An Extended Project Qualification On Guinea-pigs - Ideas?

[WDMMBT]

Hey guys, I'm currently studying my AS-Level and my school is providing the option to do an EPQ. This involves doing a large essay on a topic that will either helps our studies, or interests us.

Luckily for me, I can make guinea-pigs help my studies, while still keeping my interest because, I am a piggy mum and I absolutely adore them.

I am wanting to study the breeding of guinea-pigs in captivity, compared to the way it is done in the wild.

These are the topics I would like to cover:

-To look into behaviour in wild herds, in order to establish whether guinea-pigs breed constantly in the wild and, if not, why don’t they?

- To investigate why guinea-pigs are able to breed at around 6 weeks of age and how they keep bloodlines pure when this is the case.

- To study back-to-back breeding and the problems it presents to the sows.

- To look into the birth itself, such as average litter size and sows inducing births in other pregnant guinea-pigs. How do they stop this being a problem in the wild? Do they have breeding seasons?

- To find out what age guinea-pigs should be retired from breeding.

- What are the complications if a guinea-pig who has not had a litter before, is bred after a year old? Do any have successful births despite their hip bones fusing?

- To investigate how many months a guinea-pig should have resting between each litter in order to replicate the natural environment and ensure the health of the animal.

- To study health issues, such as genetic problems and pregnancy/birthing complications.

- To compare small-scale breeders with large-scale breeders and how their practices are different.

- Guinea-pigs are herd animals, how does this affect them when they are bred in captivity? Should they be kept in large herds with a male leader, or separated to ensure that back-to-back breeding doesn’t occur?

My only problem is, I need a title. It is supposed to be based as a question, so that we can find an answer.

I hope that the choice of my topic does not offend anyone. It is not, in any way, trying to promote breeding. In fact, it is probably going to turn out as being quite the opposite.

So, any ideas for a title? I'd be very grateful if you could help x

 

[LisaAli]

We wish you well in your project. There is indeed lots of information available on the internet in all the subjects you have mentioned. We for one would be interested in reading your finished article. You will find in your search that anyone who is remotely rescue orientated will advocate that breeding of guinea pigs is a big no no whereas the people who are involved in breeding activities would probably advocate the opposite.

Just to get you started - have a look at this link which will no doubt provoke more questions than answers - http://www.cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm

Good luck with your research.

Lisa & Ali..

 

[WDMMBT]

We wish you well in your project. There is indeed lots of information available on the internet in all the subjects you have mentioned. We for one would be interested in reading your finished article. You will find in your search that anyone who is remotely rescue orientated will advocate that breeding of guinea pigs is a big no no whereas the people who are involved in breeding activities would probably advocate the opposite.

Just to get you started - have a look at this link which will no doubt provoke more questions than answers - http://www.cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm

Good luck with your research.

Lisa & Ali..

Thank you for the link to this site. I'm sure it will prove handy in my EPQ.

 

[Abbie]

Good luck!

I was going to do an EPQ on piggies too during my alevels last year also! But I took art and fashion which took up WAY too much of my free time to be able to even write a decent essay for my EPQ

So I'm glad to hear you are doing it haha! I wish you lots of luck

 

[Wiebke]

You can find some answers to questions in our forum information threads, if you look at information threads in various Care sections (general info in the newbie section, better info re. pelvic bones (which do NOT fuse) and several cases of first time mums over 1 year old; you also may find our other pregnancy information helpful in answering some points. Pregnancies can happen as early as 4 weeks of age (see our pregnancy section; we have had cases).
http://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/breeding.html

It is only in the last years that there is more of an interest in natural or social guinea pig behaviour, so information is still comparatively sketchy compared to other species. You will also find that the behaviours in the three wild species that still exist vary, especially in the role that the dads play. Our guinea pigs (cavia aperea) are a fully domesticated species and have been for thousands of years. They no longer exist in the wild. Therefore we do not have any data for natural reproduction for guinea pigs, which unfortunately means that you have to try and compare apple with pears when it comes to natural reproduction.

You may find that you will have to narrow your scope at some point. I may be able to ask my vet to take a photo of Taffy's x-ray, which clearly shows her deformed pelvis from being breed back-to-back several times from an early age by a backyard breeder of the worst sort (that case made it onto the 24/7 bbc series) before she was rescued.

You are looking at the wider implications between natural reproduction in wild guinea pig species vs controlled breeding in domestic species.

I would also recommend to rather distuingish between hobby breeders and commercial breeders, whether that is large scale rodent farming or backyard breeding.

Here are some articles that you may find helpful:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1644/BNS-012
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Cavia_porcellus/

 

[MerryPip]

If you fancy a topic on genetic issues within breeding then there are a few topics that could be of use.

One is the incidence of Osteodystrophy in Satin breed piggies http://www.guineapigwelfare.org.uk/satin-guinea-pigs/

And the other is the 'lethal white' guinea pig resulting from mutations passed on in Dalmatian x Dalmatian or roan x roan matings. I have done a fair bit of looking around on this and Furryfriends is also quite experienced as The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary is home to the biggest collection of lethal piggies I know of. There's an article I have written about it and some other information in the next issue (23) of Guinea Pig Magazine....

Interested to see what you come up with though!

 

[The Furry Godmother]

That's awesome, good luck with that!

I did forensic science and thus had to do my EPQ on something like that, I did mine on media and how it influences our perceptions of crime :')

That should be really interesting for you! X

 

[WDMMBT]

Thank you everyone I'm now really interested to see where this topic will take me!

If I can't get enough information on wild herds, which as it appears might be very difficult to do, I'll just have to alter my question slightly.

Thanks again