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Free Range Guinea Pigs | Gardening with Guinea Pigs

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This video is about free-range guinea pigs or using guinea pigs as natural lawn mowers!
Since making this video, I've moved to the midwest.
My guinea pigs are my pets that live in my house during the cold winter (they don't have the ability to dig burrows and wouldn't survive the cold) and they live in a shed in the summer with access to my yard. Much like free-range chickens. They come when I call them, and go to bed each night in their shed. Then in the morning, I let them out. I do the same with my chickens.
As I mention in the video, guinea pigs are prey animals and are easy prey to many predators, so please use cation if you are considering trying this. A lovely solution would be to use a chicken tractor! You can easily move it each day so that the piggies have fresh grass, but they would be protected from the elements and predators.

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6 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 59

@KatherineHowes 5 месяцев назад

I live in Central Coast California, we have mild Winter and Summer weather my guys really enjoy free ranging don't have to mow anymore lawn or weed whack the do such a great job.I do feed them their pellet food and occasional apples and veggies they eat my scraps including cabbage. I do have a small hawk that frequents my yard but I have raised a pigeon since it was little and she became friends with two young large crows, they all grew up together and eat together so this hawk does get attacked by the two large crows and my pigeon seeks shelter under my patio , all the commotion this creates with the crows hawking all my guinea boys run and hide .The fact they found a way to all live in harmony with each other works out.My neighbor's cat was kitten when he first seen a guinea pig for first time, as a kitten it was scared of them, now he is a beautiful full grown cat and he watches over them so no other cats wander in my yard and I actually have a photo of the cat napping with my guinea in the yard.Guinea pigs are fast and they do need safe spaces to take cover and hide and they are little lawn mowers all day they work so hard on them weeds I have crab grass they get it all.Wish more people would understand as long as they are provided with protection from the elements like rain or heat and they are given their proper food and veggies with an occasional fruit treat they will be very efficient at reducing weeds and trimming the lawn.They are also easy on the eco-system it is a win win and they are so cute , as evening approaches they will all go to a large dog house I have, each has his own plastic dome hide inside dog house or I should say paw hut but I heard chicken coops work too. I also only have males.

@jenniferhill5001 2 года назад

Thank you for this. We have 2 acres and are trying to establish a food forest/perennial garden. We had been considering sheep for grazing but I hesitate to take on the work of shearing them. So stumbled across people using guinea pigs. We are in zone 5 Missouri. We have humid, hot summers and bitter cold winters. I love the idea of creating burrows for them. Lots of help. Thanks

@donnafrey1404 2 года назад

I think it might be illegal to release a non-native species in the U.S. Witness the devastation in Florida, for example. Or the release of rabbits in Australia. Please consider the impact on wildlife and local flora if your pets escape, breed, and spread.

@fourgedmushrooms5958 3 месяца назад

Use bits of PVC pipe for protection. Like to have a hiding spot close. Get creative with a bin lid and bricks. Old cooler makes great hutch

@fourgedmushrooms5958 3 месяца назад

I also made bunker with bricks and slabs. Covered with dirt. West Australia. Gets Up to 40c. 100 in America temperature 🌡️

@zoes32flavaz 4 месяца назад

In Missouri we regularly tractor our two female guinea pigs in our yard and bring them back in at night

@breakfastsurreal5650 2 года назад

Hi! Great video. I live in Milwaukee and we have hawks that I worry about taking my two male guinea pigs. The closest I could get to letting them enjoy the great outdoors is the guinea pig stroller I bought, or should I say my daughters had me buy. They love getting out and I do let them out when I supervise. Anyway, great advice on how to let your guinea pigs enjoy safe outdoor experiences! Great Channel. Beautiful guinea pig! Cheers!

@breakfastsurreal5650 2 года назад

@Beater Bike Channel MFGA thanks for pointing me in the right direction and keeping my little buddies safe 😀.

@gemihouston 2 года назад

Just wanted to say we miss your informative content! Hope life is going well and maybe we get a new video soon

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

Thank you, Gemi! I appreciate the encouragement :-) I'm currently in transition, but once I'm settled in my new location, I'd love to make more content!

@triplel3910 Год назад

You can't rely on the pelleted feed to meet their Vitamin C requirements, either. It breaks down when exposed to light and there is no way to identify how long the bag has been on the shelf before it was bought if bag is not opaque. Food items containing vitamin C or Vitamin C supplements are the only way to ensure they are getting the proper amount of vitamin C.

@kelseymariebell99 Год назад

Yay 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏻🕊🇺🇦🇷🇺🌎🌍🌏✌🏻❤️🙏🏻🕊🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🙌🏻

@mariawetterstrom1372 2 года назад

Can we see the piggies outside please.

