A pet guinea pig loving life relaxing on a leather couch.
In Peru for example many households raise guinea pigs in pens with the intention of eating them. Some are even given their own room inside the house, raised on a shelf system.
The idea of eating these mostly considered pets in the US was quite taboo. How ever from what I have seen the idea is slowly catching on! Import companies are saying their numbers of imported guinea pigs for sale to restaurants has more then doubled over the past few years. If this rate continues I won't be surprised seeing even more people raising them in back yards all across America.
From what I have read they appear to have good quality meat but due to their size they are usually served as a portion of a meal or it may take two to three of them to satisfy a hungry tummy. One of these days I will go out and try a guinea pig meal. From what I've been told they're very tasty and low in cholesterol.
Like any animal that is bred as a food source the process of selective breeding will begin to take place. In Peru there is a beast of a guinea pig called the Cuys Criollos Mejorados. A story on how some of these giant critters ended up in pet stores in California can be found here.
http://www.guineapigtoday.com/2012/06/28/californias-giant-guinea-pigs-cuys-criollos-mejorados/
These (cuys for short) have both impressive and sad features to them. For example the adults grow to two to four times the weight of an average guinea pig which is a good meal size but due to them being incredibly inbred they only live about half as long.
When a breed of this size has been created then the possibility of raising them as a food source becomes even more of a possibility. I've kept an eye on this over the past few years and I've seen more and more people willing, wanting, or actually doing this.
I resently read about a person paying 700$ to have six of the cuy imported to start farming them. Now I'll admit I saw some dollar signs when I read that. We are talking about over 110$ per guinea pig. Not only were they willing to pay that much but they were willing to pay that much for this incredibly inbred breed. Can you imagine if someone was to start a breeding program for guinea pigs with the goal to increase the meat production, size, and make them more tame (the cuy were very skittish) how much money they could sell them for if they made sure to avoid inbreeding? Remember that's 700$ for six cuy that will probably not live past two years. If someone had an eight pound guinea pig that had a better meat to bone ratio and could produce litters for several years they would be sitting on a little squeaking gold mine.
Personally I do not understand how to selectively breed animals. The concept is simple enough, if you want larger guinea pigs only breed the largest, that much I get. Where I get lost is when you try to selectively breed for multiple traits size, temperament, and meat to bone ratio. Which ranks highest? Do you breed for one first then the next? Is it more of a bouncing around from trait to trait as litters are born? This is something I need to learn more about. I've already been told in many different ways that I am not allowed to try and produce meat quality guinea pigs in my house (girl friend put her foot down) but if any of my readers put there do start a program to produce these or to try and breed the health hazards out of the cuy please let me know and I'll be sure to be one of your first customers!
Comment down below, would you ever eat a guinea pig, or consider raising some for food production?
No comments:
Post a Comment