All the Creatures

As you will recall, in my prior post about the peruvian cavy, I mentioned the patagonian cavy. I would like to introduce you to this most unusual pet. I was at a local feed store when I met one of these little cuties in person. At first I thought it was a baby capybara and the woman holding the baby patagonian said I was the first one to even come close to what it actually was. You see the patagonian cavy and the capybara are relatives. This capybara book tells you more about the world’s largest rodent. The patagonian cavy, the capybara and the guinea pig are all in the same rodent family.

I found out that the patagonian cavy is a very popular pet. I had never heard of it before a few weeks ago and looked more into them. In Oregon they are very legal to own and breed without any permits. They are considered to be the same as rabbits. I also found some large classified forums where breeders list their patagonians for sale. Most of the breeders are located in Texas and the southern states. The average price for one of these pets is around $300. The woman that had the patagonian at the feed store kept hers in the house and it got along well with her dogs. They grow to the size of 35 pounds so they would be the same size as many mid sized dogs.

They are vegetarians and live in small socialized groups. The parents, as a group, take care of the youngsters.

As the owner of the young patagonian and I talked, I asked her how often she was asked if the animal was a jackalope? She said, “all the time.” She often tells them that the animal is a jackalope that just shed its horns…..LOL.

The patagonian cavy - a most unusual pet.

All the Creatures

Have you ever wanted to have an exotic fancy pet but didn’t want to have the expense of getting a special permit or building special housing? Well have I got a suggestion for you. It’s a guinea pig, yes I said a guinea pig. I bet you didn’t know that guinea pigs came in wide varieties did you. To be quite frank about it neither did I until a few days ago. I was doing some research on the patagonian cavy (a relative of the guinea pig) when I came across this photo:

It is a long haired show guinea pig called the Peruvian cavy. There is a breed club that has more information about them at acbaonline.com or check out this book on guinea pigs.

Let’s face it, you will not find this breed for sale at your local pet shop. You will have to find a breeder that specializes in this breed. I would recommend this breed of guinea pig only to people that love to care for long coated animals. This is not a low maintenance pet, but exotics never are. Housing will have to be larger than the average guinea pig is kept in, due to keeping the long coat hairs from breaking off.

I mentioned the patagonian cavy earlier and they also make wonderful pets. I have a special post coming up all about them and how I met one in person that started me on my cavy research. The patagonian would be like having a miniature deer running around the house.

All the Creatures

In the bygone era of BI (AKA Before the Internet), most of our knowledge of nature and animals came from textbooks, TV and newspaper news, books written by specialists in their field and documentaries shown on TV or at the movies. If you went to your local library it would be a crap shoot if you got up to date information on the subject you were trying to research. At that time we were unaware of the information that was outdated.

Just a few months ago I wrote on this blog about how I had to do a research project on the ancient history of the horse and found out that the horse originated on the North American continent and not in Asia as was the old information that many people were taught. In fact prior to the 1970’s most horse books stated the erroneous fact of horses originally coming from Asia or the middle East. I have one of those books in my back room. In fact the discovery of the horse developing in North America was in the 1920’s and then further evidence was found in the 1950’s. Apparently that knowledge was not widely known, until the internet came along.

Instead of waiting until a book is published with new scientific evidence, the information is now released via the internet. The information is fast and detailed. Scientists now collaborate in real time over vast remote areas. Our understanding of nature and its history are now greatly improved.

All the Creatures