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Animal profile

Guinea Pig

Cavia porcellus

MammaliaDomestic; the wild ancestor occupies Andean grassland and rocky slopes

Field profile

The guinea pig is a domesticated caviomorph rodent kept for meat in the Andes for thousands of years and as a companion animal elsewhere. It is highly vocal, social and entirely herbivorous. It has no wild population, existing only as a domestic form derived from Cavia species such as Cavia tschudii.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2024-08-04

Guinea Pig

Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C

Like humans and unlike most mammals, guinea pigs have lost the enzyme that completes vitamin C synthesis. They must eat it or develop scurvy, and that shared defect is why they became the standard laboratory animal for nutrition research.

Read with evidence →

Guinea Pig | Daily Animal Facts