I've been experimenting with guinea pigs as a backyard farm animal the last year or so. It's finally taking off but the weather has been damp and many of them are getting what looks like ringworm.
It wasn't really a problem last year. I never had this problem with rabbits.
Would chickens eat guinea pigs?
I've seen three chickens kill a squirrel, so...
But I've seen five squirrels rape two chickens
You're gonna eat these? ;-;
Its why they exist
you could at least use a non-carnivorous animal for your reaction image.
Do you make anything with the skins? It'd be pretty cool to have a bunch of guinea pig skins.
Kys abuser. Guinea pigs are eating your dead grandmother in hell
its livestock
Man I could never raise such cute animals for food. Good luck with the ringworm anon.
Right? I could even see doing it if they're just like a basal all brown or all white, no fancy hair styles or anything. These have too much character to them, maybe it's just because I had one as a kid.
Why Gunie pigs? Why not rabbits?
Bigger, tastier meats, more of a market
They can't dig or get into my raised garden beds. They meep around like a little biological roomba controlling the weeds.
Can't you put them in a shed with better drainage off of the floor and overhanging roof?
The ones in a shed got it worse. I think the ringworm was in the hay on the floor. I've been cleaning it out and bleaching the dirt to see if the helps.
Isn't there a treatment for this?
Otherwise I would guess give them a dry place or whatever. Maybe a place with sand, I don't really know much about guinea pigs.
>Isn't there a treatment for this?
I've been using athlete's foot spray and moved then to a dry cage to heal.
Good luck to them.
Are you raising them for meat?
Interested in this. What do you feed them, enclosure, stuff like that?
I've been feeding then weeds from my yard, alfalfa, drop fruit I find around the neighborhood, and rabbit pellets.
I wanted then for meat. Breeding larger ones is kinda tricky after a few generations I seem to be getting larger litters of smaller guinea pigs. Getting ones that are 500 grams just grazing on the yard seems to be no problem. Similar to quail except they can't fly away.
I might just end up breeding them as feeders to pay for other animal feed.
You may want to try group selection instead of individual selection.
But I guess such things take years anyway.
It might be okay since you're supplementing their diet with other foods but don't rely on rabbit pellets. Guinea pigs need a lot vitamin C, rabbits don't so their food doesn't have that much of it.
It sucks that guinea pigs from pet stores weigh so little, the Cuy Peruano bred for meat in Peru weigh like 3 kg
Does anyone in the US even have those?
Nah, all the guinea pigs in the US are bred for pet ownership and not for size/meat production like they are in south america. You could probably breed a american cuy peruviano by selectively breeding for larger size and increased feed processing ability
There was that video of Peruvians roasting big cuy in New York but those could have been imported.
there is oral medication, and it might be worth giving them a sulfer bath. Good thing they're outside.