Guinea Pig Observation

 In observation of a domestic guinea pig there are many habits and characteristics that were noticed.  During observation the characteristics that stood out were the guinea pigs appearance, his eating behaviors, his rest time, active times and his interactions with humans. The guinea pig was very interesting to observe.  

         The guinea pig has a soft coat.  It contains multiple colors.  His face is a combination of white and tan fur and his back is a mixture of white, tan and dark brown fur.  The tan fur seemed to help him blend in with his surroundings. The tan color was the same color as his bedding. He has two very big, sharped front teeth that help him eat.  He has sharp pointy claws that are beginning to curl around.  He would use his front sharp claws to move his bedding around the cage and the grab his food. His back claws were used for scratching.  He has tan floppy ears that would stand up when he would hear a strange noise as if he was focusing in on the sounds he heard around him. He has a short tail that would stay down curled around his body.  He has a long snout that seemed to help him move objects within his cage.  He would walk on all for legs, but at times would stand on his hind legs.

        When the guinea pig was hungry he seemed to make this chirping sound.  When he was given his food he would dump his food bowl over and eat his food off of his bedding.  His food contained a mixture of seeds and other ingredients.  He would nibble on the seeds using his claws to hold the seeds and his two front teeth to nibble the seeds. He did not eat all of the food in the same siting. When he was given a carrot his used his two front claws to drag the whole carrot around the cage and ate it in one sitting.  The two sharp teeth seemed to make eating the carrot very easy for the guinea pig.  He seemed to really enjoy the carrots.  When the guineas pig wanted more water he would bang his head against the cage on the side that held the water and would make the same chirping sound he would make when he was hungry.  He would stand on his hind legs and drink out of the water bottle.  

        During his active times the guinea pig would dig in his bedding using his two front paws.  He seemed to be moving the bedding from one side of the cage to the other side of the cage.  In his cage he has a wood tunnel that he enjoyed running threw and moving around with his snout.  He would move the tunnel from one side of the cage to the other side of the cage as he did with his bedding.  He would chew on his tunnel and claw at it.  There are many scratch and bite marks visible on his tunnel.   He also seemed to enjoy playing with a hanging toy that was on the side of his cage.  He would claw at it and flip it up with his snout.  He was very activate and moved around a lot in his cage at times running in circles as fast as he could.  He played hard for about ten minutes and then he started to rest.

        When he started to wind down, he would use his back claws to scratch his ears.  He would pile up the bedding on one side of the cage.  During the observation I anticipated that he would use the piled up bedding as a place for him to sleep, but to my surprise he went to the other side of the cage and slept where there was less bedding.  He laid down with his hind legs spread out and his front legs curled under his body.  He started to make a quite squeaking sound as he was settling down. When he settled into his deep sleep a faint purr could be heard.  He started asleep until he heard another noise, which seemed to startle him.  He jumped up and his ears pointed straight up.  Once he was aware of his surroundings he curled back up and fell back to sleep.