@latonyanewsome0 2 года назад

OMG your piggy is so calm mine would by freaking out. They do not want their feet or the ground.

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

Haha, thanks! Some do tend to be more mellow than others, and it seems many of them get more mellow with age :-)

@caviaguianae5419 3 года назад

thank you so much , you got not idea how long i been looking for videos about this

@rhansmeier 3 года назад

Glad you liked it!

@davidschmidt270 Год назад

YAY so glad I found your channel...I also live in Phoenix and am going to get some of these guy's for my mini homestead.... problem is I only have a EVAP cooler so yeah it gets pretty Hot even inside!.... One thing with me is I don't have money but I do have an imagination!! Before you even said about digging down that was exactly what came to my mind, also I saw one tip on a different video about bunny rabbits and keeping them cool with frozen two liter bottles....my main point that my guineas are going to have to be outside pretty much 90% of the time....is this reasonable? 🤔🤔🤔 Also, is there some alternatives to the hay??....I know ....your probably thinking how much of a bad guy I must sound like, BUT, these guy's will get a pretty LARGE backyard that is relatively predator Free!

@rhansmeier Год назад

Yes, I've had rabbits as well and kept them cool with frozen water bottles, though of course they can dig burrows for themselves if allowed to free range (unlike guinea pigs) but I brought my rabbits inside during the hottest days of summer as well. If they have access to fresh grass, and pellets, I wouldn't think they would need hay as the hay acts as long roughage for their digestive system and grass is what they would eat in the wild. Of course I'm not a veterinarian though!

@fourgedmushrooms5958 3 месяца назад

Wish my vedgy garden's where connected so i could still transfer more easily. Guinea pig is delicious BTW. Hard to kill the cuties but breed like crazy so!

@lordmysticlaw1991 9 месяцев назад

The thing about males is really interesting! I have two females that free-range in my garden, and they definitely stick together and they sometimes tend to over-graze one spot. Luckily even if they do, the lawn recovers again pretty fast!

@matthewnorton2738 Год назад

How awesome!

@zinknot 2 года назад

Cute, great for the garden and delicious. I'm looking forward to trying them.

@triplel3910 Год назад

great information for keeping the guinea pigs

@Strider181 2 года назад

Do you think they would return to the hutch like chickens do or do they need to be trained to follow a call or bell for food (i have seen that done on another vid). I have a half acre but it's not fully fenced

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

Thanks for asking, Shaun. Using a sound associated with veggie treats definitely works, however, some of the more shy piggies do turn a bit more wild while free ranging longterm. I moved out to the country in the midwest last year and no longer have a fenced in yard. I kept the piggies out for most of the summer and it was a success! I will try to make an updated video and share what I've learned as soon as the snow melts :-)

@desertedenblooms 2 года назад

awesome video! cant understand why you dont have more subscribers! Be Blessed!

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

Thank you so much for your kind words!

@billknowles481 Год назад

I live in the IE (suburban zone 10) I have a 1/10 acre garden. I think I will get 10 guinea pigs and a small border collie next year and start a green-friendly lawn service. And maybe I'll start speaking with an Irish accent too. Now where did I put my Lucky Charms?! P.S. How long does it take 1 pig to graze one square yard?

@rhansmeier Год назад

Haha! Great question. I would think one piggy would have a square yard grazed down in a day or so though it depends how tall the grass is.

@taekwonmo 2 года назад

I don't know if you mentioned this, but how big is your yard and how many guinea pigs do you have? Great video!

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

At the time, my yard was about 3/4 of an acre and I had 9 piggies managing it for me :-)

@ChemEDan Год назад

@@rhansmeier Wow! 🥰Do they keep all of it down or is some of it not grass?

@ericthranduillvargaspenafl4011 Год назад

Only on life or death situations 😅❤️

@toycarpgmr 2 года назад

Ate one in Peru. Meat was stringy and bland.

@inthegardenwitheveliaflore4908 2 года назад

How do you keep them cool outside in Az heat! I’m transferring my Guinea and bunnies outside this spring and wondering how they will aclimate to summer??

@rhansmeier Год назад

That's a great question! When I was living in AZ I dug burrows for them in the ground to stay a bit cooler and when it got too hot in the summer, I brought them inside :-)

@SpriteoftheDnieper 3 года назад

Question which might seem silly to you: do the guinea pigs poop on the lawn as they're grazing/foraging? I know that their poop is amazing fertilizer and that the ground would eventually absorb it, but if they're free ranging, wouldn't it mean that your lawn is covered in (small) poops a kid would put their hands in while doing gymnastics or running around barefoot? Or are you sectioning parts of the lawn off for them and then vacuuming/cleaning it, or just rotating it periodically?

