Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Guinea Pig Housing & Handling

Evidence-based refinements for guinea pigs.

In a laboratory setting, it is important to provide housing that allows expression in a wide range of species-typical behaviors while also meeting research goals. Substandard housing can lead to aggression, stereotyping, and anxiety. Understanding the animal’s natural behavior enables us to build quality environments that meet physical, behavioral, and social needs. Proper design is critical for improved health and welfare, both of which improve scientific validity.

Making changes to current housing standards can be challenging especially since facilities may be at very different levels of current housing. Start making small changes from where your facility is currently to improve. Also keep in mind that some of the recommendations below (e.g., providing certain types of environmental enrichment) can change some specific experimental models.

Before implementing housing changes, be sure to consult the relevant scientific literature and consider the requirements of your scientific model. Each facility may require an individual approach to increasing housing standards as much as possible.

Key Natural Behaviors

  • Social with strong dominance hierarchies
    • Dominant male & females
    • Scent markings play a role in maintaining social groupings
  • Active during most of the 24-hour period
  • Thigmotaxic (prefer to be in contact with the walls) & avoid open spaces including the middle of cage floors
  • Do not climb and rarely jump
  • Coprophagic (consume feces) & require cecatrophs
  • Vitamin C required in diet
  • Young born precocial with hair & eyes open

Recommendations

  • House in groups or pairs
  • Multiple tubes or hiding huts
  • Solid bottom floors with a soft substrate and large quantities of hay to allow for burrowing
  • Enclosure walls should be made from a material that provides good visual contact with the surrounding environment to decrease fear
  • Introduce new enrichment items slowly; potential fear of novelty
  • Provide gnawing opportunities such as wood blocks and chew sticks to help wear down teeth
  • Sensitive to heat, their preferred temperature is 68F
  • Ensure that Vitamin C is provided in the diet
  • Maintain appropriate body condition score to avoid foot problems in overweight animals

Blood Sampling

Further Information

See Next

Hamster: Housing & Handling