About 5 years ago, we decided to embark on a project to raise guinea pigs for food.  We had read up on it and found that it was a delicacy in Peru; our reason for choosing guinea pigs was because they are docile (after having goats, the keeping of guinea pigs sounded very nice) and they also eat lots of grass and greenery without the need for bought food.  Besides, we saw varoius tasty Peruvian recipes which looked very appetising; most of them looked like variations of deep-fried guinea pig with the head left on!

We started off with three guinea pigs in our breeding program which consisted of one male and two females.  The male was a long-haired, dark brown type; he was very boisterous and friendly and he liked to wiggle his bottom at the other two girls whilst making ddddrrrrr overtures.  We called him “The Boy”.  Both girls had a patch-work of different colours and they were also long-haired.  Penelope had blonde and white patches and was very friendly and liked to petted.  The other girl had red and white patches and her personality was the complete opposite of the other girl.  She was very shy and liked to hide in the corners of the cage; she was deadly quiet except for when I approached the cage with freshly cut sweet grass; she would call out with a shrill weeeeeee!  And, as soon as I was in view, she would stop as though she had never been making any noise.  I never heard a peep out of her whenever she saw that I was looking at her.  Her name was Stumpy and she is the only one that remains alive out of all three.

She was aptly named Stumpy as her left rear leg unfortunately broke on the first day, when we were transporting her back home.  By the time we got home, we ended up having to do an above-knee amputation (there was no choice) and then we dipped her stump in copal oil and dressed it.  Her recovery was remarkable and to this very day, she is my testimony for the wonderful healing benefits of Copal Oil.

Through out the years, Stumpy bred like a champion and mothered many guinea pigs (at a guess, it has probably been about 20).  The leg has never been an impediment and has continued to be a piggy with a winning personality.  We call her GrandMa Stumpy now and she has her own cage because she can be a bit irritated by the other noisy guinea pigs.

She is retired now and every day we give her fresh sweet grass (Mombassa is her favourite) and even some small doggy food pellets as a treat.  Because of her age, she does get a bit smelly and unkempt so every three months, we take her out of the cage to give her a haircut, trim her toe-nails and clean out her hairy ears.

I wanted to write a special article on Stumpy because she is the Grandma of our farm and she deserves a mention because she is such a sweet little creature.  Hooray for Stumpy!

If you want to read a cool and entertaining article on Guinea Pigs, Click Here.

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