Guinea Pigs?

[inzane]

In German they are called merschwiene which is literally seapig. Apparently the old sailing ships never left port without them as they could breed them in the confines of the ships for fresh meat in the months long trips. I was reading a south american website that said they taste really good. We have two and they are certainly fun to have around...very stupid though, and they seem to like to be confined...

Anyone here tried them as a backyard food source? They seem ideal as they eat grass, breed quick, taste good (apparently), LIKE being confined and in big groups, are cute and funny and cleanish....The biggest problem seems to be they are small, but then so are quail...and so I hear they have bred a giant form!

[Hamish]

Here is an interesting article on the topic of eating them. http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/node/199

[inzane]

I just been reading that their dung makes good food. Its 17% protein which is as much as a lot of comercial foods and pops out prepelletised! Gonna try it on my veggie fish tonight.

I read that link..it is funny. I feel a bit sqeamish about killing them, but I do about most animals too. Its that hippocrasy I want to confront by growing my own food. I'll find the quail hard too. I find it much easier shooting rabbits or other wild animals...

[GaryD]

Hi inzane,

While you're pondering the nutritional merits of guinea pig dung, I'd suggest farmed rabbits would be a much more efficient producer of quality food than guinea pigs.....particularly since they eat a very similar diet.

Farmed rabbit meat is fine-grained and easily digested and, in the hands of a competent cook, is the stuff of which many gourmet dishes are made.

Regrettably, I live in Queensland where the penalty for keeping rabbits is very harsh.....particularly since their prohibition is based more on ignorance and vested interest than good environmental science.

No micro-farm should be without rabbits.

Gary

[Murray]

My in-laws live about 10 k's away and they are overrun with rabbits. About 6 months ago they noticed a couple cute little rabbits in the back yard. Enjoyed watching the rabbits and they became very tame, especially enjoying the lettuce etc left out for them.
Then there 4.....6....10.
Now their garden is decimated. Just on dark every day their back yard looks like a scene from Alice-in-wonderland. Heaps of them come out to play.

Father-in-law wishes he still had his rifle that Johnny took off him.

He rang the rabbit inspector and was told that he had to get rid of them or he would be fined.......how does that work ? Some sort of bureaucratic logic I suppose.

There are a couple of large Greyhound Dog kennels establishments down the road from the in-laws acreage, so a little lateral thinking tells me the origin of the first two rabbits.

[Hamish]

A rabit trap and they have a gourmet dinner every night free!

I dont sound very vegetarian do I!

[GaryD]

Hi,

Farmed rabbits, which are usually NZ White (or a mix of these and some other domestic breed), are so far removed from their wild cousins that they might as well be different species.

Wild rabbits yield dry meat which can be tough, stringy and gamey in taste while farmed rabbit meat is tender and succulent. Farmed rabbits are an easy target for any predator bird or animal.....largely because of their colour and the fact that they lack the survival skills of their wild counterparts.

Gary

[inzane]

Breed rabbits? If i did that everyone really would think I was crazy!!! They are not exactly in short supply round here!!! Murray, do you have ferrets in australia? If not go and buy one of the greyhounds!

I'd be over the moon to wake up and find that many rabbits in the garden! Free Food! You lot just need to get with the times, stop throwing a shrimp on the barbie, throw a rabbit on instead!

[Murray]

Izane, actually there are not as many shrimps thrown on the barbie over here as the used to be....too expensive....Now they are bringing them in from China....very poor quality.....not game to eat them. Actually we don't call them shrimp, we call them prawns. That tourism advert was made for the US market so the used the US name shrimp instead of the "proper" name "prawn"
"bit of a raw prawn I reckon"

[Hamish]

How about we change it to:

''Throw another AP produced Red Claw on the barbie''

Or perhaps for the American market:

''Throw another AP produced Crawfish on the barbie''