Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is a link to ABCs article: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 287792.htm

Ugh, got to love the busybody neighbours!

Mine caused huge delays with my planning permit and cost me at least $1k, but thankfully in the end she moved away (I like to think we pushed her out, lol). She was well known to all the surrounding neighbours and local council for her complaining and reporting of people.

Give it a go I say! The good thing is you can do it small scale as a test to see how it goes with only minimal expenditure. I guess you don't need to tell people you are eating them.

Yep! Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the pet store to by a male and female for breeders, I'll build a cage for them tonight, and see how it goes "I guess you don't need to tell people you are eating them." - Haha, I'll keep it on the low

Great topic Mathew. I would definitely give this a go. Might be hard to convince the other half and kids that it's a good idea though


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I'm pretty sure the gentleman who raised the Cuy (Peruvian for Guinea pig) has since passed. I was sure his wife was a member here or on the Backyard Farming sister forum? Could well have been some other site though.
People who have owned them as pets are completely shocked by the suggestion and consider it monstrous. It's worse than Bambi-syndrome.
But it is, none the less, quite sensible in every way.
They don't stink like rabbits apparently will, bite less, don't really dig and are very cheap. The main dietary things I can recall is a requirement for vitC and that some greens can kill them with bloat.
For the "green" leaning people the reduction of CO2 (transport and processing) and Methane emissions compared to retail meats is probably close to 100%. At my place they could easily replace a lawn mower too, along with fertilising the lawn.
As a bonus they also have four drumsticks and would make the cutest pair of slippers in the world.

I've also heard rumours of some quiet individuals who selectively breed for preferred characteristics and occasionally swap males to freshen up the genetic pool of their little 'herds'.
But if they are out there they are very discrete and I don't know how you'd find them.
Certainly don't mention a word of it to guinea pig enthusiasts or they'd likely start a social media campaign to ban the practice. They probably manage it too.

are the ones bred for eating in south america not larger than the ones peope use for pets here? a different type?
i think i remember seeing some as large as 2-3 mens fists over there, pet ones here tend to be about half that size at most???

It was a while ago that I looked into it, some of the pet breeds over here are pretty small but they are the same critter.
I sound evangelistic about it but that's because apart from cultural/emotional reasons there is no reasonable argument I can think of against raising Cuy at home.
If I raised chickens for meat no one except vegetarians and vegans would bat an eyelid. And if I lived rurally the same would apply to pigs, cows or sheep.
But people think it's like eating a living teddy bear and get a bit irrational about it.

From the book of "ferment and human nutrition" by Bill Mollison.



I bookmarked the page in my book years ago. Really interesting book if you can get hold of a copy...

I love it!
I'm completely sold on the whole idea. As far as I'm concerned it's cheap, sustainable, and economically urban friendly. (As long as the neighbours don't find out )


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agreed!


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The ones in show I saw the other week were definitely bigger, but I do have a vague memory of some not being as big in previous shows I've seen them in. Like a multiple serving size animal compared to a plate size single serving I guess, lol.

I just did some reading then and apparently the South American ones are called 'Cuyes Criollos Mejorados' or similar, but I also read that they were just selectively bred to increase the size, so I guess it's possible to do the same here. Selective breeding is probably easier than trying to cross one with a Capybara or something, lol.

Hmm, interesting, just read on a random guinea pig website that they have gotten smaller in recent years because of breeding too early and so on. If it's true, which it may well be given the conditions in a lot of the pet trade, then it may not be overly difficult to breed them up to a bigger size by being selective, ensuring maturity and so on.

Shared one in a market in Peru. Skewered cooked over charcoal. Like chicken, not foul at all.

They keep them in the kitchen to eat the scraps.

this thread is tempting me big time.
would the local pet shop ones be tainted?
thinking of buying one, killing and throwing on bon fire for taste test.

what diseases do they have??????