PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF GROOMING BEHAVIOR OF DOMESTIC AMERICAN GUINEA PIG (Cavia porcellus)

Abstract

The present study was carried out to elucidate the grooming behavior under clean and dust environmental condition in domestic American guinea pig (Cavia porcellus). The domestic guinea pig was allowed to provide all necessary food items and water prior to the initiation of experiment in order to minimize physiological stress and the present study was carried out in residential place at Homagama during the period of December 2015 to January 2016. The guinea pig was placed for 1 hour in the clean environment and allowed another 1 hour in dust environment. Wood shavings were applied to the cage in order to make cage as dust environment. Then number of grooming and time taken for each grooming in seconds in each environment were recorded. As this manner recordings were taken for 10 days. Data were analyzed statistically using Microsoft Excel 2013 for Chi-Square test. Results revealed that the Grooming behaviour of Guinea pig was significantly high in dust environment in comparing with the clean environment (χ 2 test; p<0.001).

Full text

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PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF GROOMING BEHAVIOR OF DOMESTIC AMERICAN
GUINEA PIG (Cavia porcellus)
Nisansala Sri Poornima1 and Riyas Ahamed2
1. Department of Zoology, Eastern University Sri Lanka, Chenkallady Sri Lanka.
2. Department of Biological Sciences, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka,
Sammanthurai, Sri Lanka.
Email - riyasahame@yahoo.co.uk
ABSTRACT: The present study was carried out to elucidate the grooming behavior under clean and
dust environmental condition in domestic American guinea pig (Cavia porcellus). The domestic guinea
pig was allowed to provide all necessary food items and water prior to the initiation of experiment in
order to minimize physiological stress and the present study was carried out in residential place at
Homagama during the period of December 2015 to January 2016. The guinea pig was placed for 1 hour
in the clean environment and allowed another 1 hour in dust environment. Wood shavings were applied
to the cage in order to make cage as dust environment. Then number of grooming and time taken for
each grooming in seconds in each environment were recorded. As this manner recordings were taken
for 10 days. Data were analyzed statistically using Microsoft Excel 2013 for Chi-Square test. Results
revealed that the Grooming behaviour of Guinea pig was significantly high in dust environment in
comparing with the clean environment (χ2 test; p<0.001).
keywords: Grooming behavior, American Guinea pig, dust environment
INTRODUCTION
The guinea pig is oldest domestic rodent occupy in South America (Mares and
Ojeda 1982; Redford and Eisenberg 1992). It was domesticated about 3000–6000
years ago (Hu¨ckinghaus 1961; Ku¨nzl and Sachser 1999; Stahnke and Hendrichs
1988; Weir 1974). It had been commonly used as laboratory animals in biological and
biomedical research for a long time (Avery 1925; Kaiser et al. 2003; Sachser 1986,
1998; Young 1937, 1969). Guinea pigs are popular pets worldwide for many decades
(MHller-Haye, 1981). They are most active at dawn and dusk mean crepuscular,
feeding on grasses, seeds, fruits and roots (Terril, 1998). Surprisingly, until today it
was reported a few on behavior of the cavy. They are highly good group of animals for
investigating socials evolution because most basic types of mammalian social and
mating systems occur in this group (Stahnke and Hendrichs 1988), and the social
organization of different species seems to be very responsive to ecological conditions
(Ebensperger and Cofre 2001; Lacher 1981).
Grooming behavior increases the chance of survival in a guinea pig. Guinea
pigs are usually self-groomers (Vanderlip, 2003) though involving in social grooming.
They clean their body by licking fur. Grooming is highly ubiquitous in Guinea pigs, and
can serve various function. The most important is maintain health by removing detritus
and disease causing parasites (spruijt, 1992); attract mates, avoidance of predation
via removal of odors, thermoregulation and chemo communication (moon fanelli,
1999); tactile communication (Walker, 1998); and temperature regulator, a sense
organ, a protective device and a moisture balance; and showing companionship and
ranking order among the animals (Wagner, 1995). Main objective of this study was to

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elucidate the grooming behavior under clean and dust environmental condition in
domestic American guinea pig.
METHODOLOGY
The present study was carried out in Homagama (6.8433° N, 80.0032° E)
during the period of December of 2015 and January 2016. Guinea pig was
acclimatized for 2 hours prior to experiment. Male American domestic Guinea pig of
weight 700 grams and four months old was chosen as experimental organism. The
Guinea pig was allowed to provide all necessary food and water prior to initiation of an
experiment in order to minimize physiological stress.
The Guinea pig cage dimension of (130cm×75cm×45cm) was cleaned properly
without any dust in order to provide clean environment and the guinea pig was allowed
for 1 hour in that clean environment and the number of grooming and time taken for
each grooming in seconds was recorded. Then wood shavings were applied to the
cage in order to make cage as dust environment and guinea pig was allowed another
1 hour in dust environment and the number of grooming and time taken for each
grooming in seconds were counted using Xperia S_e290 digital stop watch. As this
manner recordings were taken for 10 days. Behavioural patterns of Guinea pigs were
recorded using Apple I phone 5c, 8.0 mega pixel camera. The statistical analysis was
done using Microsoft Excel 2013 for Chi-Square test.
Figure 1. Experimental cage
Steps in the typical grooming activity:
Ethogram of grooming behaviour of guinea pig contains following steps
Licking its front feet
Wiping its face
Sitting on its haunches
Wiping its nose

