The history about Guinea-pigs

Hi, it's me again and after talking a bit about the pets my family own in my last post I thought I'll talk about where Guinea-pigs came from as well as my own experiences with them.

So the Guinea-pig originated from South America Puru and often lived in burrows either dug by themselves or other wild animals. They were bred for food in 2000bc and possibly started as a pet from the children there. They became a popular present at weddings and for guests, they typically lived in the kitchen where they could roam around freely. They were also considered an evil spirit collector who when rubbed around the body if squealed had detected an illness (Black Guinea-pigs were considered the best). In the 1700's they came to England where Queen Elizabeth 1 owned one which then caused them to become very popular like they are today.

As for my own experiences with them, just less than two years ago my mum decided to get 5 female Guinea-pigs which we decided to name them all after chocolates, but after about a month we noticed that Bounty was acting very dominant. Then the next day we saw it, as we went to say goodmorning to them we noticed Bounty was having a piggy back! It was at that very moment we knew it was too late but we put him in a separate space and took him to the vets so no more mistakes were made. Sexing Guinea-pigs is famously hard as we were about to find out so it wasn't the breeders fault that we ended up with 4 pregnant females and a male. It usually takes Guinea-pigs 59-72 days to give birth which unlucky for them was December/January. While we were waiting for many tiny feet running around we noticed that all 4 of the females were over double there normal size and then when the day finally came there was 15 of these tiny little things running all over the place. Guinea-pigs often give birth at once and the baby's have fur, can run and see perfectly all so they have a better chance of surviving in the wild. Once they reached about 3 weeks we had to seperate them (to stop anymore of these experiences) and sex them which took up the whole of that day. Once we'd found homes for them all from my teachers to my brothers friends we were left with the original 5 and two new members which have been welcomed into the family.

I hope you enjoyed reading about how Guinea-pigs came to this country as well as my own experiences with them and some final things to say about having a pet Guinea-pig is they honestly don't need much in order to look after some, as long as they have space, food, water and company anyone can own one.

-Lily