Raising and Care of Guinea Pigs， The
Chapter 7. Exhibiting Cavies
A.C.Smith
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_ CHAPTER VII. EXHIBITING CAVIES
The showing or exhibiting of Guinea Pigs is rapidly becoming more popular and in nearly all pet stock and poultry shows you will find several pens of Guinea Pigs. There are many fanciers in the country who make a specialty of show animals and fancy stock.
In judging Cavies, the size, shape, condition, and color are the main things to take into consideration. The selfs or solid colors must have every hair of the same color. Any white whatever will disbar a pig that is otherwise red. In the broken colors the different patches should be uniform in size and the colors not run into each other. Fancy stock is nearly always line bred and great pains should be taken in breeding. To secure the best stock the females are only bred twice or three times a year and every care is taken of them from birth. They are bred for size, shape and color. Even if you are not breeding for fancy stock, it will often pay you to enter your best specimens in local poultry and pet stock shows, as it gives you some good advertising and you will often take good prizes. It lets people know you have stock and you can always get good prices for your prize winners. Always enter as near a uniform lot as possible in singles, pairs or trios, or even larger pens.
While it costs more to produce fancy stock, still the higher prices you can get for it makes it pay. If you are raising only comparatively few pigs it might pay you to go in for fancy stock. Even if you have a large stock you can keep a few of your best specimens separate and give them little better attention.
Of course, many of the large commercial raisers never bother about fancy stock as it does not pay when you are raising large numbers of them.
Most of the shows are under the auspices of some pet stock association and a book of the standards can be secured from the secretary. We are giving below some of the classes under which stock is shown.
Selfs.
Solid colors throughout with no odd colored hairs.
Tortoise Shells.
Black and red colors with patches clear and distinct and as nearly as possible equal in size.
Tortoise and White.
Red, black and white patches, each clear cut with no running in of colors. The more patches and the more uniform in size the better.
Dutch Marked.
Blazed face of wedge shape. A band of white straight hair around the middle with no blending of colors. Feet white. Very rare.
Brindle.
Red and black evenly intermixed and perfectly brindled.
Agouti.
They are two shades, golden and gray. The golden should be rich brown undercolor with even ticking and belly of deep red. The gray should be a light shade with even ticking and belly of silver hue.
The eyes of all English Cavies should be large and bold. Head and shoulders heavy, nose roman, ears drooping.
In the Abyssinians the rosettes should be as plentiful as possible and the coat rough and wiry.
In the Peruvian the main thing to be considered is the length and silkiness of the coat.
A book giving the standards as adopted by the National Pet Stock Association of America can be obtained for 50c from its secretary, C. S. Gibson, 1045 W. Warren Ave., Detroit, Mich. _