@rhansmeier 3 года назад

That's a GREAT question! They definitely do poo on the lawn. I've found that as long as they have enough space to roam, it really doesn't accumulate and naturally breaks down rather quickly. They tend to like to hang out underneath shrubs and trees so more poo might accumulate in THOSE areas (which is just fine with me as I mulch those areas anyway and just incorporate the "fertilizer") But if you wanted to play it safe, like you suggested for children, I would fence off an area to keep it guinea pig free. They don't need a tall fence, usually just a simple 12 inch high fence should keep them away from any area you wouldn't want them. Let me know if you give it a try! :-)

@SpriteoftheDnieper 3 года назад

@@rhansmeier thank you! What do you think about using a dog playpen with hardware mesh to fence the guineas into a large area, then rotating the area every week? Would a week be enough time for it to get absorbed? I guess I’m still confused also about whether the grassy area would become unsanitary for the guineas (with a cage, you need to vacuum/clean their poo) or if that doesn’t apply if the area is large enough and grass/absorbent

@rhansmeier 3 года назад

@@SpriteoftheDnieper A dog playpen with hardware cloth would work great! It seems like it would also work well to attach a tarp or roof in order to offer them some shade (which they will need) though they prefer shade/covering lower to the ground like shrubs, and live plants would keep them cooler in the summer. You could look up "chicken tractors" as well for some inspiration :-) In regards to sanitation, you're relying on the microbes and insects naturally present in your soil to do some light composting - which can't happen in an indoor cage which is why YOU have to do the cleaning. Of course if you have too many piggies in too small of a space, the insects and microbes won't be able to break down the waste fast enough and you"ll have some accumulation. As far as how often it needs to be moved really depends on the overall size of the pen and how many guinea piggies are in the pen at a time. Also, how big your yard is and how often they will be moved back to that exact same spot. I would go as big as possible. To give you a rough idea as a starting point... I kept 2 piggies together in a 2x4 foot enclosure on the grass (the grass was already short) and in about 2 days they mowed the grass down even lower (they also had access to pellets) and too much poo had accumulated in the corners - it was noticeable and not a place in my yard that I would want to step or sit on. So if you have a big yard and just a few piggies it seems like this system could work if you use a large enough pen and move it every day. You'll probably have to do some experimenting to get it just right. Would love for you to share what you learn if you do!

@trainersebastian361 3 года назад

Great Vid 😃👍

@rebekahheath6986 3 года назад

Thanks so much!

@gemihouston 3 года назад

Hi, thanks for video. Do they really eat all that to make a difference?

@rhansmeier 3 года назад

Hi Gino! Yes they do! My house in Phoenix was on a 1/3 acre and about 7-9 males kept it mowed down nicely. Of course if you have a bigger yard, you will need more piggies :-) I moved to the midwest and am currently experimenting on a much larger lot.

@smievil 2 года назад

remember someone mentioning that rabbits breeds like rabbits. and that it makes some sense to eat them. don't know how different guinea pigs would be, but they talk too much.

@ensurepetcare 2 года назад

Show us the yard:)

@rhansmeier Год назад

I'm sorry, I've relocated and am no longer in AZ. I've got WAY too many predators where I am now, so I'm trying to find a way to allow them to be outside in some sort of large run when the weather is nice and lock them up at night.

@hoozthair6076 2 года назад

Will they eat flowers?

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

They will likely eat flowers. They nibbled on my roses but did not kill the bushes. When in doubt, fence them off if you can :-)

@zinknot 2 года назад

It would be much better for the environment to eat guinea pigs instead of chickens, pigs and cows. They do taste really good too, I think better than chicken.

@kayt4019 Год назад

please explain why it would be better for the environment. Thank you

@caviaguianae5419 3 года назад

btw ur gorgeous

@rhansmeier 3 года назад

Thank you!

@donnafrey1404 2 года назад

Is it legal to release a non-native species here in the U.S.? Florida has been devastated by released non-native species. Remember the devastation caused by rabbits in Australia.

@rhansmeier 2 года назад

Donna, you're right, I would think it's illegal to RELEASE any non-native species in all sates. My guinea pigs are my pets that live in my house during the cold winter (they don't have the ability to dig burrows and wouldn't survive the cold) and they live in a shed in the summer with access to my yard. Much like free-range chickens. They come when I call them, and go to bed each night in their shed. Then in the morning, I let them out. I do the same with my chickens :-)

@sew_gal7340 Год назад

Why look down on other cultures who eat GP ? Your ideologies are not superior to anyone elses, it is very american to think so but we should be respectful of other culinary ideas and not look down on them

@davidschmidt270 Год назад