About 3-4 months ago, in November, we adopted our fifth guinea pig; a (1.5 year old) surrender from Petland. The only information they had was that it was a young girl caring for her and that she had been returned because she was supposedly very aggressive. They said she had come in covered in matts, and told us she was a peruvian. I named her Dima and she did end up being quite bitey. We are working to try to train her out of it.
A month later we adopted a second surrender (1.4 year old) pig, much smaller and fluffier, and very different looking from Dima. It was pretty obvious that they were different breeds, both longhaired. It didn't take long to figure out that Dima was a silkie, and Ziggy was a peruvian.
However, looking at Dima and comparing her to our other pigs and prior pigs, she is massive. She was 1300 grams when we got her (our second biggest, overweight pig being 1200) but didn't look unusually fat. She was somewhat skittish, but it's gotten better over time, and she'll even come up and let me pet her in the cage now. I had also read that female cuy tend to be very dominant over other females, and we've had a lot of problems integrating her. She is extremely aggressive towards some of the others. Paired with Zuko's apparent social anxiety (??), it's been impossible to keep them all together without having to keep either her or Zuko separate from the group.
TL;DR: Dima's a silkie, but significantly larger than any pig we've had before. Also extremely dominant/bold against other females, and aggressive to people. Not overly skittish, and has colouring unusual for cuy.
Is it possible she's got cuy genetics?
A very pretty pig.
A month later we adopted a second surrender (1.4 year old) pig, much smaller and fluffier, and very different looking from Dima. It was pretty obvious that they were different breeds, both longhaired. It didn't take long to figure out that Dima was a silkie, and Ziggy was a peruvian.
However, looking at Dima and comparing her to our other pigs and prior pigs, she is massive. She was 1300 grams when we got her (our second biggest, overweight pig being 1200) but didn't look unusually fat. She was somewhat skittish, but it's gotten better over time, and she'll even come up and let me pet her in the cage now. I had also read that female cuy tend to be very dominant over other females, and we've had a lot of problems integrating her. She is extremely aggressive towards some of the others. Paired with Zuko's apparent social anxiety (??), it's been impossible to keep them all together without having to keep either her or Zuko separate from the group.
TL;DR: Dima's a silkie, but significantly larger than any pig we've had before. Also extremely dominant/bold against other females, and aggressive to people. Not overly skittish, and has colouring unusual for cuy.
Is it possible she's got cuy genetics?
A very pretty pig.