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Bring both front feet over the head from behind the ears all the way to the tip of its
nose
The body is cleaned with teeth and tongue back and forth
Shake all over as it to remove loose hairs and fur that’s still on its body
DISCUSSIONS AND RESULTS
Table 1 and Table 2 describe total number of grooming and time taken for each
grooming in clean and dust environment respectively.
Table 1. Number of grooming in clean environment
Number
of trials
Time spending for each grooming in
seconds (S)
Number of
grooming in each
trial
Total time
1
18.9
19.7
18.9
3
57.5
2
15.1
19.6
20.1
18.6
18.9
5
92.3
3
15.5
17.8
16.3
13.3
4
62.9
4
20.1
18.9
19.6
17.5
4
76.1
5
18.6
19.7
20.3
15.6
13.3
5
87.5
6
19.6
17.8
20.2
15.4
4
73
7
16.4
15.6
20.1
18.2
4
70.3
8
17.8
20.2
18.9
15.6
4
72.5
9
19.7
18.9
15.1
17.8
20.1
5
91.6
10
20.1
17.8
18.3
15.6
4
71.8
Table 2. Number of grooming in dust environment
Number
of trials
Time spending for each grooming in seconds (S)
Number
of
grooming
in each
trial
Total time
1
23.2
20.1
20.5
19.8
6
83.6
2
19.4
20.3
20.1
21.8
19.6
20.5
19.8
7
141.5
3
20.1
18.3
19.6
20.8
21.6
20.3
21.1
7
141.8
4
18.9
19.7
18.9
15.1
20.1
13.2
15.6
7
121.5
5
19
20.7
18.8
13.1
21.2
5
92.8
6
17.6
20.7
22.1
23.4
19.8
20.1
20.3
7
144
7
14.5
17.8
19.6
15.3
18.9
15.7
6
101.8
8
20.3
19.4
21.5
18.6
15.2
17.3
18.4
7
130.7
9
15.1
18.6
19.2
16.8
20.8
21.3
18.3
7
130.1
10
19.6
21.2
18.6
17.5
18.8
5
95.7

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Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 graphically expressed total time taken for grooming in clean and dust
environment respectively.
Figure 2. Total time taken for each trial in clean environment
Figure 3. Total time taken for each trial in dust environment
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
12345678910
Time
Number of trials in clean enviroment
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time
Number of trials in dust environment

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Figure 4. Licking front feet Figure 5. Wiping face
Figure 6. Sitting on haunche Figure 7. Wiping nose
Figure 8. Bringing front feet over the Figure 9. Bringing front feet behind
Head from the ears the ears to the tip of the nose
Figure 10 The body is cleaned with Figure 11. Shaking body to remove loose fur
tongue and teeth
Figure 4 – 11. Ethograme of grooming behaviour of American domestic Guinea pig

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The Grooming behaviour of Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) was significantly highly
in dust environment in comparing with the clean environment (χ2 test; p<0.001). It
showed that grooming behaviour of guinea pig vary within the clean and dust
environment. The self-grooming behaviour of guinea pig occurs more time in dust
environment than in the clean environment. It had been reported the same (Carleton,
1924). Grooming can have psychological benefits remove dust particles detritus and
parasites from its fur. Caring of the body surface is important because it function as a
temperature regulator, a sense organ, a protective device and a moisture balance. In
this experiment above mentioned facts further confirmed there is increased in number
of grooming in the dust environment.
Grooming is considered as socio positive behavior (Rood 1972) and is an art of
cleaning Several studies confirmed it in various animals (for example; Langurs;
(Ahamed and Dharmaretnam, 2003); Asian Elephant; (Ahamed, 2015 and
Samarasinghe and Ahamed, 2016). The Guinea pigs are able to groom themselves
with the use of their front teeth, tongue and back claws. It is controlled by the entire
neocortex, or the cerebellum (Berridge and Whishaw, 1992). They are showing
different types of grooming including self-grooming in order to keep their body free of
dust and to increase the chance of survive. The Cambridge Cavy trust state that more
dust can contrast guinea pig breathing problems, skin problems particularly fungal
infections and itchy, small grains can get stuck in their fur and cause irritating, dust
remove the oils from the skin cause dry skin, eye problems, ulcerated feet and also
can lead to the premature death. With the exception specific short term experimental
protocols, guinea pigs should always be kept on solid floor without dust free bedding
(National research council, 1996).
Self-grooming is a complex innate behaviour with an evolutionary conserved
sequence pattern and is one of the most frequently performed behavioural activity in
guinea pigs (Berridge, 1990). Grooming behaviour is an example of fixed action
pattern. These are highly stereotyped and extremely similar between individuals. They
may be elicited by outside stimulation but continue even after the stimuli is removed.
They may even start spontaneously without external stimuli (Gardner, 1988).

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Grooming syntax emerges in ontogeny simultaneous with striatal maturation
(Colonnese, 1996).
Some are using wood shavings as bedding for guinea pigs. But there is much
research now on the risk of using wood shavings with any rodent species, because
wood shavings contain lot of dust. Dusty wood shavings was used in this experiment
in order to create dust environment as many researchers use wood shavings for their
researches. In this experiment it was noted that Guinea pig highly sneeze in the dust
environment and, during the grooming activity in dust environment it took more time to
wipe its nose. It had been reported that some even say that a milky substance is
secreted from their eyes and rubbed into the hair during the grooming process
(Richardson, 2000). Apart from the all reason mentioned, diseases and ectoparasites
such as lice can cause the grooming. Ectoparasites are controlled by grooming.
5. CONCLUSION
It could be said that clean and dust free environment is essential to provide the
social environment to guarantee their behavioural health, safeguard their physiological
and psychological well-being to Guinea pig.
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