http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/24/wmmmmm24.xml

I think they'vebeen part of the staple diet in Peru for yonks.

Although I'm not sure that I could eat one unless they were nutritious AND delicious. ;)

Yeah fair do's theyeat em in Peru, but they are wild, not bred soley for that puropse!

I think that a lot of the edible ones in Peru are probably farmed now.

Makes my skin crawl. Its like us eating rat :gag:

Rat Tart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dehAiSJHZM) anyone? :D

Sounds very reasonable to me; quality meat, low in cholesterol, easily bred in small spaces.

Yeah fair do's theyeat em in Peru, but they are wild, not bred soley for that puropse!

JoeP's correct. In the Andes, women and children keep them in their kitchens and fatten them up on veg. scraps etc. They've been a very important food source since 500 B.C.

There's more about it here -http://http://www.galensgarden.co.uk/herbivores/cavy/origins.php

can you imagine going into an eaterie and picking your meal as it runs in it's little wheel :hihi:

can you imagine going into an eaterie and picking your meal as it runs in it's little wheel :hihi:

It's hamsters that run in a wheel :rolleyes:
It is all part of the same issue as far as i'm concerned, to me the thought of raising and killing any animal is sad, but i can live with it so long as the animals have lived well and have a quick humane death, unfortunately this is rarely the case :sad:
I couldn't eat guinea pig no more than i can eat rabbit, when you have known their personalities as a pet it feels almost like canibalism!

hides my piggys fast :(:(:(

An ecuadorian friend of mine was stopped at Heathrow bringing in cooked guinea pigs and they where taken off him. apparently the hardest thing for guinea pig smugglers is getting them into the condoms then swallowing them:hihi:

But what would go with them ?

Mint sauce, apple sauce or whatever :huh:



Aww sod it, Hendo's :hihi:

Don't see the problem myself....only like eating pig etc.
I would object if not looked after while alive though.

I'm rather amazed that a thread as '' un fuzzy'' as this has survived so long in the pet section - where are all the cries of ''Oh dear it's appalling?''
Maybe the lack of outcry suggests that a Sheffield eatery specialising in Guineas isn't too far off?

I'm rather amazed that a thread as '' un fuzzy'' as this has survived so long in the pet section - where are all the cries of ''Oh dear it's appalling?''
Maybe the lack of outcry suggests that a Sheffield eatery specialising in Guineas isn't too far off?

The only unfuzzy element on this thread is your post, Halibut. You only ever come onto the pets forum to sneer.

How big does a guinea pig have to be to be 2.5lb? :shocked:

dont the peruvian have them running loose around the house, then just pick a couple off for lunch?, saw a programme on TV about it, some series about the strangest things eaten.

The only unfuzzy element on this thread is your post, Halibut. You only ever come onto the pets forum to sneer.

Oooh - a stalker! I'm honoured.

dont the peruvian have them running loose around the house, then just pick a couple off for lunch?, saw a programme on TV about it, some series about the strangest things eaten.

In a wee cage in the kitchen, so they can be fattened on kitchen scraps according to my sources.....

How big does a guinea pig have to be to be 2.5lb? :shocked:

Maybe a foot long?

How big does a guinea pig have to be to be 2.5lb? :shocked:

One of my guinea pigs weighs 3lb 2oz:blush: and let me tell you it is big, shes the biggest one i have.

I couldnt bring myself to eat guinea pig cos i see them as pets, its not like eating rabbit, rabbits that are eaten are wild and not pets but in the uk we have no wild guinea pigs only ones that someone has breed which i class as pets.

Well, we had pork sausages at Christmas from a work colleage of Mr Strix. They were from Charlotte. Charlotte was the name of the pig - and being hand reared she was delicious.

If these 'pigs are 'farmed' then are they not pets?


PS - Pigger, we need to see photo's :shocked:

I remember a sign at the side of the road once, dahn sarf,

"Rabbits! £5 for a pet £3 for the pot"

Get one of each!

One of my guinea pigs weighs 3lb 2oz:blush: and let me tell you it is big, shes the biggest one i have.

I couldn't bring myself to eat guinea pig cos i see them as pets, its not like eating rabbit, rabbits that are eaten are wild and not pets but in the UK we have no wild guinea pigs only ones that someone has breed which i class as pets.

They're popular as livestock in Peru, Bolivia etc, because they can be reared in urban environments. So they are almost exclusively farmed, not wild.

But traditionally they've been pretty meagre stringy eating. Now, with this super sized cavy, you get a proper meal from just one, instead of needing two or three, and half an hour to pick the flesh from between the tiny bones.

The flip side is that it needs a more protein rich (expensive) diet.

...its not like eating rabbit, rabbits that are eaten are wild and not pets...

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Unfortunately a lot of owners who sell their pets on places like free ads end up as meat.

I think you are all sick for even discussing this. I feel ill:gag: I could never even think of eating a rabbit or a guinea pig.

I've eaten lots of different meats, including ones that I'd previously only heard David Attenborough talking about (Thompson's gazelle, impala etc, crocodile etc) because at the time, it was a case of 'when in Rome'.

I know that I would find the concept of eating cat or dog utterly repulsive (and on a holiday in Spain, when eating a rabbit stew, I was sick when the restaurant owner joked about it being cat that I was eating) but I think that this part is psychological.

There's nothing any more inherently wrong with eating guinea pig, cat or rabbit than there is eating any other sort of meat- it's just that the species that it is acceptable to eat varies with where you happen to be on the planet.