Since guinea pigs do well for maintaining a food forest floor how should I raise them so they put on weight quickly?
Think of a herd of guinea pigs for a few meals a year, and selling for pets.
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2I think your assumption that "guinea pigs do well for maintaining a food forest floor" is incorrect, at least that is if I understood this answer correctly. If you still want to ask this question, could you please edit it?– THelperJun 30, 2016 at 8:09
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I agree with THelper. Guinea pigs for meat and pets and doing all the work for you in your NATURAL habitat made by man? A herd of guinea pigs, for slaughter and maintaining this au natural 'forest' is a major stretch. Tell us what you have, what you know and where you want to go. Be prepared to be humbled...food forests are in my opinion pretty arrogant for humans to be doing. A herd of guinea pigs? Do you have wild rabbits? Wild pigs? Where ARE YOU? how much acreage?– stormyJul 2, 2016 at 0:36
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4 acres, and we have wild rabbits, and wild squirrels.– a coderJul 2, 2016 at 2:02
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Poor little piggies! What about raising worms or insects? Or mushrooms?– J. ChomelJul 4, 2016 at 6:25
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2I know that raising guinea pigs for meat is a common practice in Peru, so the literature might be more available in Spanish (the animal being commonly called "cuy").– straguJul 5, 2016 at 21:38
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2 Answers
When I visited Peru, EVERY house had a guinea pig pen in the back yard. Peru doesn't prep food like north Americans do, so there was a lot of husks, stems, trimmings, peelings. These went to the guinea pigs.
They were either used by the household, or sold to street vendors who would sell barbecued GP on the street. In 1969 you could get one for about 20 sols (65 cents) One time I got one that had lived it's life eating fish offal. Texture like chicken. Taste like tuna.
No joke.
Anyway: A guinea pig let loose in your forest is going to be doggy dinner, cat food, coyote lunch, along with every martin, mink, weasel... Keep them penned.
They are VERY efficient at turning scraps into meat. Short life cycle. You may get tired of eating them.
DON'T LET THE KIDS NAME THEM
answered Dec 29, 2016 at 8:44
provide them with brush piles and only release them into a free range area when you have alot like at least 20-100. and keep a few backups in a pen. we had a guinea pig live to almost 9 years living in our yard with dogs snakes skunks and hawks it will work fine. i was in texas with one acre.
