a lab bench | science.howstuffworks.com

Contribute to medical research

Guinea pigs have many physiological similarities with humans, making them ideal animals for immunology research experiments . Like humans, they cannot synthesize vitamin C in their bodies and can only obtain it through food intake, so they are prone to scurvy. They are ideal animal models for studying experimental scurvy and the physiological functions of vitamin C, and are also standard animals for biological testing of vitamin C.

Eat more fruits and vegetables｜reneedezvous.wordpress.com

In addition, they are sensitive to a variety of pathogens and antibiotics , and are often used for pathogen isolation diagnosis and drug efficacy research. For example, guinea pigs are highly sensitive to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and their delayed hypersensitivity reaction is similar to that of humans. Therefore, they are also often used for the isolation and differential diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the screening of anti-tuberculosis drugs, and pathological research. At the same time, they are also specialized animals for studying the efficacy of antibiotics such as penicillin, erythromycin, and chlortetracycline, as well as some anesthetics and antiasthmatic drugs.

It is of great help to modern medical research｜ahwla.org.uk

Among the commonly used experimental animals, guinea pigs are the most sensitive to allergens , followed by rabbits, dogs, mice, cats, frogs, etc. When guinea pigs that have already caused an allergic reaction are exposed to antigens again, they will cause acute reactions such as bronchial smooth muscle contraction and even death, so they are suitable for studying allergic respiratory diseases. Injecting horse serum into guinea pigs can easily replicate an animal model of anaphylactic shock. Cutting off the vagus nerves on both sides of the guinea pig's neck can replicate a typical animal model of acute pulmonary edema, with more obvious symptoms than other animals, and is often used in pulmonary edema research experiments. They are sensitive to the stimulation of toxic substances, similar to humans . In addition, guinea pigs are in estrus all year round, have a long gestation period, and have a large fetus, which is suitable for experiments on the effects of drugs or toxic substances on fetal development and the study of pregnancy complications.

Outstanding performance is better than guinea pigs｜expertbeacon.com

Guinea pigs, which are indispensable in modern medical research, actually left their footprints in previous history. As early as the era of witch doctors, tribesmen in the Andes used guinea pigs to diagnose diseases such as jaundice, rheumatism, arthritis and typhus, and even cut open their stomachs and removed their internal organs to test the effectiveness of treatment. Today, "Guinea pig" is used as a synonym for experimental subjects, and the name guinea pig is well deserved.

Here is a simplified breeding guide for you

Because guinea pigs are similar in size, appearance, and eating habits to rabbits, you can often see people telling you to feed them the same way you feed rabbits. This is not a big problem in the short term, but if you really want to treat your guinea pig well and keep it healthy and long-lived, you should still pay attention to the differences between it and rabbits .

The one on the left is not a rabbit. Can you tell the difference now? ｜biopronz.co.nz

The first is as mentioned above, guinea pigs cannot synthesize vitamin C on their own . If their intake is insufficient, they may suffer from fatal scurvy. Therefore, you must pay attention to the nutritional content of your feed on a daily basis.

In addition, it should be noted that guinea pigs cannot take in large amounts of calcium for a long time , which can easily lead to stones. Although guinea pigs have similar eating habits to rabbits, their respiratory and gastrointestinal systems are not as strong as rabbits; because they are good at concealing their illnesses, once the owner finds out that something is wrong, their illness may already be very serious.

Remember to give it plenty of vitamins｜fanpop.com

Guinea pigs have poor temperature regulation ability and are prone to pneumonia if kept in a hot and stuffy environment for a long time. A sudden drop in temperature can also lead to death.

Guinea pigs and rabbits are both timid and mild-tempered herbivores, and are suitable for keeping as pets at home. If you are considering buying a guinea pig as a pet, you may want to consider the following questions first:

Please consider before raising

1. Are you or your family allergic to hair? Even short-haired guinea pigs shed.

2. The size of the breeding space suitable for guinea pigs should be larger than 0.3m². A 0.7m*0.5m breeding cage of decent quality may be more expensive than the guinea pig itself. In addition, you also need to buy all the matching utensils in the box.

3. How to cool down in summer and heat up in winter? Their suitable living temperature is 18-22 degrees with good air circulation.

4. Hay, staple food, and clean water need to be supplied daily; sawdust or other water- and odor-absorbing bedding materials need to be replaced daily. Guinea pigs are very sensitive to spoiled feed, and moldy food can cause them to die of poisoning, so their food and water sources need to be kept clean.

5. Guinea pigs are very timid and sensitive. They may not be able to adapt to your touch for a long time, and will frustrate you by hiding from you. Forcing them to play with you may cause them to have a stress response, such as peeing on your clothes.

6. Guinea pigs have a large amount of excrement, which can easily produce odor if not cleaned in time. They can learn to go to the toilet in a fixed place to make it easier for the owner to clean, but this requires your patience. All the funny videos of guinea pigs begging for food and playing games on the Internet are from patient owners. They are indeed smart, but you have to spend a lot of time and energy to teach them.

7. Guinea pigs can make all kinds of sounds, which can be a cute point but can also be a disadvantage, especially when they wake up in the morning and are hungry and begging for food. The key of their sounds is relatively high, like a whistle, and when they are extremely hungry they may become very manic in the cage, while you may still be sleeping in.

Have you ever heard a guinea pig bark? Here you can hear it, and it's super cute. If you respond to the bark and go rummaging through plastic bags or the fridge, they might get even more excited.

If you have considered it maturely and have the ability and energy to keep a pet after studying and working, the cute guinea pig will definitely bring you endless fun.

Finally, let me share with you a female guinea pig I raise.

The first day after my baby came (I was probably about one or two months old)

A week later

What it looks like after one year (this is a hair that grows in the opposite direction. If the hair is not trimmed, it will be long to the ground and inconvenient; this is the Shamatte style after trimming)

Author: The biological man who runs an aquarium

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)